AN
EXCEPTIONAL SERIES OF PLAYS CAPTURED LIVE FOR PRESENTATION AROUND
THE WORLD DURING THE LONDON SEASON.
National Theatre Live is a groundbreaking
initiative to screen captured live performances from
Britain's stage to cinemas worldwide.
The
first two highly successful seasons included highlights such as
Helen Mirren in Phèdre, Alan Bennett's The
Habit of Art, Derek Jacobi as King Lear
(from the Donmar Warehouse), Danny Boyle's controversial Frankenstein,
Zoe Wanamaker in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and
the 5 star comedy One Man, Two Guvnors - all captured
live in high definition.
THE
KITCHEN
by
Arnold Wesker
SAT
12 NOVEMBER 2011 at 1.00pm and
SUN13 NOVEMBER 2011 at 1.00pm*
1950s
London. In the kitchen of an enormous West End restaurant, the orders
are piling up: a post-war feast of soup, fish, cutlets, omelettes
and fruit flans.
Thrown together by their work, chefs, waitresses and porters from
across Europe English, Irish, German, Jewish argue
and flirt as they race to keep up. Peter, a high-spirited young
cook, seems to thrive on the pressure. In between preparing dishes,
he manages to strike up an affair with married waitress Monique,
the whole time dreaming of a better life. But in the all-consuming
clamour of the kitchen, nothing is far from the brink of collapse.
Arnold Weskers extraordinary play premiered at the Royal Court
in 1959 and has since been performed in over 30 countries. The Kitchen
puts the workplace centre stage in a blackly funny and furious examination
of life lived at breakneck speed, when work threatens to define
who we are.
COLLABORATORS
A new play by John Hodge (screenwriter of Trainspotting
and Shallow Grave)
SAT
14 JANUARY2012 at 1.00pm and
SUN 15 JANUARY2012 at 1.00pm*
Moscow, 1938. A dangerous place to have a sense of humour;
even more so a sense of freedom.
Mikhail Bulgakov, living among dissidents, stalked by secret police,
has both. And then hes offered a poisoned chalice: a commission
to write a play about Stalin to celebrate his sixtieth birthday.
Inspired by historical fact, Collaborators embarks on a surreal
journey into the fevered imagination of the writer as he loses himself
in a macabre and disturbingly funny relationship with the omnipotent
subject of his drama.
John Hodges blistering new play depicts a lethal game of cat
and mouse through which the appalling compromises and humiliations
inflicted on any artist by those with power are held up to scrutiny.
Alex Jennings plays Bulgakov and Simon Russell Beale, Stalin.
THE
COMEDY OF ERRORS
by
William Shakespeare
SAT
24 MARCH 2012 at 1.00pm and
SUN25 MARCH 2012 at 1.00pm*
I in earth, in heaven, or in hell?
Sleeping or waking? mad or well advised?
Known unto these, and to myself disguised!
Two sets of twins separated at birth collide in the same city without
meeting for one crazy day, as multiple mistaken identities lead
to confusion on a grand scale. And for no one more so than Antipholus
of Syracuse and his servant Dromio who, in search of their brothers,
arrive in a land entirely foreign to their distant home. A
buzzing metropolis, to the outsiders it appears a place of wonderment
and terror, where baffling gifts and unexplained hostilities abound.
Consistently recognised by strangers, the visitors question their
very selves as the turmoil escalates. Meanwhile, Aegeon, father
to the Antipholus twins, has been captured searching for his sons
and, as an
illegal immigrant, is sentenced to death at sunset. Shakespeares
furiously paced comedy will be staged in a contemporary world into
which walk three prohibited foreigners who see everything for the
first time.
Lenny Henry plays Antipholus of Syracuse.
The NT Live events are distributed outside the U.K.
through New York-based distributor, BY EXPERIENCE, and through local
Australian film distributor, SHARMILL FILMS.
NT Live internationally is funded in partnership with Aviva and Arts
Council England.

Visit the National
Theatre Live UK website - NTLive.com
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