On Tuesday, September 10th, the wait is over….The Testaments, Margaret Atwood’s highly anticipated sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, is revealed. The momentous literary event will be celebrated with an exclusive live cinema broadcast, as Fane Productions present an evening with the Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic and inventor.

The publication of Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale in 1985 and the current, Emmy Award-winning television series have created a cultural phenomenon, as handmaids have become a symbol of women’s rights and a protest against misogyny and oppression. Live from the London stage, Atwood will be interviewed by broadcaster and author Samira Ahmed in a conversation spanning the length of Atwood’s remarkable career, her diverse range of works, and why she has returned to her seminal handmaid story, 34 years later.

‘Dear Readers: Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.’

With exclusive readings from the new book by special guests, this will be an unmissable and intimate event with Atwood, spotlighting her signature insight, humour and intellect. The Testaments will be published worldwide on 10 September.

NT Live – Fleabag 
Written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Thursday 12th September 7.00pm 
Saturday 28th September 7.00pm
Monday 30th September 7.00pm
Tuesday 1st October 7.00pm
Saturday 5th October 7.00pm

Click for tickets here.

★★★★★
‘Witty, filthy and supreme.’ Guardian

See the hilarious, award-winning, one-woman show that inspired the BBC’s hit TV series Fleabag, broadcast live to cinemas from London’s West End.

Written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, Killing Eve) and directed by Vicky Jones, Fleabag is a rip-roaring look at some sort of woman living her sort of life.

Fleabag may seem oversexed, emotionally unfiltered and self-obsessed, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. With family and friendships under strain and a guinea pig café struggling to keep afloat, Fleabag suddenly finds herself with nothing to lose.

Playing to sold-out audiences in New York and London, don’t miss your chance to see this ‘legitimately hilarious show’ (New Yorker), broadcast live to a cinema near you.

Presented by DryWrite, Soho Theatre and Annapurna Theatre

Show image by Jason Hetherington

NT Live Encore – One Man, Two Guvnors
Thursday 26th September, 7.00pm Click for tickets here

Featuring a Tony Award-winning performance from host of the The Late Late Show, James Corden, the hilarious West End and Broadway hit One Man, Two Guvnors returns to cinemas to mark National Theatre Live’s 10th birthday.
Fired from his skiffle band, Francis Henshall becomes minder to Roscoe Crabbe, a small time East End hood, now in Brighton to collect £6,000 from his fiancée’s dad. But Roscoe is really his sister Rachel posing as her own dead brother, who’s been killed by her boyfriend Stanley Stubbers.

Holed up at The Cricketers’ Arms, the permanently ravenous Francis spots the chance of an extra meal ticket and takes a second job with one Stanley Stubbers, who is hiding from the police and waiting to be re-united with Rachel. To prevent discovery, Francis must keep his two guvnors apart.  Simple.

NT Live – Wise Children
Thursday 3rd October, 7.00pm For tiockets click here

Multi-award-winning director Emma Rice brings her unique, exuberantly impish vision to Angela Carter’s great last novel in this brand-new theatre production. A big, bawdy tangle of theatrical joy and heartbreak, Wise Children is a celebration of show business, family, forgiveness and hope, with a generous dash of Shakespeare, scandal and mischief, taking the audience on a rollercoaster ride of emotion.
In Brixton, Nora and Dora Chance – twin chorus girls born and bred south of the river – are celebrating their 75th birthday. Over the river in Chelsea, their father – and greatest actor of his generation – Melchior Hazard turns 100 on the same day. As does his twin brother Peregrine. If, in fact, he’s still alive. And if, in truth, Melchior is their real father after all… Performed by a talented ensemble cast, this entertaining, all-singing and dancing show opened to a raft of 4 and 5-star reviews at London’s Old Vic in 2018. Adapted and directed by Emma Rice, the former Artistic Director of Kneehigh and Shakespeare’s Globe, it was filmed for the cinema screen at York Theatre Royal and is ‘pure, unadulterated theatre.’ (★★★★★ Broadway World)
Running Time:       150 mins approx. (including a 15 minute interval)

Time in Pause – Piano Miniatures
Monday 7th October, 7.30pm Click for tickets here

Time in Pause is a meditation on a collection of miniature piano pieces from different eras in musical history, showcasing the vast imagination of composers capturing moments in time woven together by silence. Hosted and played by Simon Davis. A very popular event and returning in response to requests from our previous audiences.

