National Theatre Live

National Theatre Live is an initiative operated by the Royal National Theatre in London, which broadcasts live via satellite, performances of their productions (and from other theatres) to cinemas and arts centres around the world.

About

I grew up in Manchester in the 60s. If I had been able to see Olivier's National Theatre at my local cinema, I would have gone all of the time.

— Nicholas Hytner, director of the Royal National Theatre.^[1]

The programme began its pilot season in June 2009 with a production of Phèdre, starring Helen Mirren, which screened live in 70 cinemas across the UK. Two hundred more venues eventually showed the production internationally, resulting in a combined audience of around 50,000 people for this one performance.^[2] The second production, All's Well That Ends Well, showed at a total of around 300 screens,^[3] and today, the number of venues that show NT Live productions has grown to around 700.^[4]

With the exception of a Saturday matinee for Nation, a Monday evening showing for London Assurance, and a Tuesday evening showing for A Streetcar Named Desire, all National Theatre Live productions have been broadcast on a Thursday evening, to avoid conflicting with cinemas' weekend schedules. Most venues screen the productions live as they are broadcast, but because of the time differences in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States venues in those countries show the recorded production some days later. Many venues also offer repeat screenings of popular productions which they term 'Encores'.

Most productions broadcast are plays performed in repertory at the Royal National Theatre, but works by other companies have been included. A Disappearing Number by Complicite was broadcast live from the Theatre Royal, Plymouth on 14 October 2010. The Donmar Warehouse's production of King Lear, starring Derek Jacobi was broadcast live from Covent Garden on 3 February 2011. In the summer of 2013, a broadcast of Macbeth starring Kenneth Branagh and Alex Kingston was broadcast live from the Manchester International Festival on 20 July 2013. A Streetcar Named Desire starring Gillian Anderson was broadcast live from the Young Vic on 16 September 2014.

Live broadcasts

Live performances are broadcast live from the National Theatre (unless noted). They are certified differently from feature films.

Season 1

• Phedre – 25 June 2009
• All's Well That Ends Well – 1 October 2009
• Nation – 30 January 2010
• The Habit of Art – 22 April 2010
• London Assurance – 28 June 2010

Season 2

• A Disappearing Number – 14 October 2010
• Hamlet – 9 December 2010
• Fela! – 13 January 2011
• King Lear – 3 February 2011
• Frankenstein – 17 & 24 March 2011
• The Cherry Orchard – 30 June 2011

Season 3

• One Man, Two Guvnors – 15 September 2011
• The Kitchen – 6 October 2011
• Collaborators – 1 December 2011
• Travelling Light – 9 February 2012
• The Comedy of Errors – 1 March 2012
• She Stoops to Conquer – 29 March 2012

Season 4

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – 6 September 2012
• The Last of the Haussmans – 11 October 2012^[5]
• Timon of Athens – 1 November 2012^[6]
• The Magistrate – 17 January 2013^[7]
• People – 21 March 2013^[8]
• This House – 16 May 2013^[9]
• The Audience – 13 June 2013^[10] (broadcast from the Gielgud Theatre in the West End)
• Macbeth – 20 July 2013^[11] (broadcast from the Manchester International Festival)

Season 5

• Othello – 26 September 2013^[12][13]
• Coriolanus – 30 January 2014^[14] (broadcast from the Donmar Warehouse)
• War Horse – 27 January 2014 - (National Theatre production broadcast from the New London Theatre in the West End)
• King Lear – 1 May 2014^[15]
• A Small Family Business – 12 June 2014^[16]
• Skylight – 17 July 2014^[17] (broadcast from the Wyndham's Theatre in the West End)

Season 6

• Medea – 4 September 2014^[18]
• A Streetcar Named Desire – 16 September 2014^[19]
• JOHN – 9 December 2014^[20]
• Treasure Island – 22 January 2015
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers – 12 March 2015^[21]
• A View From the Bridge – 26 March 2015 (Young Vic production broadcast from the Wyndham's Theatre in the West End)
• The Hard Problem – 16 April 2015^[22]
• Man and Superman – 14 May 2015
• Everyman – 16 July 2015^[23]

Season 7

• The Beaux' Stratagem – 3 September 2015
• Hamlet – 15 October 2015 (broadcast from the Barbican Theatre)
• Of Mice and Men – 19 November 2015 (broadcast from the Longacre Theatre on Broadway, New York)
• Jane Eyre – 8 December 2015
• Les Liaisons Dangereuses – 28 January 2016
• As You Like It – 25 February 2016
• Hangmen – 3 March 2016 (Royal Court production broadcast from Wyndham's Theatre in the West End)

Season 8

• The Deep Blue Sea - 1 September 2016
• The Threepenny Opera - 22 September 2016
• No Man's Land - 15 December 2016 (broadcast from the Wyndham's Theatre in the West End)
• Amadeus - 2 February 2017
• Saint Joan - 16 February 2017 (broadcast from the Donmar Warehouse)
• Hedda Gabler - 9 March 2017
• Twelfth Night - 6 April 2017
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - 20 April 2017 (broadcast from The Old Vic)
• Obsession - 11 May 2017 (broadcast from the Barbican Theatre)
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - 18 May 2017 (broadcast from the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End)
• Peter Pan - 10 June 2017 (performance was captured during its run at the National Theatre over the Christmas 2016/17 season)
• Salomé - 22 June 2017
• Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches - 20 July 2017
• Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika - 27 July 2017
• Yerma - 31 August 2017 (broadcast from the Young Vic)

Season 9

• Young Marx - December 2017 (production broadcast from the Bridge Theatre)^[24]
• Julius Caesar - March 2018 (production broadcast from the Bridge Theatre)^[25]

See also

• Metropolitan Opera Live in HD
• Royal National Theatre
• List of Royal National Theatre Company actors

References

External links

• Official website
• National Theatre Live on IMDb