If someone from Canada or the United States wanted to go see a performance of a Shakespeare play in the playwright’s home country, it would be a complicated and expensive adventure: buying tickets to the play, paying for flights to and from England, finding hotels, and everything else involved in making a transatlantic trip. For most people, the trip would be too expensive. This winter, however, people across North America and the world have had a chance to see authentic English performances of Shakespeare’s plays, brought to them live from the National Theatre in London (National Theatre Live) to their own cities.
Although many audience members might never be able to see one of the plays in person, they can have the experience of seeing the performances up close, giving them the sensation of being right there watching.
Shakespeare and Front Row Centre Events
Broadcasts of the Shakespeare’s plays are part of the Front Row Centre program, designed to help viewers feel that they are part of the action, as the official events website indicates. This season’s plays have already featured The Tempest and Hamlet, with a showing of King Lear still to come in February 2011.
The Tempest featured Canadian actor Christopher Plummer in the lead role of Prospero, with a professional cast playing the parts of Miranda, Ariel, Ferdinand, and the other characters. In the second Shakespeare play of the season, the part of Hamlet, often considered to be very demanding because of the large number of soliloquies the actor must deliver and because of the extreme introspection of the role, was played by Rory Kinnear. In both plays, the excellent acting in the lead roles was enhanced by good acting from the rest of the cast. If the performance of King Lear follows in the same tradition, it will be well worth the admission price.
National Theatre Live and the Stratford Festival
In addition to its own productions from its own theater in London, the National Theatre Live season also includes shows from other well-known theatrical venues. The production of The Tempest, for example, was broadcast from Stratford, Ontario, as the Shakespeare Festival’s website indicates. By finding the best productions from around the world, National Theatre Live gives people the opportunity to experience culture in a way that might otherwise be impossible for them. For Shakespeare enthusiasts, the 2010-2011 season has a great deal to offer.
The number of people who have the time and money to attend productions at the Metropolitan Opera, the Stratford Festival in Ontario, or the National Theatre in London is fairly limited. However, through the HD productions broadcast in cities around the world, many more people can be part of the audiences of these events without ever leaving their own cities. Although audiences for these showings are not always large, the interest people show in attending the programs shows that the broadcasts are fulfilling a cultural need in communities around North America and the world.
Susan Huebert - My name is Susan Huebert, and I'm a writer and editor from Winnipeg, Manitoba. I've always enjoyed words, and I graduated with a Bachelor ...
