NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE CELEBRATES SIX SEASONS

Chiwetel Ejiofor



Celebrating its 6th year bringing live theatre to cinema audiences around the world, NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE is pleased to announce an international broadcast of Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) in the title role of Everyman, adapted by Carol Ann Duffy and directed by Rufus Norris, live from The National Theatre of Great Britain’s Olivier Theatre on Thursday, July 16, 2015. Dates will vary at venues internationally and encore screenings will follow. Tickets on sale beginning February 9, 2015. For more information, please visit www.NTLive.com.



Everyman is successful, popular and riding high when Death comes calling. He is forced to abandon the life he has built and embark on a last, frantic search to recruit a friend, anyone, to speak in his defence. But Death is close behind, and time is running out.



One of the great primal, spiritual myths, Everyman asks whether it is only in death that we can understand our lives. A cornerstone of English drama since the 15th century, this new production has words by Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate, and movement by Javier De Frutos.



The production will have set designs by Ian MacNeil, costumes by Nicky Gillibrand, lighting by Paul Anderson, choreography by Javier De Frutos, music by William Lyons and sound by Paul Arditti.



Chiwetel Ejiofor returns to the National – where he last appeared in 2000 as Romeo, Peer Gynt, and in Blue/Orange, receiving the Evening Standard Best Newcomer Award – to play the title role. His many film and TV performances since then include 12 Years A Slave for which he won the BAFTA Award for Leading Actor and received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations; A Season in the Congo, Half of a Yellow Sun, 2012, The Shadow Line, Dancing on the Edge, Tsunami: the Aftermath, Kinky Boots and Dirty Pretty Things (Independent Film Award for Best Actor). Theatre includes The Seagull (Royal Court) and the title role in Othello at the Donmar, for which he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor.



Carol Ann Duffy is Professor and Creative Director of the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. She was appointed Poet Laureate in 2009. Her poetry has received many awards, including the Signal Prize for Children’s Verse, the Whitbread, Forward and T. S. Eliot Prizes, and the Lannan and E. M. Forster Prize in America. In 2011The Bees won the Costa Poetry Award, and in 2012 she won the PEN Pinter Prize.



Rufus Norris’ productions for the National include Behind the Beautiful Forevers, The Amen Corner, Table, London Road, Death and the King's Horseman and Market Boy. His other work includes Feast, Vernon God Little and Tintin for the Young Vic; the Olivier Award-winning Cabaret in the West End and on tour; Les Liaisons Dangereuses on Broadway; and Festen at the Almeida, West End and New York. Screen work includes Broken, which won the British Independent Film Award for Best Film, and the film of London Road which will be released later this year.



About NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE


Now celebrating its 6th year broadcasting live performances to cinema screens internationally, National Theatre Live has now been experienced by over 3.5 million people worldwide. The first season began in June 2009 with the acclaimed production of Phédre starring Helen Mirren. Recent broadcasts have included Carey Mulligan, Bill Nighy and Matthew Beard in Skylight from the West End, Gillian Anderson, Ben Foster and Vanessa Kirby in A Streetcar Named Desire from the Young Vic, Helen McCrory in Medea, Simon Russell Beale in King Lear, the award-winning original West End production of War Horse, Tom Hiddleston in Coriolanus from the Donmar Warehouse, Benedict Cumberbatch & Jonny Lee Miller in Frankenstein directed by Danny Boyle and the record-breaking and award winning West End production of The Audience starring Helen Mirren as The Queen.




ALL UPCOMING BROADCASTS


Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, adapted by Bryony Lavery

· Directed by Polly Findlay

· Broadcast to cinemas internationally on Thursday, January 22, 2015 (with many encore dates in U.S. cities).

· Summary: Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of murder, money and mutiny is brought to life in a thrilling new stage adaptation by Bryony Lavery, broadcast live from the National Theatre. It’s a dark, stormy night. The stars are out. Jim, the inn-keeper’s granddaughter, opens the door to a terrifying stranger. At the old sailor’s feet sits a huge sea-chest, full of secrets. Jim invites him in – and her dangerous voyage begins. Please note: TREASURE ISLAND is suitable for ages 10 years +.



