National Theatre Live brings you the best of British theatre, broadcast from London to a world-wide audience via satellite to over 300 venues in 22 countries around the globe.
This exciting initiative launched its five show pilot season last year with Phèdre starring Helen Mirren. This year’s line-up at the Skirball Center includes an encore screening of Phèdre, Complicite’s A Disappearing Number, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the smash Broadway hit FELA!, Donmar Warehouse's production of King Lear, a new Frankestein directed by Danny Boyle and Chekov's Russian classic, The Cherry Orchard.
The Cherry Orchard
Set at the very start of the twentieth century, The Cherry Orchard captures a poignant moment in Russia’s history as the country rolls inexorably towards 1917. This spirited new version of Anton Chekhov’s last play reunites director Howard Davies with Andrew Upton following their acclaimed productions of Philistines and The White Guard .
"Wonderfully fresh, funny and deeply felt. One of the finest ensembles I have ever seen at the National" -Daily Telegraph
"A funny and affecting production with an excellent cast, who capture the wild exuberance and piercing melancholy of Chekhov's play." -Metro
Zoë Wanamaker plays Madame Ranevskaya who returns more or less bankrupt after ten years abroad. Luxuriating in her fading moneyed world and regardless of the increasingly hostile forces outside, she and her brother snub the lucrative scheme of Lopakhin, a peasant turned entrepreneur, to save the family estate. In so doing, they put up their lives to auction and seal the fate of the beloved orchard.
A National Theatre Live/Skirball Center Membership Package is available for those who plan to attend multiple National Theatre Live screenings throughout the season. Membership packages include 4 tickets to use as you wish, 4 supplemental programs, advance purchase opportunities on newly announced screenings and a tax-deductible $50 donation to NYU Skirball Center.
National Theatre Live events are distributed outside the U.K. through New York-based BY Experience, Inc.
*Please note, Skirball Center screenings of National Theatre Live events are on a time-delay and may not be screened on the same day or time as the live performance.
Pictured Zoë Wanamaker. Photo by Jim Naughten.
