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June 25 live transmission to movie houses, National Theater's


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The (U.K.) National Theater's successful production of Racine's Phedre -- new version by the poet Ted Hughes -- will get the real-time live transmission treatment on June 25. Helen Mirren, a superb actress and also a a top brand in international tv and film, is Phedre. Transmission will be simultaneous in 38 British theaters as well as 20 more in Europe. 33 theaters in "America" will get the performance 5 hours later. For some reason, it won't reach "the southern hemisphere" until July.

Here's the story, from The Economist website.

http://www.economist.com/books/displaystor...ory_id=13855199

An audience of 20,000 or so is expected to watch it.

A very quick Google showed several venues already advertising it. I haven't had the chance to check my own local possibilities (if any), but this is tremendously exciting. Cheers to the British Film Council for giving money to help a number of art film houses to convert to digital projectors. Plans for future transmissions -- Shakespeare and Alan Bennett, in the fall and winter -- are in the works.

You would think that ballet would be a natural for this kind of international project, especially since there is no language barrier. Does ballet have brand name like "the Met" or "Helen Mirren" or "National Theater" to bring in the large audiences? "ABT," I'm afraid, does not seem likely to have this drawing power. Does "Bolshoi"? And what about the stars? Nureyev, Fonteyn, and Baryshnikov could quite possibly have made it work at the box offices. Is there anyone today, realistically speaking?

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I think Hughes’ version of Phedre has been produced before, so I’m not sure how new it is. Mirren seems rather old for the role but perhaps onstage this makes less difference.

You're right. This was the version I saw at BAM in NYC, with Diana Rigg in the title role, around the time of Hughes's death in the late 90s. It was definitely "new" then, and has apparently supplanted some of the older performing versions I grew up with.

As you your second point, the person quoted in the article commented that this is a film of a stage play and that there would be no attempt to disguise that. The play makes Phedre an "older woman.," and Rigg -- at 60 -- had no trouble with that, on stage at least, even though Phedre is the mother of a young child. I hope it works for Mirren on the screen.

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The Financial Times (which is very inexpensive in the San Francisco and has good Iran coverage by Roula Khalaf and an editorial page light years apart from its US counterpart) had a review last week from Sarah Hemming on this production titled "A Queen without Command." She compared it slightly less favorably to the "superb" all-French production of Andromaque at the Barbican earlier in the year.

Nicholas Hytner tackles Phèdre in a lean and beautifully sculpted production that relishes the awful inexorability of the disaster, and again finds psychological truth in the play's remorseless gaze. Ted Hughes' 1998 translation does not opt for Alexandrine couplets, but renders the text in a sinewy, visceral verse of his own. It's not pure Racine, but it works in its way...

One of the strengths of Hytner's staging is the subtle contrast between the men, who stride, and the women, who scurry. Dominic Cooper's Hippolytus has a proud, aloof beauty and when Stanley Townsend's commanding, burly Theseus walks in, everybody quakes...

Mirren's Phèdre blows about this space like a leaf...the full scale of the role eludes her: she hasn't yet found the immense presence required to hold the stage, and keep holding it, with the horror of her predicament or to convince you that she cannot escape her demented state...

There are some tremendous performances in the supporting roles, particularly Margaret Tyzack as Phèdre's wily old nurse and John Shrapnel as Hippolytus's counsellor, who excels in the difficult task of reporting the young man's gruesome death...

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33 theaters in "America" will get the performance 5 hours later. For some reason, it won't reach "the southern hemisphere" until July.

I'd be curious to know exactly what this means. As far as I can tell, at least 60 cinemas in Canada will be screening it in two waves of tape delays to accommodate multiple time zones.

http://www.cineplex.com/Movies/MovieDetail...efinition_.aspx

Here are the participating cinemas in the U.S.

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/47486/ve...ted-states.html

As bart mentioned, the trailer promises that this is to be the first in a series.

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/ntlive

In Canada, ballets are shown in cinemas as part of the Royal Opera/Opus Arte series, but these are taped far in advance. ABT would be a logical candidate to broadcast live since the Met is already equipped for live transmission and evening-length narrative ballets are probably an easier sell than mixed bills of plotless works. I assume ABT hasn't done so already because movie houses are reluctant to cede screens to arty-farty programming on Saturday afternoons during the summer blockbuster season.

