I don’t know about you but I cannot live without the arts in my life.
This lockdown has enabled several artists, art organisations and exhibitions to open up their digital archives.
I have broken them into genres:
Musicals
- The Wind in the Willows – One for families, this long-running West End show is up here for free. Just register and consider donating to their suggested theatre charities before watching. Read our review here.
- The Other Palace – Off-West End theatre The Other Palace is streaming two of its musical productions for free: MYTH and Eugenius!
- Showstopper! The Improvised Musical – following the West End closure, the Showstopper cast and crew live-streamed a performance of their unique improvised musical on Facebook.
- Since U Been Gone – London’s Bunker Theatre has had to cancel its Trans Take Over as part of their Power Share season. But you can watch their musical fringe hit Since U Been Gone, about losing loved ones and finding your own voice.
- Signal / The Bonfire – Watch artist-driven musical theatre recorded at Signal nights hosted by The Bonfire.
Plays
- Jams Performance – A Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award show at the Pit, Barbican, sees four actors trying to recreate a play they remember being in – watch Marathon here.
- Bubble – Bubble is a play set entirely on Facebook which uses a cast of European actors who have rehearsed exclusively over Skype and filmed on their own cameras. Theatre Uncut will release the production online on 24 March.
- National Theatre – From 2 April, National Theatre at Home will broadcast live streams every Thursday at 7pm of previous productions and will be available for 7 days before the next broadcast. Shows for April include One Man, Two Guvnors, Jane Eyre, Treasure Island and Twelfth Night.
- Royal Shakespeare Company – First Encounter is the RSC’s way of making Shakespeare accessible for younger audiences. This version of King Lear is available to watch at any time now. The RSC already has 17 productions available on Marquee TV (currently offering 30-day free trials), and will be premiering their 2017 production of Twelfth Night this Saturday, 11 April at 7.15pm, encouraging people to ‘watch along’ with them. #AlmostLiveFromtheRSC
- Shakespeare’s Globe – Six full productions, the full Globe to Globe 2012 programme and the Complete Walk films are all available for free via Globe Player during from 6 April 2020. Cheek by Jowl / The Space – Watch the full stream of The Winter’s Tale from 2017 right now.
Opera
- The New York Metropolitan Opera – There are free streams each night at 11.30pm. They will show an opera performance which will be available for 20 hours after the broadcast. This includes classics like Carmen, La Boheme and Lucia di Lammermoor.
- Royal Opera House – Now that the ROH is closed, they are streaming past and live broadcasts of performances and other opera-related content for free from its YouTube and Facebook pages. Read more on what’s being broadcast here. Operavision gives you the chance to stream opera performances online.
- Rosie Kay’s 5 Soldiers: The Body is the Frontline – This was originally staged in army drill halls around the UK and was filmed for a live stream available here. Performing in close quarters to a score that mixes punk and opera, the horrors of war are expressed through movement and music.
Variety
- Stay At Home Festival – The Cosmic Shambles network has organised daily streams for its Stay At Home Festival with appearances of Paul Ince, Josie Long, Mark Gatiss, Jo Brand, Stephen Merchant and more. Monday 23 March will see excellent songwriter and performer Grace Petrie join in, hopefully performing some of her songs.
- Gecko – The physical theatre-makers have uploaded a number of shows to their YouTube to watch for free.
Films
- British Council – British Council’s Five Films For Freedom are now available to view for free.
Dance
- Company Wayne McGregor – Atomos is the newest full length work by cutting edge contemporary choreographer and Sadler’s Wells associate artist Wayne McGregor. Atomising movement, film, sound and light. Watch a full performance of ‘Atomos’ here.
- Northern Ballet – A full digital programme dubbed ‘Pay as you Feel’ has been announced here.
- Sadler’s Wells – Launching their new ‘Digital Stage’, Sadler’s Wells starts their online programme with a premiere of Deluxe by BalletBoyz on Friday 27 March at 7.30pm GMT. More info here.
Via your mobile
- LIVR – For those of you with access to a smartphone, LIVR is a subscription service that delivers 360-degree virtual reality theatre. They send you a headset which you can connect your smartphone to, and then experience a range of theatre experiences from the comfort of your home.
