The National Theatre London Live HD 2011 – 2012 season kicks off at The Light Cinema on Thursday, February 9, from 9pm, with the three-hour production “Travelling Light”, by Nicholas Wright. How had a twenty-two-year–old pretentious layabout made a discovery that would elude every other cinematic pioneer for years to come? In a remote Eastern European town, around 1900, the young Motl Mendl is mesmerized by the flickering silent images in his father’s cinema. Sponsored by Jacob, a rather exuberant local timber merchant, and inspired by Anna, the young girl sent to help him make moving pictures about their village, he stumbles on a revolutionary way of telling stories. Forty years on, Motl – now a celebrated American film director – looks back on his life and confronts the cost of fulfilling his dreams. After the plays “Vincent in Brixton” and “The Reporter”, Nicholas Wright’s new play is a funny and fascinating tribute to Eastern European immigrants who became iconic figures during the golden age of Hollywood. Antony Sher – whose earlier collaborations with the Royal National Theatre include “Primo” and “Stanley” – is back in this production as Jacob.
Another highlight of the season is the National Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors”, scheduled for March 1, from 9pm. The play is the first Shakespearean comedy ever played. The plot is based on Plautus’s “Menaechimi” and “Amphitryon”. It tells the tale of two pairs of identical twins and the trouble arising from their being mistaken for each other.
The list of live presentations from the National Theatre London continues on March 29 with Oliver Goldsmith’s “She Stoops to Conquer”. Hardcastle, a man of substance, looks forward to acquainting his daughter with his old pal’s son with a view to marriage. But thanks to playboy Lumpkin, he’s mistaken by his prospective son in-law Marlow for an innkeeper, his daughter for the local barmaid. The good news is, while Marlow can barely speak to a woman of quality he’s a charmer with those of a different stamp. And so, as Hardcastle’s indignation intensifies, Miss Hardcastle’s appreciation for her misguided suitor soars. Misdemeanours multiply, love blossoms, mayhem ensues. One of the great, generous-hearted and ingenious comedies of the English language, Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer offers a celebration of chaos, courtship and the dysfunctional family.
Tickets for the National Theatre London Live HD presentations, priced RON 60, are available at The Light Cinema Liberty Centre.