Behind the Beautiful Forevers by David Hare, based on the book by Katherine Boo


· Directed by Rufus Norris

· Broadcast to cinemas internationally on Thursday, March 12, 2015 (with many encore dates in U.S. cities).

· Summary: India is surging with global ambition. But beyond the luxury hotels surrounding Mumbai airport lies a makeshift slum, full of people with plans of their own. Zehrunisa and her son Abdul aim to recycle enough rubbish to fund a proper house. Sunil, twelve and stunted, wants to eat until he’s as tall as Kalu the thief. Asha seeks to steal government anti-poverty funds to turn herself into a ‘first-class person’, while her daughter Manju intends to become the slum’s first female graduate. But their schemes are fragile; global recession threatens the garbage trade, and another slum-dweller is about to make an accusation that will destroy herself and shatter the neighborhood. Please note: BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS is suitable for ages 14 years +.



The Hard Problem a new play by Tom Stoppard


· Directed by Nicholas Hytner

· Broadcast to cinemas internationally on Thursday, April 16, 2015 (with many encore dates in U.S. cities). Tickets now on sale.

· Summary: The Hard Problem is Tom Stoppard’s first play for the stage since Rock ’n’ Roll in 2006, and his first for the National since his trilogy, The Coast of Utopia, 2002. Hilary, a young psychology researcher at a brain-science institute, is nursing a private sorrow and a troubling question at work, where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness? This is ‘the hard problem’ which puts Hilary at odds with her colleagues who include her first mentor Spike, her boss Leo and the billionaire founder of the institute, Jerry. Is the day coming when the computer and the fMRI scanner will answer all the questions psychology can ask? Meanwhile Hilary needs a miracle, and she is prepared to pray for one.



Man and Superman by Bernard Shaw


· Starring Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes as Jack Tanner in this exhilarating reinvention of Shaw’s witty, provocative classic.

· Directed by Simon Godwin

· Broadcast to cinemas internationally on Thursday, May 14, 2015 (with many encore dates in U.S. cities). Tickets now on sale.

· Summary: Jack Tanner, celebrated radical thinker and rich bachelor, seems an unlikely choice as guardian to the alluring heiress, Ann. But she takes it in her assured stride and, despite the love of a poet, she decides to marry and tame this dazzling revolutionary. Tanner, appalled by the whiff of domesticity, is tipped off by his chauffeur and flees to Spain, where he is captured by bandits and meets The Devil. An extraordinary dream-debate, heaven versus hell, ensues. Following in hot pursuit, Ann is there when Tanner awakes, as fierce in her certainty as he is in his. A romantic comedy, an epic fairytale, a fiery philosophical debate, Man and Superman asks fundamental questions about how we live.



Everyman adapted by Carol Ann Duffy


· Starring Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave); Directed by Rufus Norris

· Broadcast to cinemas internationally on Thursday, July 16, 2015 (with many encore dates in U.S. cities). Tickets on sale February 9, 2015.

· Summary: Everyman is successful, popular and riding high when Death comes calling. He is forced to abandon the life he has built and embark on a last, frantic search to recruit a friend, anyone, to speak in his defence. But Death is close behind, and time is running out. One of the great primal, spiritual myths, Everyman asks whether it is only in death that we can understand our lives. A cornerstone of English drama since the 15th century, this new production has words by Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate, and movement by Javier De Frutos.



Encore screenings are now ongoing for some of National Theatre Live’s most acclaimed recent productions. Encore dates and cinema locations are added frequently. Current encores running in the US include:

· John – DV8 Physical Theatre; a work conceived and directed by Lloyd Newson; Live from the National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre

· Skylight – from London’s West End; Starring Carey Mulligan, Bill Nighy and Matthew Beard

· Of Mice And Men – from Broadway’s Longacre Theatre; Starring James Franco and Chris O’Dowd





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