National Theatre Live
National Theatre Live is an 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 concluded on 30 June with Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, with Zoe Wanamaker.
The third season of broadcasts launched on 15 September 2011 with One Man, Two Guvnors with James Corden. This was followed by Sir Arnold Wesker's The Kitchen. The final broadcast of 2011 was John Hodge's Collaborators with Simon Russell Beale. In 2012 they broadcast Nicholas Wright's new play Travelling Light on 9 February, followed by The Comedy of Errors with Lenny Henry on 1 March and She Stoops to Conquer with Katherine Kelly, Steve Pemberton and Sophie Thompson on 29 March.
One Man, Two Guvnors returned to cinema screens in the United States, Canada and Australia for a limited season in Spring 2012.
Danny Boyle's Frankenstein also returned to cinema screens worldwide for a limited season in June and July 2012.
The fourth season of broadcasts commenced on Thursday 6 September 2012 with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a play based on the international best-selling novel by Mark Haddon. This was followed by The Last of the Haussmans, a new play by Stephen Beresford starring Julie Walters, Rory Kinnear and Helen McCrory on Thursday 11 October 2012. William Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens followed on 1 November 2012 starring Simon Russell Beale as Timon. On Thursday 17 January 2013, NT Live will broadcast Arthur Wing Pinero's The Magistrate, which will star John Lithgow. which replaced the planned run of The Count of Monte Cristo.
The performances are nominated in advance to allow the cameras greater freedom in the auditorium.
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