The Theatre at the Cinema

Hats off to the National Theatre Live! We've now seen two productions at our local Vue Cinema - 'Othello' last year and 'War Horse' on Sunday and there is a live streaming of 'King Lear' to come in May, with Simon Russell Beale in the title role.

The Royal Shakespeare Company's encore performance of Richard II (David Tennant) is to be streamed on 15th April, to be followed by 'Henry IV Part ' in May and Part 2 in June,and then 'Two Gentlemen of Verona' in September.

 At the Farnham Maltings last December, we saw a production of 'The Taming of the Shrew' filmed at the Globe Theatre; we have both wanted to experience a play at the Globe but could never afford to go.

These streamed performances are not simply confined to plays; the English National Opera, The Royal Opera House and the Met Opera are also involved in this method of getting productions out to those who otherwise might never experience them.

There is no way that we would have seen any of these fabulous productions, had it not been for someone's brilliant idea to stream them to cinemas around the country and indeed, around the world. We desperately wanted to see 'War Horse' but the combination of theatre and train tickets put it out of reach, financially. It was as enthralling and as moving as we thought it would be - the puppeteers seem to 'disappear' as one watches and in the end, one only sees the horse.


Some might find the filmed experience to be somewhat second-hand - we did not. We were as engaged with all of the productions as if we had been there in the theatres, watching the live performances.

So again, hats off to the genius who started this, whoever it was!