Your Shakespeare Is Showing: How Theatre Screening Made 2014 the Year We Ditched the Shy Adaptations
I love hate to lapse into the New Year's spirit of golden nostalgia, but my memories of 2014 are ones that really do excite me. Why? 2014 was an exceptional year for theatre.
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| Pictured (L-R) Hadley Fraser as Aufidius and Tom Hiddleston as Coriolanus in Coriolanus. Directed by Josie Rourke, Coriolanus enjoyed a sell-out run at the intimate Donmar Warehouse before being screened to cinemas early last year. Photo by Johan Persson, courtesy of National Theatre Live. |
In recent years, film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays which are bare-facedly Shakespearean have been scarce. Like, painfully scarce. The general formula for adaptations that pop up in cinemas follows along the lines of "Take the plot, lose that awfully archaic sounding title."
This golden rule has resulted in films ranging from exceptionally cult teen flicks (anyone for 10 Things I Hate About You?) to unexpectedly flopping comedies (I'm looking at you, That Awkward Moment).
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| Pictured (L-R) Miles Teller, Zac Efron and Michael B. Jordan in That Awkward Moment (2014) which borrows loosely from the plot of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. Photo courtesy of Treehouse Pictures. |
But last year was different. The Globe launched its Globe Player, branded the Netflix of live theatre. Digital Theatre exploded with sold-out West End shows such as the Tennant-Tate Much Ado to boast of. You now have just as much chance of seeing 'National Theatre Live' whilst browsing through your local Odeon screenings as you do of seeing Jennifer Aniston peddling another chick-flick. Cinemas, and even local venues (I was lucky enough to catch The Donmar's Coriolanus in a church hall) worldwide began to embrace and enjoy broadcasting live theatre.
Live! The night it is performed! All over the world!
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| Pictured: Simon Russell Beale as the eponymous monarch in King Lear. Directed by Sam Mendes, Lear played at the National Theatre early last year and was screened to cinemas nationwide from May. Photo courtesy of National Theatre Live. |
The effect of live screenings is a whole new breed of theatre. And when I say breed, get ready to hear me crack the wind of this poor phrase. Picture if big-balls-out-box-office cinema and the intimate theatre had a baby. This wonderful child is blessed with the artistry, the ambition and the enticing trailers (as well as a few DVD extras thrown in) you might expect from the silver screen. Endowed also with the capacity for creating theatrical intimacy and the patience to indulge in truly beautiful language, this kid is going to be a shoo-in for high school prom queen.
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| Pictured (L-R) Edward Bennett as Benedick and Michelle Terry as Beatrice in Love's Labour's Won, or Much Ado About Nothing live from the RST which will both be showing live in cinemas this year. Cinematic release poster courtesy of Cineworld and the RSC. |
It doesn't seem as if we still soon be reverting back to the kind of theatrical atmosphere that Shakespeare wrote for, one of cheers, jeers and groundling endurance (although you only need search 'The Globe Titus Andronicus 2014' to see some outrageously dramatic articles on how Shakespeare in theatres is, in fact, one big faint-inducing conspiracy. Shout out to Flora Spencer-Longhurst for her formidably writhing Lavinia). But 2014 definitely saw a move towards recapturing that communal spirit by bringing a true range of plays in fantastic productions to much wider audiences. The reception has been hugely enthusiastic and cinema screenings are catching that happy sell-out fever that plagues great theatre.
2014 introduced us to real, raw theatre accessible to almost everyone and gently ushered out the shame-faced adaptations. We're living in an age where theatre is becoming a truly expansive experience and never has Shakespeare's timeless endurance (*pops a penny in the cliché jar*) felt more true. The buzz of sitting in a real theatre and watching the lights go down, knowing that an incredible group exercise of human imagination is about to unfold in front of you is undeniably a butterfly inducing excitement. But what is perhaps even more exciting is knowing that 2014 was the year theatre evolved, capturing just a touch of this magic and allowing the whole world a glimpse.
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