War Horse tips The Audience

The National Theatre successful War Horse has become the most popular production to be screened to cinemas as part of the National Theatre Live initiative, with 125,000 people in the UK alone watching a performance in February. This beats NT Live’s previous record, which was for The Audience starring Helen Mirren and which drew 80,000 viewers to cinemas in the UK. Screening theatre productions to cinemas all over the country, if not all over the world, can be a rather controversial topic. Many may argue that making theatre available to the masses by the medium of cinema is an excellent way to provide this entertainment for many who cannot journey to London in order to see shows. Others may argue that is doing this, the art of theatre is cheapened and the magic of sitting in an auditorium to watch theatre is lost within a cinema, accessible for everyone and becoming less special. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_UDVeU7iT0 For the screening or War Horse, when taking into account audiences that were watching outside of the UK, War Horse pulled in more than 155,000 people, also beating The Audience’s total of 110,000. The production of War Horse is currently being performed at the New London Theatre in the West End, and is touring North America. A German language version is playing at the Theater Des Westens in Berlin and the show is also touring the UK and Ireland, perhaps increasing its cinematic reach. The show is directed by Marianne Elliot and Tom Morris, designed by Rae Smith. Its current cast includes Josie Walker, Sion Daniel Young and Alistair Brammer. National Theatre Live broadcasts theatre productions to cinemas around the world. Since it began in 2009, more than two million people globally have watched more than 30 broadcasts of different productions.