National Theatre Live: Of Mice and Men

A powerful portrait of the American spirit and a heartbreaking testament to the bonds of friendship.

Jumbo

Desperate to prove to his peers that he’s more than a chubby kid that never wins at anything, little Don wishes to win his local talent show by performing a stageplay inspired from a storybook written by his late parents. When unfortunately a bully stole that book, at the same time a little ghost appeared from the spirit world asking for Don’s help to reunite her with her parents’ spirits. The two new friends then embark on an exciting adventure to help each other and learn the true meaning of friendship.

Method

A seasoned actor and a pop star are cast as leads in a gay romantic play. As the actor teaches the pop star method acting, the line between fiction and reality is blurred and they become drawn to each other.

A Sporting Chance

John Stonehouse (William Russell) checks into a hotel, intending to commit suicide. But instead he winds up helping a girl, Gilberte Bonheur (Fritzi Brunette), out of a jam. He finds her bending over a man who she has apparently killed, and since he's about to kill himself anyway, he offers to assume the blame. Throw a valuable emerald into the works, and the fact that the dead man suddenly comes back to life, and Stonehouse -- not to mention the audience -- becomes thoroughly befuddled by it all. Everything clears up, however, when Gilberte gives him a theater ticket -- it turns out that everything he went through was the plot to a stage play, enacted in real life by the actors. The critics roasted the play, saying it wasn't true to life, and this was their proof that the situations really could happen. Gilberte retires from acting when Stonehouse proposes.

Lazarus Come Out

45 year old Don Valter is a traditional priest who still wears an old fashioned black tunic out of nostalgia. One day young Claudio and his exuberant troupe of actors appear, proposing to perform an avant-garde show based on the Gospel's miracle of the rebirth of Lazarus*. The powerless priest is overwhelmed by this young upstart, who stirs within him emotions that will, whether he likes it or not, pull him into the modern era.

ベイジルタウンの女神

Opening Night

Actress Myrtle Gordon is a functioning alcoholic who is a few days from the opening night of her latest play, concerning a woman distraught about aging. One night a car kills one of Myrtle's fans who is chasing her limousine in an attempt to get the star's attention. Myrtle internalizes the accident and goes on a spiritual quest, but fails to finds the answers she is after. As opening night inches closer and closer, fragile Myrtle must find a way to make the show go on.

Walden

After returning from a year-long Moon mission, Cassie, a NASA botanist, finds herself in a remote cabin in the woods, where her estranged twin sister, Stella, a former NASA architect, has found a new life with climate activist Bryan. Old wounds resurface as the sisters attempt to pick up the pieces of the rivalry that broke them apart.

Dare

When a pompous actor tells good girl Alexa that she hasn't lived, she embarks on a bold journey that takes her to mysterious bad boy Johnny. Envious, her shy best friend Ben also dares to pursue Johnny.

National Theatre Live: Julius Caesar

Caesar returns in triumph to Rome and the people pour out of their homes to celebrate. Alarmed by the autocrat’s popularity, the educated élite conspire to bring him down. After his assassination, civil war erupts on the streets of the capital. Nicholas Hytner’s production will thrust the audience into the street party that greets Caesar’s return, the congress that witnesses his murder, the rally that assembles for his funeral and the chaos that explodes in its wake.

National Theatre Live: Skylight

On a bitterly cold London evening, schoolteacher Kyra Hollis receives an unexpected visit from her former lover, Tom Sergeant, a successful and charismatic restaurateur whose wife has recently died. As the evening progresses, the two attempt to rekindle their once passionate relationship only to find themselves locked in a dangerous battle of opposing ideologies and mutual desires.

The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family, Play One: Hungry

Hungry is the first in a three-play cycle introducing us to the Gabriels of Rhinebeck, New York. These three plays unfold in real time and track the lives of the Gabriels throughout the coming presidential election year. To the rhythm of peeling, chopping and mixing, Hungry places us in the center of the Gabriel’s kitchen. The family discusses their lives and disappointments, and the world at large and nearby. As they struggle against the fear of being left behind, the family attempts to find resilience in the face of loss.

The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family, Play Two: What Did You Expect?

Back in the kitchen of the Gabriel family, the country is now in the midst of the general election for President. In the course of one evening in the house they grew up in, history (both theirs and our country's), money, politics, family, art, and culture are chopped up and mixed together, while a meal is made around the kitchen table.

The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family, Play Three: Women of a Certain Age

Eight months after we first meet the Gabriels, Patricia, the family matriarch, joins her children and daughters-in-law as they prepare a meal from the past and consider the future of their country, town and home. Paying tribute to the difficult year behind them, the Gabriels compare notes on the search for empathy and authenticity at a time when the game seems rigged and the rules are forever changing.

A Little Life

In this worldwide bestseller, we watch four men over a period of more than thirty years: lawyer Jude, actor Willem, visual artist JB and architect Malcolm. The story is the history of their friendship, as they remain closely connected with each other during the rest of their lives. They develop their careers in the city where ambition and success are the indicators of a successful life: New York. Ivo van Hove adapts Hanya Yanagihara’s novel to theater and creates a penetrating performance.

The Gin Game

Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey, two elderly residents at a nursing home for senior citizens, strike up an acquaintance. Neither seems to have any other friends, and they start to enjoy each other's company. Weller offers to teach Fonsia how to play gin rummy, and they begin playing a series of games that Fonsia always wins. Weller's inability to win a single hand becomes increasingly frustrating to him, while Fonsia becomes increasingly confident. While playing their games of gin, they engage in lengthy conversations about their families and their lives in the outside world. Gradually, each conversation becomes a battle, much like the ongoing gin games, as each player tries to expose the other's weaknesses, to belittle the other's life, and to humiliate the other thoroughly.

Sweet and Sad

The Apple Family finds themselves together again for the first time since Election Night, 2010. Marian, reeling from a personal tragedy, now lives with her sister Barbara; sister Jane is back with her boyfriend Tim; their brother Richard has come up from Manhattan; and Uncle Benjamin prepares for his first dramatic performance in years. Over Sunday brunch on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the Apples find themselves talking about loss, memory, remembrance, and the meaning of compensation.

Antiklimax

A recording of a production by Divadlo Komedie. A shocking drama full of pain, whose heroine, an abused girl, seeks the only possible path to tragic liberation. The last play by Austrian playwright Werner Schwab is a shocking drama full of pain and abuse. The story of Antiklimax can be easily reconstructed. It can also be perceived as one of those occasional sad news stories: in a socially disadvantaged family, a daughter who had been abused by her father for years killed her parents and then herself. After such an event, people ponder for a while what life was like in such a family. Why did no one report the abuse? What was the mother doing? It is a topic on the fringes of our social consciousness, which we effectively suppress. And when we want to indulge in a little unease, we reach for the tabloids, which put it right before our eyes. Little Marjánka is threatened by electrical appliances, brass band music, and family upbringing. As if madness were the last of man's pleasures.

Samet Sons

A Kuwaiti play talks about the life of Kuwaitis in the years of poverty experienced by Kuwaitis before the economic boom in the seventies, and discusses work in a comic framework of economic and social problems, including poverty, education, and health, by dealing with the stories of work heroes.

The List Film

A film of the award winning live theatre production The List. A woman struggles to adjust to rural life with a young family in Quebec. Increasingly isolated, she keeps life in order through obsessive list making. As her marriage struggles she befriends Caroline. When Caroline requests a favour she adds it to her list. The difference between remembering to do it, and neglecting to take it seriously, becomes the difference between life and death. Produced in association with Screen Academy Scotland at Edinburgh Napier University.