The Olivier, named for the first artistic director Sir Laurence Olivier has a capacity of 1160 seats. It was modelled on a greek theatre, where if the actor stood in the centre, they can see every person in the fan-shaped seating area.
What I found really fascinating about the theatre was that there was a "drum revolve". The tour leader had told us that it's a five-story revolving stage section that can be used for complex set changing.
The drum has two rim revolves and two platforms, each of which can carry ten tonnes, facilitating dramatic and fluid scenery changes. Its design ensures that the audience's view is not blocked from any seat, and that the audience is fully visible to actors from the stage's centre. Designed in the 1970s and a prototype of current technology, the drum revolve and a multiple 'sky hook' flying system were initially very controversial and required ten years to commission, but seem to have fulfilled the objective of functionality with high productivity.
-Wikipedia/ National Theatre
The production of Women Beware Women made use of the revolving stage as shown in the picture below. The set would rotate, creating many possibilities of locations and artistic use. I thought it was really cool that the theatre was not only huge, but space was used efficiently.
It's really amazing to fathom that these are older buildings and the technology is still, granted some updates, valid.
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