AN EXCEPTIONAL SERIES OF PLAYS
CAPTURED LIVE FOR PRESENTATION AROUND
THE WORLD DURING THE LONDON SEASON.

An initiative of Britain's National Theatre, NT Live is dedicated to the high definition broadcast of live performances around the world. This is a unique opportunity for international audiences to enjoy live shows direct from the West End as they are performed there.

"The NT Live events are designed to bring what we do on the stages of the National to a far greater number of people than we would ever be able to reach otherwise," says National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner (The History Boys). "Through high definition broadcasts, we have the technology at our disposal to present our productions beyond the four walls of the National, to reach passionate theatre-goers all over the world, and to do it really well." Helen Mirren, added, "I am very happy to have the opportunity to play – and to be part of - NT Live, this grand new adventure". Helen Mirren is an NT Associate and starred in the inaugural NT Live presentation - Phédre.

NEXT PRESENTATION
 
LONDON ASSURANCE
by Dion Boucicault

Check local NT Live venues for encore
screenings in August.

Starring Simon Russell Beale (Orlando, TV's A Dance to the Music of Time), Fiona Shaw (the Harry Potter series) and Richard Briers (TV's The Good Life, Monarch of the Glen).

Sir Harcourt Courtly is lured away from the epicentre of fashionable London by the promise of a rich and beautiful bride, Grace, several decades his junior. Arriving at Oak Hall, Gloucestershire, he marvels at this rural Venus until her charms are eclipsed by her hearty cousin, the foxhunting Lady Gay Spanker. Meanwhile his disguised son turns up in flight from his creditors and falls head over heels for Grace. When Lady Spanker discovers the young couple, she needs little prompting from the visiting chancer Dazzle to lead Sir Harcourt astray.

Dion Boucicault, the Irish genius of London theatre in the age of Dickens, wrote the brilliantly funny London Assurance in 1841 and thereby created – in Sir Harcourt and Lady Spanker – two of the great comic roles of the English stage, played at the NT by Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw.

FIVE STARS
"This is an absolute corker of a production, one that will be talked about and chuckled over with reminiscent affection for years to come." DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK)

FIVE STARS
"London Assurance is the funniest and most assured comedy in all of London." SUNDAY EXPRESS (UK)

FOUR STARS
"This is a treat - stylish, hilarious and unmissable...
Nicholas Hytner is entirely at home with this wonderfully outrageous play. This is what gives English theatre its strengths; classicists like him, Simon Russell Beale, Fiona Shaw and Richard Briers are happy to apply their talent and versatility to a boisterous social comedy." THE SUNDAY TIMES (UK)

FOUR STARS
"Dion Boucicault, not much studied these days, was a prolific Irish playwright who was the Victorian era’s Alan Ayckbourn. His London Assurance is riotous, unpretentious fun." DAILY MAIL (UK)

FOUR STARS
"This production is worth a visit to witness the sheer fun of Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw having the time of their lives." DAILY EXPRESS (UK)

Visit the National Theatre NTLive website - NTLive.com