(Article
courtesy of SoSuterBill - https://sosuterbill.com/2020/04/23/more-stage-hits-for-free-screening/)
(Benedict
Cumberbatch (left) and Jonny Lee Miller co-star in the National Theatre’s “Frankenstein”,
which is to be made available for free streaming from April 30. Picture by
Clare Nicholson)
More stage hits for free screening by Billy
Suter.
Fans of fine British theatre have a feast
on offer with free online streaming being permitted for the widely acclaimed
National Theatre Live filmed stage productions of Twelfth Night and Frankenstein,
both of which will stream at no cost for a week.
These streamings form part of the excellent
National Theatre At Home initiative, introduced a few weeks ago to delight
theatre fans around the world who aren’t able to visit National Theatre Live
venues or cinemas screening films of stage productions.
Some of the best British theatre can be
enjoyed from the comfort of your living room, via YouTube, at no cost. Each
Thursday, a previously recorded stage work is premiered at 19h00 British time (20h00
South African time). That production is then made available for free streaming
at any time that suits the viewer, until the following Thursday.
This is the link for the free screenings:
https://youtu.be/aig5ObghHS4
Currently available for free streaming, and
now in the last day of its National Theatre At Home run, is Treasure Island. Tonight (Thursday,
April 23), Twelfth Night will be made
available for free screening, to be replaced by Frankenstein, streaming at no
cost for a week, from 20h00 (SA time) on May 1.
Treasure
Island, which premiered last Thursday and can still
be viewed before Twelfth Night
premieres tonight, has been described as a daring, witty, imaginative and
spectacular staging of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, adapted for the stage
by Bryony Lavery.
(Right: A
scene from the National Theatre's “Treasure Island”)
Suitable for anyone aged 10 or older, this
production of Stevenson’s story of murder, money and mutiny starts with a dark,
stormy night.
The stars are out. Jim, the inn-keeper’s
granddaughter, opens the door to a terrifying stranger. At the old sailor’s feet
sits a huge sea-chest, full of secrets. Jim invites him in – and a dangerous
voyage begins.
Filmed live on-stage by National Theatre
Live, the play has Olivier Award-winner Patsy Ferran (Summer and Smoke) as Jim and Arthur Darvill (Doctor Who, Broadchurch) as Long John Silver.
Twelfth
Night, to be made available from April 23 to 30,
stars Tamsin Greig as Malvolia in what is a new twist on Shakespeare’s classic
comedy of mistaken identity.
A ship is wrecked on the rocks. Viola is
washed ashore but her twin brother Sebastian is lost. Determined to survive on
her own, she steps out to explore a new land. So begins a whirlwind of mistaken
identity and unrequited love.
The nearby households of Olivia and Orsino
are overrun with passion. Even Olivia's upright housekeeper Malvolia is swept
up in the madness. Where music is the food of love, and nobody is quite what
they seem, anything proves possible.
(Left: Tamsin
Greig in “Twelfth Night”)
Simon Godwein directs this joyous
production which has a cast including Daniel Rigby, Tamara Lawrence, Doon
Mackichan and Daniel Ezra.
Good news about the Frankenstein production, in which Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny
Lee Miller alternated in the roles of Dr Frankenstein and his creation, is that
National Theatre At Home is offering a double treat.
Viewers can watch Cumberbatch as the
creature and Miller as Victor Frankenstein from Thursday, April 30, at 20h00
(SA time), until May 7; then watch Frankenstein with Miller as the creature and
Cumberbatch as Victor Frankenstein, from Friday, May 1, at 20h00 (SA time),
until May 8.
Filmed live in 2011 from the stage of the
National Theatre in London, this thrilling, sold-out production became an
international sensation, experienced by more than 800,000 people in cinemas
around the world.
The production was directed by Academy
Award-winner Danny Boyle (Trainspotting,
Slumdog Millionaire).
Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in
form, Frankenstein’s bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by
his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the
increasingly desperate and vengeful Creature determines to track down his
creator and strike a terrifying deal.
Billy Suter, https://sosuterbill.com
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