The Dorfman Theatre (formerly the Cottesloe Theatre) is the smallest and most flexible of the National Theatre auditoriums. It is a rectangular room, which can hold up to 450 people.

There are three levels in the Dorfman auditorium; the Pit, the Circle and the Gallery:

The Pit has a flexible seating system that can be raised and lowered in minutes, to either a steep or shallow rake format; or the seats can be folded away completely to become a flat floor.

Performances can be staged in a conventional format with the stage at one end; in “traverse”, where the seating is in two banks facing each other, lengthways or across the space; or in-the-round, with the stage surrounded on all sides by the seating.

The Circle and Gallery levels are on three sides of the room, looking down on the Pit and stage. These are fixed and are reminiscent of the inn-yards that were used as performance areas before Shakespeare’s era.