NT Live

Okay, I’ll admit it – I was initially sceptical about the idea of watching theatre screened in a cinema.

If I wanted to see a play I wanted to see it for real, in the flesh, the way theatre is intended. One of the thrills of live performance is the feeling of intimacy between audience and performer that can only come from being in the room together, and which would surely be lost if you’re separated by a screen and hundreds of miles. Further, there’s the issue of perspective: film forces our perspective, often telling us exactly where we should be looking at any particular time and rarely giving us much choice in the matter; however, by contrast theatre lays it all out there and lets each individual audience member choose where to look, sometimes guiding, but never determining, that perspective. Acting for stage and screen can also be seen as two significantly different disciplines – the camera can capture the tiniest detail, while performing in a large space necessarily demands a larger performance, which when relayed on screen will inevitably seem hammy.

And yet, if the success and acclaim that has greeted NT Live since it launched last summer is anything to go by, it seems that I couldn’t have been more wrong! For this wonderfully simple idea – to film a National Theatre performance and broadcast it to cinemas around the world, including such far-flung places as Mexico, Estonia and Bradford – has attracted considerable audiences, improved access to the National Theatre’s works and enhanced its deservedly good global reputation. NT Live is proof that theatre and cinema need not be competitors, but rather that they can be great allies.

The practical benefits are clear, as NT Live gives people who would otherwise find it difficult to get into London an easy way of accessing the National Theatre’s work. The tickets cost roughly the same as the lowest-priced seats in the house, but with train tickets costing the earth NT Live inevitably works out as a cheaper way to see theatre. Artistically it also offers something above and beyond the regular experience – the camera work and use of close-ups allows the cinema audience a much more focussed view on the action and emotion, while ensuring that the vital intimacy is maintained. On a personal level, what you may lose by not actually being there, you make up for in the sense of being part of a larger community all sharing in this performance at the same time.

The National Theatre isn’t the only company realising the potential that the nation’s cinema screens hold for theatre. Opus Arte broadcasts leading opera, ballet, theatre and music around the country, including performances from Shakespeare’s Globe on Southbank. With opera suffering from even more of an image problem than theatre, these initiatives are leading the way in democratising these art forms. It’s not enough (let alone financially viable) for theatre companies to simply lower ticket prices and expect new people to come to them. Rather, they should be actively exploring new ways of taking theatre out to those new audiences, and cinemas are a great way to market plays to a wider audience. While for some going to the theatre may be an intimidating or unappealing experience for many reasons, going to the cinema is a lot less scary. Padded cinema seats are a damn sight kinder on the posterior than the Globe’s wooden benches too.

NT Live has just announced its second season, which will include Hamlet, Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein and the Broadway hit FELA!, although the venues for the screenings are still to be announced. I’m gunning for my own hometown, but if you know somewhere that would benefit from an injection of culture then there is nothing to stop people putting other locations forward.

I would also love to see more theatres develop their own screening initiatives. The capital may have more than its fair share of top-quality shows, but it would do Londonphiles good to be reminded what the rest of the country has to offer, from places like the Crucible in Sheffield and Edinburgh’s Traverse. We are lucky to have such a wealth of world-class, innovative theatre being produced across the country – through schemes like NT Live we can all start to really make the most of it.