Things To Do in Quarantine: Online Theatre
by Anya Trofimova
With many of the world’s theatres shuttered due to the pandemic, more and more theatres are taking their art online. We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite shows, musicals, and dance performances now streaming online. Check back soon for our second installment, featuring our favorite online musicals, dance performances, and even podcasts.
National Theatre at Home
The National Theatre Collection makes the best of British Theatre available worldwide. Their unique collection presents high-quality recordings of 30 world-class productions, giving you the best seats in the house whenever you want and includes adaptations for younger audiences and international classics. Visit them online or on YouTube for free streaming.
Royal Shakespeare Company
Although our revels have temporarily ended in theatres, you can watch a groundbreaking, effects-laden version of The Tempest, with Simon Russell Beale starring as Prospero, if you opt for a subscription (or 14-day free trial) to the online service Marquee TV. Antony and Cleopatra with Josette Simon and Richard II with David Tennant are two of the other gems in the selection of Royal Shakespeare Company plays available.
There are also six RSC productions available to watch free on BBC iPlayer: Hamlet starring Paapa Essiedu, Macbeth with Christopher Eccleston, Much Ado About Nothing with Edward Bennett and Michelle Terry, Othello with Hugh Quarshie and Lucian Msamati, Romeo and Juliet with Bally Gill and Karen Fishwick, and The Merchant of Venice with Makram J Khoury.
#aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei
Hampstead Theatre and The Guardian have teamed up to stream a series of acclaimed productions for free. #AIWW: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei, directed by James Macdonald, is based on a book by Barnaby Martin about the 81-day detention and interrogation of Ai Weiwei by the Chinese authorities in 2011. Benedict Wong stars as the artist and activist in Howard Brenton’s gripping play, available here.
Sea Wall
“She had us, both of us, absolutely round her finger…” From that first line, Andrew Scott will have you hooked in this half-hour monologue by Simon Stephens that captures truths about family life, art, nature, and much else. Scott performed the play at the Bush in 2008 and it was a hot ticket when he reprised it at the Old Vic 10 years later. This version was shot in a single take in 2011. Directed by Stephens and Andrew Porter, it is free to watch on YouTube at the moment and will be available to rent as well. Brace yourself.
I Wish I Was a Mountain
With wonder, wit and sophisticated storytelling, performance poet Toby Thompson creates a beautiful show. Thompson steps in and out of his version of Hermann Hesse’s fairytale Faldum, riffing with the young audience and spinning a handful of jazz LPs. I Wish I Was a Mountain embraces big questions about time and contentment. This is a short but profound show, directed by Lee Lyford and available for viewing here.
Manchester International Festival
MIF has an ongoing online program featuring new shows, archive productions, and artist talks. The latest additions include a new online version of the 2017 immersive experience Party Skills for the End of the World, created by Nigel Barrett and Louise Mari from the performance collective Shunt. Click here for lineup details.
Interview with Judi Dench @ The Orange Tree Theatre
Watch an exclusive 90-minute conversation with Dame Judi Dench. Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years, she performed in several of Shakespeare's plays, in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth.
The Encounter
Complicité’s sonic adventure uses binaural technology to take you into the Amazonian jungle and the mind of an American photographer, Loren McIntyre, and in and out of the life of creator and performer Simon McBurney. A recording from the Barbican is available for free. Don’t forget your headphones!
Die Schaubühne
in German with English Subtitles
Berlin’s essential theatre, run by Thomas Ostermeier, is streaming classic productions from its archive, many of them with English subtitles. Lars Eidinger (SS-GB and Personal Shopper) stars in Hedda Gabler. Give it a watch here.
Soho Theatre On Demand
Experience the very best shows filmed live at Soho Theatre, London’s most vibrant producer of new theatre, comedy, and cabaret. You can watch full-length shows from the likes of comedians Jen Brister, Joel Dommett, Shappi Khoransdi, Mae Martin, Panti Bliss, and Jessie Cave, or nestle down with Fleabag in her original stage show.
Fleabag
You’ve watched both TV series. You’ve read the scripts. Maybe you’ve even seen the stage show more than once. But you’ll probably still be streaming Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s performance of her wildly successful monologue, recorded at Wyndham’s Theatre in London where it sold out last summer. Fleabag is available to stream on Soho Theatre’s On Demand site and on Amazon Prime. All proceeds will go towards charities including the National Emergencies Trust, NHS Charities Together and Acting for Others, which provides support to all theatre workers in times of need.
Hampstead Theatre
The Hampstead Theatre promotes and commissions work from emerging playwrights. They have a wide selection of recordings from their plays on their website.
Told By An Idiot
The questing British theatre have, as they put it, been “creating the unexpected” since they launched in 1993. As their current tour of The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel has been cut short, they are sharing shows from their vast archive which is stuffed with gems. Each show is available for a week only—keep an eye on their site to see what’s currently on offer.
Cyprus Avenue
(16+ age recommendation)
To mark World Theatre Day, the Royal Court released an online version of David Ireland’s blistering play Cyprus Avenue, starring Stephen Rea as a Belfast loyalist who is convinced his baby granddaughter is Gerry Adams. The film mixes the drama shot at the Royal Court with location scenes of Belfast.
Girls Like That
(16+ Age Recommendation)
London’s Unicorn theatre has a world-class reputation for theatre for young audiences and its production of Evan Placey’s Girls Like That gripped the roomful of teenagers I watched it with in 2014. It’s online in full and offers a raw account of adolescent anxiety, slut-shaming, and self-belief. In-your-face theatre that stays in your mind.
— Anya Trofimova is a 15-year-old poet and creative from London.