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As you your second point, the person quoted in the article commented that this is a film of a stage play and that there would be no attempt to disguise that. The play makes Phedre an "older woman.," and Rigg -- at 60 -- had no trouble with that, on stage at least. I hope it works for Mirren on the screen.

Mirren is in her middle sixties, I think. Getting up there. Phaedra is an ‘older woman’ but the meaning of that phrase has changed over time and if I remember rightly from Racine’s text in translation, Phaedra can still bear children.

Thanks for the review, Quiggin, and for the list, volcanohunter. I still buy the hard copy of the FT when I can find it.

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Thanks, volcanohunter, for the update. There are only 3 locations in Florida, but one is about 90 minutes away, so we'll hit the road. I hope others will check the link you kindly provided.

I'm very excited about this possibility. When I read reviews of a classical play from the UK I usually feel the same kind of wistful envy I do when I read about a world-class (by far-away) company performing classical ballet. The Met's HD-Live opera performances have set a high standard for this kind of filming. For me, this is much more visceral than watching a video in a theater. It's not even the "filmed live on stage" aspect that makes it special. Rather, it's the simultaneity of it (at or near the original performance time, sharing it with audiences in many venues).

My own feeling is that "ABT" does not have the brand recognition or the charisma to pull this off for more than the usual ballet audience. "Bolshoi" might. And possibly the "Royal Ballet." "Paris" would be one of my choices, but this probably wouldn't play as well in the anglophone countries as the Royal or the Bolshoi.

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This was a great success -- artistically, technologically, and (if my theater was typical) in terms of audience turn out.

I once saw Phedre at the Comedie Francaise and -- although I picked up only about half of what was being said. Actors tended to stand and deliver. (My memories are dim, but I know that the Phedre was played by a hugely distinguished actress, a big name in that world.) The verse was the thing. The pace was slow. Voices were hardly raised, no matter how passionate the words. This had an eerie beauty of its own, but tended to make the "characters" emotionally passive and somehow detached from the extraordinary events affecting them.

Artistically: Ted Hughes' version has the flow and power of human discourse. The focus is on human character and plot. . Although the production keeps the classical unities (one setting, all action within 24 hours, etc.) It allows for great mobility (use of the entire stage) and the depiction of complex characters. Mirren is extraordinary, making Phedre seem a much more complex character than my memories of the powerful but rather one-note Rigg. John Schrapnel's long set-piece near the end, a description of Hippolytus's long, gory, divinely ordained death at the hands of a sea monster and the powers of nature, was one of the most mesmerising examples of the power of the spoken word -- story-telling -- that I have ever heard. I would not have missed this for the world.

Technology: No problems at all. The sense of being in a theater -- on stage, actually -- was preserved. Intimacy was established quickly, and the cameras (5 of them, according to the director Nicholas Hytner) missed essential action/reaction only once or twice. The camerawork did not call attention to itself, which has not always been the case with the Met HD/Live productions.

The evening was introduced by a rather awkward Jeremy Irons standing on the theater terrace above the Thames, but there was additional material (interviews with the director, the designer, and the young actors playing Hyppolytus and Ariacia) that were interesting and well-done.

Audience Pre-performance shots of the audience at the National showed a predominantly young-to-youngish crowd. Ours was older, as you would expect in south Florida, and I had the impression of education and serious theater-going experience. Except for the seats right near the screen, I'd say the theater was 2/3s full -- and this is definitely OFF season down here. As with the Met HD/Live performances, i was impressed by how silent everyone was, hardly moving, totally attentive. (The play was presented without intermission, so that's 2 hours of staying in focus.) There was applause at the end. Each person had paid $20 for the seat. (There were dissounts for students and military.) The other movies in the complex were charging $5.50, and they seemed to be doing middling business on a Thursday evening So I hope that both the NT and the theater itself did well and have an incentive to continue and expand in the future.

