Fancy seeing Benedict Cumberbatch in Frankenstein from the comfort of your own home?
With theatres and cinemas across the country closed due to coronavirus restrictions, the National Theatre has announced its latest digital programming.
National Theatre Live recordings of Frankenstein starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Antony & Cleopatra with Ralph Fiennes will be streamed on YouTube as part of National Theatre at Home.
This new initiative is bringing NT content to the public accessed from their homes during the coronavirus lockdown.
The NT Live broadcast of Danny Boyle’s production of Frankenstein filmed at the National Theatre in 2011 will be screened from Thursday via the National Theatre’s YouTube channel.
The production sees Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternating the roles of Victor Frankenstein and his creation.
The two versions will be shown across two nights – April 30 and May 1.
Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein’s bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker.
Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the increasingly desperate and vengeful creature determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal.
You can watch both versions of Frankenstein on the National Theatre’s YouTube channel with Benedict Cumberbatch performing as the creature from April 30 at 7pm, to May 7 at 7pm.
Jonny Lee Miller is performing as the creature from May 1 at 7pm, to May 8 at 7pm.
Simon Godwin’s sell-out production of Shakespeare’s Antony & Cleopatra featuring the Evening Standard Theatre Award-winning performances by Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo as the famous lovers will be streamed on May 7.
Both productions will be free to stream, premiering at 7pm, and then available on demand for seven days.
Ralph Fiennes, from The English Patient and James Bond movie Spectre, and Sophie Okonedo (Chimerica, Hotel Rwanda) play Shakespeare’s famous fated couple in his great tragedy of politics, passion and power.
Caesar and his assassins are dead. General Mark Antony now rules alongside his fellow defenders of Rome.
But at the fringes of a war-torn empire the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra and Mark Antony have fallen fiercely in love.
In a tragic fight between devotion and duty, obsession becomes a catalyst for war.
National Theatre at Home launched in April in response to theatre and cinema closures due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The first stream was the award-winning production of One Man Two Guvnors.
Starring James Corden, it received over 2.5 million views across the seven days it was available online.
Rufus Norris, director and joint chief executive of the National Theatre, said: “We’ve been completely overwhelmed by the response to National Theatre at Home since we launched at the start of April.
“We know that these are difficult and challenging times for many, and we hope that through this initiative we’re able to supply a weekly slice of entertainment for people to enjoy together, albeit digitally, when each production goes out at 7pm on Thursdays.
“We’re thrilled to be announcing the next two titles, Frankenstein and Antony & Cleopatra, which both feature award-winning performances and I’m sure will be enjoyed by all.”
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night featuring Tamsin Greig as Malvolia is streaming now, until April 30.
Further productions to be streamed as part of National Theatre at Home will be announced soon.
For more information on National Theatre at Home go to https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/at-home
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