Fred’s House in Concert
Friday 11th October, 8.00pm Click for tickets here

Fred’s House are an award winning band based in Cambridge. They make summery, 70’s West Coast inspired folk/rock but have their own distinctively fresh sound that is very much part of now. This group of musicians have the rare ability to sweep you away with their gorgeous harmonies, moving lyrics, infectious melodies and uplifting grooves.  Among their many influences are the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Lissie, Missy Higgins and Janice Joplin.

Since forming in the home studio at Fred Cox’s (Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, James Morrison) house in 2010, the band have put over 600 gigs under their belt. Creating quite a stir on the live circuit, their reputation for their stunning and energetic shows across the UK is going before them. Gaining a following wherever they go, their fans or ‘Housemates’, claim their music is addictive and come to show after show. Fred’s House scooped two awards at the NMG Awards 2013; ‘Best Folk/Roots Band’ and ‘Audience Choice Award’ as voted for by the public. Then again in 2017, they were awarded the prestigious ‘Syd Barrett Pride of Cambridge Award’ presented to them by Syd’s sister Rosemary, for continuous hard work and achieving at a high level for the past 5 years. They have released 3 albums to critical acclaim Bonnie and Clyde (2014) Faultlines (2016) and Careless (2018), grabbing 4 and 5 star reviews across the board as well as emphatic press.

Live from the Met NY – Turandot
Saturday 12th October, 5.30pm Click for tickets here

Franco Zeffirelli’s breathtaking production of Puccini’s final opera stars Maria Guleghina in the title role of the icy Chinese princess, who has all suitors unable to solve her riddles beheaded. Marcello Giordani is Calàf, the prince who eventually wins her love. Marina Poplavskaya sings Liù, the slave girl who also loves Calàf, and Samuel Ramey is his father, Timur. Rising maestro Andris Nelsons conducts this Live in HD production.

Gauguin from The National Gallery, London
Tuesday 15th October, 7.00pm Click for tickets here

A stunning, cinematic documentary about the life and work of Paul Gauguin, filmed in Tahiti, France, the Marquesas Islands and the UK. Focusing on one of the world’s most popular and important artists, the screening includes a 60 minute documentary and a 30 minute private view of the exhibition. The first ever exhibition devoted to his portraits, the coverage includes commentary and insights from world experts, artists and Gauguin’s descendants

NT Live –  A Midsummer Night’s Dream
by William Shakespeare
Thursday 17th October, 7.00pm Click for tickets here

‘The course of true love never did run smooth.’

A feuding fairy King and Queen of the forest cross paths with four runaway lovers and a troupe of actors trying to rehearse a play. As their dispute grows, the magical royal couple meddle with mortal lives leading to love triangles, mistaken identities and transformations… with hilarious, but dark consequences.

Shakespeare’s most famous romantic comedy will be captured live from the Bridge Theatre in London. Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Oliver Chris (Green Wing, NT Live: Young Marx), David Moorst (NT Live: Allelujah!) and Hammed Animashaun (The Barber Shop Chronicles) lead the cast as Titania, Oberon, Puck and Bottom.
Directed by Nicholas Hytner, this production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will build on the success of his immersive staging of Julius Caesar (NT Live 2018). The Bridge Theatre will become a forest – a dream world of flying fairies, contagious fogs and moonlight revels, surrounded by a roving audience following the action on foot.

Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet
Tuesday 22nd October, 7.00pm Click for tickets here

Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet has been hailed as ‘the single most eagerly awaited dance show for 2019’ by The Daily Telegraph. This passionate and contemporary re-imagining of Shakespeare’s classic story of love and conflict is set in the not too distant future in ‘The Verona Institute’.  Here ‘difficult’ young people are mysteriously confined by a society that seeks to divide and crush their youthful spirit and individuality. Our two young lovers must follow their hearts as they risk everything to be together. A timeless story of forbidden love, repressed emotions and teenage discovery, filmed live at Sadler’s Wells in London especially for cinemas.
Bursting with youth, vitality and Matthew Bourne’s trademark storytelling, the UK’s brightest young dance talent join the New Adventures company, with direction and choreography by Matthew Bourne, design by Lez Brotherston, lighting by Paule Constable, sound by Paul Groothuis and new orchestrations of the Prokofiev score by Terry Davies, played live by the New Adventures Orchestra conducted by Brett Morris.

NT Live – Hansard
Thursday 7th November, 7.00pm Click for tickets here

Hansard; noun
The official report of all parliamentary debates.

See two-time Olivier Award winners, Lindsay Duncan (Birdman, About Time) and Alex Jennings (The Lady in the Van, The Queen), in this brand-new play by Simon Wood, broadcast live from the National Theatre in London.

It’s a summer’s morning in 1988 and Tory politician Robin Hesketh has returned home to the idyllic Cotswold house he shares with his wife of 30 years, Diana. But all is not as blissful as it seems. Diana has a stinking hangover, a fox is destroying the garden, and secrets are being dug up all over the place. As the day draws on, what starts as gentle ribbing and the familiar rhythms of marital scrapping quickly turns to blood-sport.

Don’t miss this witty and devastating portrait of the governing class, directed by Simon Godwin (NT Live: Antony & Cleopatra, Twelfth Night) and part of National Theatre Live’s 10^th birthday season.

42nd Street at The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Sunday 10th November 5.00pm
Thursday 14th November, 7.00pm
Click here for tickets

Watch the trailer here

42nd Street, the legendary Broadway musical theatre classic, is a ‘glorious’ (★★★★★ Express) and ‘utterly moreish extravaganza of glitz’ (★★★★★ Times). Telling the story of Peggy Sawyer, a talented young performer with stars in her eyes who gets her big break on Broadway, this is the largest ever staging of the Tony® Award-winning musical and it was filmed live at the magnificent Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in the heart of London’s West End.

Fresh off the bus from small-town America Peggy is just another face in the chorus line on Broadway’s newest show. But when the leading lady gets injured, Peggy might just have the shot at stardom she’s always dreamed of… Directed by the show author, Mark Bramble, this ‘achingly beautiful revival of an American classic’ (★★★★★ Telegraph) stars national treasure Bonnie Langford as Dorothy Brock, Tom Lister as Julian Marsh, Clare Halse as Peggy Sawyer and Philip Bertioli as Billy Lawlor, performing with a dazzling tap-dancing and show-stopping ensemble cast. Featuring iconic songs 42nd Street, We’re In The Money, Lullaby Of Broadway, Shuffle Off To Buffalo, Dames and I Only Have Eyes For You, this is pure musical magic on the big screen – entertainment doesn’t get bigger than this!

NT Live – Present Laughter
Thursday 28th November, 7.00pm Click for tickets here

Matthew Warchus directs Andrew Scott (BBC’s Sherlock, Fleabag’s ‘Hot Priest’) in Noël Coward’s provocative comedy Present Laughter.

As he prepares to embark on an overseas tour, star actor Garry Essendine’s colourful life is in danger of spiralling out of control. Engulfed by an escalating identity crisis as his many and various relationships compete for his attention, Garry’s few remaining days at home are a chaotic whirlwind of love, sex, panic and soul-searching.

Captured live from The Old Vic in London, Present Laughter is a giddy and surprisingly modern reflection on fame, desire and loneliness.