National Theatre has just announced the next collection of plays to be streamed on their Youtube channel for free over the next few weeks.

Following the coronavirus lockdown that has seen theatres around the world lower their curtains indefinitely, National Theatre has launched a Youtube channel dedicated to streaming productions that had been previously screened in cinemas globally as a part of National Theatre Live.

They kicked off their exciting programme on 2 April with Richard Bean’s ‘One Man Two Guvnors’ featuring a Tony Award-winning performance from James Corden, followed by Sally Cookson’s stage adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre’, Bryony Lavery’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’, and ‘Twelfth Night’ featuring Tamsin Greig as Malvolia in Shakespeare’s classic comedy.

TOM HIDDLESTON IN CORIOLANUS. © JOHAN PERSSON

Following stellar performances by Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller who exchanged the roles of the Creature and Victor Frankenstein on two consecutive nights (30 April and 1 May, respectively) in Danny Boyle-directed ‘Frankenstein’, Gillian Anderson and Tom Hiddleston are now headlining the next carefully-curated selection of plays.

The streaming schedule for the following weeks is as follows:

7 May – ‘Antony & Cleopatra’, starring Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo, and directed by Simon Godwin.

14 May – Inua Ellams’ ’Barber Shop Chronicles’, with Fisayo Akinade, Hammed Animashaun, Cyril Nri and Sule Rimi.

21 May – Tennessee Williams’ ’A Streetcar Named Desire’, directed by Benedict Andrews and starring Gillian Anderson as Blanche, Ben Foster as Stanley and Vanessa Kirby as Stella. Fun fact: this is the fastest-selling show in Young Vic history.

28 May – James Graham’s ‘This House’, directed by Jeremy Herrin, and featuring Phil Daniels, Reece Dinsdale, Charles Edwards and Vincent Franklin.

4 June – the Donmar Warehouse’s production of Coriolanus, staged by former Artistic Director Josie Rourke and starring Tom Hiddleston, Alfred Enoch, Deborah Findlay and Mark Gatiss.

Each production will be screened live every Thursday at 7.00pm GMT, and will then be available on demand for seven days.

GILLIAN ANDERSON IN A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. © JOHAN PERSSON

Even though all productions will be streamed for free, National Theatre encourages viewers to donate what they can via Youtube. The money donated will be shared with the co-producing theatre organisations of each stream, including the Donmar Warehouse, Fuel, Leeds Playhouse and the Young Vic, which will help support them during this difficult period of closure.

Lisa Burger, Executive Director and Joint Chief Executive said, ‘I’m delighted that in this next collection of titles to be streamed as part of National Theatre at Home we are including productions from our NT Live partner theatres. When we launched National Theatre at Home last month, we wanted to offer audiences the opportunity to engage with theatre during this time of isolation while we were unable to welcome them to the South Bank or into cinemas.

‘This initiative wouldn’t have been possible without the support of a great number of artists for which we are incredibly grateful. We have been absolutely thrilled by the response from viewers enjoying the productions from right across the globe, and we have also been surprised and delighted at the generous donations we’ve received since closure. Whilst the National Theatre continues to face a precarious financial future, we now feel able to make a payment to all artists involved, as we recognise a great many are also experiencing a particularly challenging time at this moment. While theatres across the world remain closed, we’re pleased that we can continue to bring the best of British theatre directly into people’s homes every Thursday evening.’

There is a pile of books on my desk from the to-read list. Four of them have been there for a while. They are Elena Ferrante‘s ‘Neapolitan Novels’, a four-part saga that tells a story of a complicated relationship between two friends from their childhood to old age. Two friends, different like reason and emotions, but like reason and emotions strongly bound to one another. Their story would have remained forever unknown to me – four volumes look much more frightening than one – if it wasn’t for the play brought by April De Angelis to the National Theatre.

©DIANA DWIGHT

The first scene opens with a lonely chair and a desk in the middle of the stage. A chair for a person who stopped running and took some time to sit still and think or even to be interrogated.

Old Lenù, one of the two friends played by Niamh Cusack (‘Too Good to be True’) receives an unexpected parcel that makes her recall events of the past. There was a lot of suffering and violence in her post-war childhood in Naples, but life is never black and white, as tragedy and comedy often walk side by side. This is where humour, dance and songs find their place and bring a little bit of colour and sparkle into reality. These ups and downs of life are masterly echoed by staircases, the only stage setting of the play apart from the videos and visual effects projected on the wall.

©MARK BRENNER

Lenù meets her friend for life, Lila, played by Catherine McCormack (‘Braveheart’, ‘Dangerous Beauty’) when they are still little and play with dolls. Playing with dolls continues through the whole story: some of the characters are impersonated by puppets, two chairs can easily become a car or a plane. The symbolic language of theatre also allowed grown-ups to play babies, or the same actors to appear from time to time as different characters (that I found a little bit confusing). Some scenes are extremely imaginative and Lila’s wedding will please many fans of Game of Thrones.

©MARK BRENNER

Both Niamh Cusack and Catherine McCormack carry the major weight of the story and are absolutely authentic both as little girls and as elderly people.

The production is divided into two parts, two and a half hours each. As it has to cover all four books and the period of about 60 years, it manages to highlight the main themes and the key events of the novels. But I feel that a lot of the story has been left aside. The play made me wish to discover more about its characters. 

‘Neapolitan Novels’ in my to-read pile, I am on my way!

My Brilliant Friend is at the National Theatre, London, until 22 February.