David Tennant's Shakespeare performance to play live in cinemas
Sold-out performance in King Richard II to be relayed live around the world and streamed into 1,000 British schools
It's too late to book tickets to see David Tennant
tackle Shakespeare's flawed and doomed King Richard II: every bookable
seat for both Stratford-upon-Avon and London has already been sold, even
though it doesn't open until next autumn.
But the Royal Shakespeare Company is to announce on Tuesday that the production will be relayed live to cinemas around the world – and also streamed, free, into 1,000 British schools.
But the Royal Shakespeare Company is to announce on Tuesday that the production will be relayed live to cinemas around the world – and also streamed, free, into 1,000 British schools.
But the RSC director, Greg Doran, said he has been interested
for years in the best way to convey the immediacy of theatre through the
medium of film.
"I've been thinking about this ever since Antony Sher and I filmed our production in South Africa with Anthony Sher as Titus Andronicus," he said.
"It's a magnificent opportunity to share the experience of live theatre with the widest possible audience, but I think it's very important that we find a way of re-imagining it for film; it mustn't just be like having a security camera peering at the stage.
"I also want to find a way of capturing something of the special experience of watching Shakespeare in his own town – there is something about Shakespeare in Stratford, this is the air that he breathed.
"The film of the 1959 production of the Dream opened with Charles Laughton, who played Bottom, out in the streets of Stratford, and the camera then follows him into the theatre – where you see a very young, slim Peter Hall sitting at the back of the stalls. I like that idea of opening the theatre out into the town. Maybe this time we'll start with David wandering around the souvenir shops buying fridge magnets."
The production, opening at Stratford in October, and the broadcast in the UK, North America, Australia, Japan and northern Europe, will be a highlight of Doran's first full season as artistic director at the RSC, and the first in a complete new cycle of the history plays, which will all be filmed. The production will be filmed on 13 November. On 15 November it will be streamed to schools, followed by a live Q&A introduced by the TV presenter Konnie Huq.
The Guardian - Maev Kennedy - May 27, 2013
It was reported in The Stage that the collaboration is with Picturehouse Entertainment and that ahead of the live broadcast, there will be a series of short films, which will include behind-the-scenes footage at the RSC, available online.
The shows will be filmed using multiple cameras around the stage and auditorium and will be produced by John Wyver, who has previously collaborated with the RSC on its filmed versions of Macbeth and Hamlet for television.
In a collaboration with digital technology university Ravensbourne College and education and research network Janet, the webcast will also include a live online question and answer session with Doran and Tennant.
It was reported in The Stage that the collaboration is with Picturehouse Entertainment and that ahead of the live broadcast, there will be a series of short films, which will include behind-the-scenes footage at the RSC, available online.
The shows will be filmed using multiple cameras around the stage and auditorium and will be produced by John Wyver, who has previously collaborated with the RSC on its filmed versions of Macbeth and Hamlet for television.
In a collaboration with digital technology university Ravensbourne College and education and research network Janet, the webcast will also include a live online question and answer session with Doran and Tennant.