Future schedule All's Well That Ends Well is scheduled for October 1. A dramatization of Nation (based on a novel by Terry Pratchett) is scheduled for (I think) January 20. And a new Alan Bennett play, The Habit of Art (imagining a meeting between WH Auden and Benjamin Britten, with Michael Gambon, Frances de la Tour, and others) is coming up in the spring.

Implications for ballet: This sort of thing is clearly going to take off in all the arts. Ballet -- so visual, with no language barrier -- should be well placed to capitalize on it. It will be interesting to see what happens. I wonder whether ballet has the vision and the enterprise to carry it off. Are there any Peter Gelbs or Nicholas Hytner's out there in the ballet world?

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I'm glad this was successful. The NT added additional showings for July 8 and 9, so I purchased a ticket for a July 9 transmission here in New YorK City. I had hoped that this production might transfer to Broadway, but it's not looking likely.

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Many thanks, kfw.

I've never seen a "review" which spent so much time on getting to the theater and so little time on the actual performance.

(I'm sorry the audience at the NY theater was kept outside on the sidewalk for so long, but this was not the fault of the transmission, which was perfect where I was and also started right on time in NYC, apparently).

It's very strange. But at least --when he finally got around to the production and the actors -- the little that he said was mostly positive.

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This isn’t a review of an ordinary performance, though. Isherwood was reporting as much on the broadcast itself as the play, which makes sense considering that this is the National’s first try at transmission. If people have trouble getting in to the point where ticketholders got mad, it's worth telling readers about. (Isherwood also notes that the play was reviewed previously in the NYT by Brantley.)

Thanks for the link, kfw.

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Yes, thank you, Lynette. You make me look forward to the telecast even more than before.

That might indeed be a challenging production to film.
It was probably wise to start with something smaller-scale like Phedre. The Met, however, has done great things with its own complex and crowded opera performances, so there's a track-record that the NT can learn from.

I'm still thinking about possibilities for Ballet. Brand-name institution, at least one international star, some sort of experience with first-rate videography, a ballet that isn't too obscure, but isn't one of the old warhorses either, a ballet with an interesting back-story ----- the Bolshoi's Bright Stream perhaps? Ratmansky could be featured in one of the intermission interviews. He should have a fascinating story to tell.

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I went to a screening of the Helen Mirren Phedre tonight in Brooklyn with my husband. I'm so glad I went. It was excellent. Helen Mirren was riveting. What an amazing actress. The minimalist set design was very interesting. The transmission was generally smooth, except for a very short period during the performance. It was a sell out. I would certainly attend future NT Live productions.

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The Met has done dvds, so I'll bet a lot has to do with how well they've sold.

t was a sell out.
Great news. The amazing and hopeful thing about this experiment is that you don't have to be in London or NYC to have it. Movie houses in suburban strip malls can be, and have been, similarly packed by people looking for this kind of artistic expression. Classical theater belongs in theaters; and there obviously is an audience for it. I believe and hope the same holds true for ballet, when the times comes that someone of vision puts together a similar project.
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Classical theater belongs in theaters; and there obviously is an audience for it.

I would add the qualification that any good play written for the live stage belongs on the live stage. They’re not the same without the physical presence of the actors, and in addition when filming theatrical performances you have actors blown up on the big screen who are projecting to the balconies. It would be nice to see a National Theater production of Henry V, say, but the Branagh version is splendid and you didn’t have to pay twenty dollars to go see it. A production of Phedre conceived and filmed for television could be excellent, as well.

I hope there's a DVD of this one.

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The Met has done dvds, so I'll bet a lot has to do with how well they've sold.
t was a sell out.
Great news. The amazing and hopeful thing about this experiment is that you don't have to be in London or NYC to have it. Movie houses in suburban strip malls can be, and have been, similarly packed by people looking for this kind of artistic expression. Classical theater belongs in theaters; and there obviously is an audience for it. I believe and hope the same holds true for ballet, when the times comes that someone of vision puts together a similar project.

I share part of your optimism, but I'm old enough to remember the beginnings of cable television, and our visions of channels devoted solely to our own individual obsessions. I've seen the Arts and Entertainment channel become the reality law enforcement channel, and Bravo become the home of cooking contests and scandal-laden social eavesdropping. I don't get the Ovation channel (too much money in my cable world) so haven't been able to follow its development -- what I hear is still pretty good, so perhaps the tide has shifted.

