A Story of Care

This evening was dominated by the intense and emotional production of Nye, by the National Theatre.

Several years ago the idea of broadcasting live performances of National Theatre productions to cinemas was born. It's simple in concept - set up cameras to broadcast one performance, live, to participating venues and enable thousands more people to see it without needing to travel to a major city, or even the UK. The offering has broadened to include the ability to watch from home for a fee per performance or even an unlimited package.

The core challenge was to bring the atmosphere of live theatre to a small or large screen. Therefore on top of the already monumental task of delivering a world-class theatre production, the team have to create a new set of camera directions which move naturally from a full-stage viewpoint to close framing of key moments, just as ones attention as a live audience member would shift between the cast. Equally, the cast are still delivering to a full theatre audience as well as being mindful of the camera angles chosen for that one single night. There are no cuts, edits or reruns - it's a recording of one single take that will be preserved for decades longer than the stage run.

I urge anyone who appreciates live performance to see one of these recordings, either in a cinema (ideally) or at home; I think you will be impressed.