Lyn Gardner: “What do we mean by ‘the nation’s theatre’? Think back just 30 or so years and the answer was probably fairly straightforward. It was Shakespeare on our main stages across the country, the big flagship companies such as the NT and the RSC, the state-of-the-nation plays by David Hare, … the loved but often ailing network of regional theatres across the country frequently reviving classic plays and modern classics. Now the answer to the question is far more complex. It is still, at times, many of these things but it is much, much more.”