NT Live: The Habit of Art Live Transmission
National Theatre productions broadcast live to cinema screens around the world
Thu 22 Apr 2010 6.45pm
Cinema: Live screening £10
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Cast: Frances de la Tour, Richard Griffiths and Alex Jennings
Playwright: Alan Bennett
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CloseWhen I was a young man, I was smooth-skinned. I was said once to look like a Swedish deck-hand.
I still may, of course. Who knows what Swedish deck-hands look like in the evening of their lives?
Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera, Death in Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend W H Auden.
During this imagined meeting, their first for twenty-five years, they are observed and interrupted by, amongst others, their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station.
You don’t believe in restraint. I do. And I hope I never see the day when in opera or in drama there is nothing that cannot be sung or said. A time of no limits.
Alan Bennett’s new play is as much about the theatre as it is about poetry or music. It looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult men, and at the ethics of biography. It reflects on growing old, on creativity and inspiration, and on persisting when all passion’s spent: ultimately, on the habit of art.
‘In the end,’ said Auden, ‘art is small beer. The really serious things in life are earning one’s living and loving one’s neighbour.’
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2 Comments
I was part of a sell out audience at the Dukes in Lancaster last night to see Alan Bennett's play, Habit of Love beamed live by satellite from the NT. It was superb at many levels and I congratulate everyone concerned, particularly Richard Griffiths.
I am confident all the cast conveyed what lay behind Bennett's pen. The humour was much appreciated in the Lancaster audience. We gained being able to see every grimace and twinkle of the eye! A combined theatrical/cinematic experience. Thank you!!
carol Lloyd at 10:48am on Fri 23rd Apr 2010
Saw the Habit of Art live on Thursday. What a thrill to have a top notch NT performance beamed to my own home town. It was a great play, superbly acted. There was a teriffic atmosphere in the Odeon- it felt like being at the theatre. This will help make it a truly NATIONAL theatre. Bring on the next one!
Anne Frost at 4:17pm on Sat 24th Apr 2010