National Theatre Live
National Theatre Live
What is it? How does it work?
National Theatre Live is an exciting initiative to broadcast live performances of the best of British theatre to cinemas around the world.
It launched in June 2009 with a broadcast of Phèdre with Helen Mirren, which was shown in over 200 cinemas around the world and seen by a worldwide audience of more than 50,000 people.
The season continued with Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, Nation which was based on the novel by Terry Pratchett and adapted by Mark Ravenhill and Alan Bennett's The Habit of Art. The season concluded with London Assurance with Fiona Shaw and Simon Russell Beale.
The second season of broadcasts launched with an encore screening of Phèdre. The first NT Live collaboration with another British theatre company saw Complicite's A Disappearing Number, broadcast live from Theatre Royal Plymouth.
The season continued with Shakespeare's Hamlet and the smash-hit musical FELA!. The second collaborative broadcast King Lear with Derek Jacobi live from Covent Garden's Donmar Warehouse.
For the first time ever, National Theatre Live broadcast two separate performances of a production. Throughout the run of Frankenstein, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternated the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature. Audiences in cinemas had the chance to see both combinations.
The second season concludes on 30 June with Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, with Zoe Wanamaker.
The performances are nominated in advance to allow the cameras greater freedom in the auditorium.
