TribLIVE: Helen Mirren, Kenneth Branagh and Benedict Cumberbatch will soon be performing at a theater near you.
They are among the artists whose recent stage performances at The National Theatre in London will be screened at SouthSide Works Cinema as part of the fifth season of National Theatre Live.
The SouthSide Works Cinema will be the exclusive Pittsburgh area venue for these screenings.
6 comments:
I love this idea of screening plays from London over here in the States. This allows people who can't get to London to see these plays, to allow anyone to watch. It would be great if this program spread, to incorporate more screenings across the country, or incorporate more plays, or theatres in places other than London. While the viewing experience will be different than seeing the play in person, as the camera will direct attention to something the viewer might not normally notice, just the chance to give these plays a wider audience is worth it.
It really excites me that the London theater is screening plays here in the US. I think that the screening of the operas from the Met, other theaters of that scale, and now the national London theater, especially with big name headlining actors, is a very good program to spread theater and the arts to more people than would normally have access to such quality theater. Its worrisome to me that in some cases theater still has the dogma of being too high minded and sophisticated for many people, not accessible in some cases, i think this program does a lot to combat this.
The idea of heightened accessibility of theatre through use of modern technology brings great excitement, but also some hesitation. Simply, there are elements of theatrical productions that cannot be conveyed through the screen. Depending on how pivotal these elements are to the entire production, live audiences and those viewing in theatres may have completely different experiences. The element that immediately comes to mind is the intimate connection between audience and performer. Next, I think of Aristotle’s idea of spectacle, and my own experience with production books. While production books do an excellent job of conveying the overall tone and ideas of various design elements, they are nowhere near the experience felt within the theatre. Finally, there is the issue of sight. In a live performance, audiences can view the entire stage and select what and what not to focus on. In film, one’s view is limited to the action in the frame. Obviously, there is no perfect solution. But audiences must understand the discrepancies between the two mediums, and that some of the experience will be lost.
I think its a wonderful idea to show works from the London theater in movie theaters around the US. The article is right when it says that not everyone can travel to London to see these wonderful performances live. Helen Mirren is one of my favorite actresses and I would love to see her live! I may not be able to just jump on a plane to London, but I definitely can hop on a bus to Southside. It will definitley not be the same as seeing the performance in person, but this is still a wonderful way to gain a larger audience and expose people to great acting and theater.
I agree with Alex that filmed versions of live performance can be both beneficial and also dangerous, because as he said, it takes away a lot of what makes theatre a fundamentally "live" art. When watching a stage, you are your own zoom lens, and can choose what to focus on. Here, unless the show is shot from a single angle showing the entire stage picture, the camera dictates your focus instead of leaving it up to the actor to earn your attention. It also captures only one iteration of a performance that is inherently different every night, taking away some of the uniqueness of the show. Film is, in a way, the most perfect take out of 60 attempts at a scene, and the director has chosen that take as the one the audience should see. Here we are just seeing what an actor did on a given night. That being said, I am all for the added accessibility to high quality art, I just hope that it will also bring people to more shows, instead of thinking they can have it all at the movies.
I'm super excited that The National Theatre will be screening their season in the Pittsburgh area for a greater audience to enjoy. I actually got the opportunity to visit the national theatre when I was in London two summers back. We got a backstage tour of the theatre and saw a production of the show War Horse. It was incredible, the set, costumes, sound, and lighting are very rememberable to this day. I might have to watch a production to bring back old memories of my school trip. This is a fantastic idea and will only cause people to enjoy the national theatre more.
Post a Comment