Extracts
from article by Billy Suter (sosuterbill.com)
Once again a feast of free streaming fare
is available to theatre and dance fans globally.
Sadly, however, New York’s Lincoln Center’s
newly announced free musical streamings, weekly, for 48 hours – the first being
the 2015 revival of The King and ,
with Ken Watanabe and Kelli O’Hara, is seemingly not available for viewing in
South Africa on BroadwayHD.
A Lloyd Webber musical is streamed at no
cost every Friday and made available for 48 hours.
The English National Ballet’s
WednesdayWatchParty series weekly streamings are available for 48 hours from
8pm (South African time) every Wednesday. Click here for the link:
https://youtu.be/mrXu8Ha8Mhw
If drama is your scene, don’t miss the
excellent, free live streamings on YouTube every Thursday at 8pm (South African
time) as part of National Theatre at Home; the new initiative to bring content
to the public in their homes during lockdown.
New plays, filmed live on stage, are
streamed free for seven days from 8pm (South African time) every Thursday.
Other titles lined up for National Theatre
at Home include Barber Shop Chronicles
(from May 14, for 48 hours) which is a never-before-seen archive recording of
Inua Ellams’s hit play, a co-production with Fuel and Leeds Playhouse.
Recorded in London in January 2018, the
play tells the interwoven tales of black men from across the globe who, for
generations, have gathered in barber shops where the banter can be barbed and
the truth is always telling. It is directed by Bijan Sheibani and the cast
includes Fisayo Akinade, Hammed Animashaun and Cyril Nri.
The acclaimed 2014 production of Tennessee
Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire,
a Young Vic and Joshua Andrews co-production, streams from May 21. Teaming
Gillian (The X-Files) Anderson and Ben
Foster, it has Anderson as Blanche, whose fragile world crumbles as she turns
to her sister, Stella (Vanessa Kirkby) for solace – but her downward spiral
brings her face to face with the brutal, unforgiving Stanley Kowalski (Foster).
Streaming from May 28 will be the 2013
National Theatre production of James Graham’s This House, a timely, moving and funny insight into the workings of
British politics. It is 1974, and Britain has a hung Parliament. The corridors
of Westminster ring with the sound of infighting and backstabbing as the
political parties battle to change the future of the nation.
The play, directed by Jeremy Herrin has a
cast including Phil Daniels, Charles Edwards, Reece Dinsdale and Vincent
Franklin.
The Domnar Warehouse’s highly popular
production of Coriolanus, staged by
former Artistic Director Josie Rourke, will be streamed from June 4. It stars
Tim Hiddleston, Alfred Enoch, Deborah Findlay and Mark Gatiss.
It centres on an old adversary threatening
Rome and the city calling once more on hero and defender: Coriolanus. But he has
enemies at home too.
Meanwhile, closer to home, The Fugard
Theatre in Cape Town, closed since March 15 as a result of the Coronavirus, has
announced it has cancelled all planned stage productions for 2020 and will soon
be launching a new digital platform through its website.
Lamees Albertus, general manager and
producer of The Fugard Theatre, has stated the theatre has explored every
opportunity to present the scheduled season as originally planned, “but with
the current level of uncertainty regarding when we will be allowed to operate
again, we have had to make the tough decision to cancel all productions for
2020”.
The plan is to launch The Fugard at Home to
present content on an online portal that champions the arts and connects loyal
Fugard audiences and artists in a meaningful way, he said, adding that
programme content would be finalised and announced shortly.
He said The Fugard Theatre box office would
be contacting patrons who have already booked tickets for productions this
year, and offering them a full refund, or the option to donate the cost of
their tickets to the theatre.
The theatre’s acclaimed recent 10th
birthday production of Athol Fugard’s classic Master Harold... And The Boys is available for streaming until May
20, available exclusively for Friends of The Fugard. Not yet a Friends of The
Fugard member? Sign up now online at www.thefugard.com
Billy Suter – sosuterbill.com
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