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Classical theater belongs in theaters; and there obviously is an audience for it.

I would add the qualification that any good play written for the live stage belongs on the live stage. They’re not the same without the physical presence of the actors, and in addition when filming theatrical performances you have actors blown up on the big screen who are projecting to the balconies. It would be nice to see a National Theater production of Henry V, say, but the Branagh version is splendid and you didn’t have to pay twenty dollars to go see it. A production of Phedre conceived and filmed for television could be excellent, as well.

Thanks for that correction, dirac. I did not mean to imply that classical theater belongs ONLY in on the stage. I'm a big admirer of both Henry V films, each of which I've seen several times. Great texts can be illuminated both by film and by stage directors. Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing is certainly the most joyful and stunning production of that text I've ever seen, in ANY format.

There are huge differences in the way plays and movies are made, and in what each can achieve. Speaking only for myself, the experience of watching a movie in a theater and watching one of these "HD/Live" performances in a theater are very different indeed. For one thing, attending a play has rituals that are quite different from attending a movie. (Olivier plays with the differences between the two art forms in his version of Henry V.)

For most people in the U.S. (I can't speak for Europe), there are few if any chances to see classical plays, from Aeschylus to Pinter or whomever, performed at the highest professional and artistic level on stage (or at least "staged"), Now we have an alternative.

Sandik, I agree with you about the way hopes for the specialty arts channels have been blasted. The changes in Bravo or A&E are beyond belief or comprehension -- and my cable company doesn't even OFFER Ovation, at any price. On the other hand, the United States and most other western countries are full of communities with sufficient classical arts-lovers to fill a movie house. If the technology is cost-efficient, I don't see why this couldn't create an audience of like-minded people, increase exposure to the classical arts, and be a nice source of income for those institutions -- almost all located in a handful of international cultural cities -- who produce them.

At least I hope so! :thanks:

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I don't get the Ovation channel (too much money in my cable world) so haven't been able to follow its development -- what I hear is still pretty good, so perhaps the tide has shifted.

I used to get Ovation and then the powers that be at Comcast took it away entirely (and I have a pretty pricey package). I wasn't terribly happy with it - many, many repeats and many, many commercials when I was watching -- but it was certainly better than nothing. A&E should just take away the "A" part of the name and Bravo is simply too depressing to discuss.

I can't say I find the multiplex experience very stimulating even for movies -- the new theaters being built in my neck of the woods have stadium seating with many small screening rooms with giant screens and giant volume. Parking is difficult, you have to walk what seem to be miles before you get to your movie, and the lines are hideous. It's different in the cities, of course.

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John Lahr has a rave review in tihs week's New Yorker. It's not available online unless you are registered, but here's the opening paragraph:

"I want to be the Sarah Bernhardt of my generation," Helen Mirren confided to her older sister before auditioning, successfully, for Britain's National Youth Theatre, at eighteen. More than forty years on, with scores of outstanding stage and screen performances behind her, Mirren has accomplished her mission; in Britain, her powess and her popularity are uncontested. [ ... ] Mirren's performance has been shown globally on more than two hundred screens so far and seen by about thirty-five thousand paying customers. Statistically speaking Mirren, not Bernhardt, is now the most famous Phedre of all time. However, it's the nuance, not the numbers, that makes Mirren's performance authoritative. Mirren's dissection of the Athenian queen who falls in love with her stepson takes the audiences into the darkest recesses of the heart of an emotional terrorist, whose only hostage is herself.

Later on he describes Phedre as

a sensational early example of this self-aggrandizing breed whose sexuality takes the form of scene-making. Phedre is a gourmand of grief: she stuffs herself on shame, binges on lamentation, gobbles down grievance.
I LOVE it!

Lahr is enthusiastic about the direction, the set, the Hughes translation as a playing text, and John Shrapnel's Theramene. He dislikes Stanley Townsend's Theseus -- "a minor-league performance in a major-league production" -- a great and very accurate (imo) phrase.

35,000 paying spectators for one performance! For Racine! I'm beginning to get hopeful about the future of the classical arts.

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