Theatre on Film
22-10-14
By: Joyce Wong
A few weeks ago I had the chance to watch the National Theatre Live encore screening of Danny Boyle’s 2011 production Frankenstein, starring Johnny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch. It was my first time watching recorded theatre in the cinema, and though I was initially doubtful of the concept, I walked out a happy theatre/cinema-goer. Here is my evaluation of how commercially sold recorded theatre weighs against conventional theatre.
Pros
Expressions
A main advantage to watching recorded theatre, to which live theatre can never compare, is that you are given explicit access to the actors’ facial expressions. The benefit of close-up camera angles shows you the tiniest flex of facial muscle that even the most expensive ticket can’t buy. The physical constraint of stage boundary is non-existent. This helps to intensify dramatic tension and, for a play like Frankenstein, it is especially thrilling to see the Creature’s deformity and convulsions up-close.
Perspective
Recorded theatre allows you to view the performance from perspectives you can never access in live theatre. 360 degrees panorama, bird’s eye view, viewing from upstage down are all impossible viewing angles if you are sat in a fixed seat inside the theatre. The obvious benefit is that you get to see the performance more comprehensively. More importantly, though, multiple perspectives increase your awareness of the set design. You see more clearly the backdrop and props of a scene, how the elements work together to support the dramatic action and how actors utilize the space for effect. The details of Frankenstein’s scientific lair or the impressive steam train that drives onstage at one point are all put on full display through multiple perspectives.
Availability
Commercially sold recorded theatre allows a production to be viewed globally. This makes the West End or Broadway incredibly more available; even if you can’t afford to visit London or New York, you can opt for a ticket at the local cinema to watch a play.
There are also many people I find in Hong Kong who see theatre going as an unapproachable cultural activity for the elite or the intellectual. Perhaps the formal setting of a grand theatre or opera house partially shapes this misconception. A cinema on the other hand is familiar. Recorded theatre can bring drama to more people in an approachable format.
Preservation
Recorded theatre is also able to preserve a production. Plays get restaged all the time but each rendition and performance is unique. Recorded theatre is able to crystallize a performance forever and allow audience thereafter to watch, understand and analyze the performance style, direction, and adaptation of a specific time.
Cons
Undermining Regional Theatre
With drama productions of star-studded casts easily accessible on the silver screen, it can easily undermine regional theatre. Why watch a local play when you can watch Cumberbatch for a fraction of the price in the cinema? If commercially sold recorded theatre becomes more prevalent, local productions, especially small ones, could suffer. That said, though, recorded cinema can never substitute fully for what live theatre can offer - which leads to recorded theatre's second disadvantage.
Atmosphere
Even with Frankenstein’s first live satellite broadcast, the production is still filtered through a camera and separated from the cinema audience by a screen. You just can’t recreate the full atmosphere of theatre in the cinema. A taped version still feels like a second hand version and you can’t be completely enveloped by the story's onstage world as you can when sitting as a theatre audience.
Still, as I was watching Frankenstein, the cinema audience laughed, gasped and even shed a tear together with the recorded theatre audience at the same moments of dramatic action. This goes to show, no matter through what format, theatre is an art form with the power to stir and galvanize an audience to emotional effect. And this experience is also a collective one. Nowadays with countless numbers of online or digital movie-streaming options, fewer and fewer folk are going to the cinema and watching a film has become a much more personal experience. It would be interesting to see recorded theatre make film a collective event again as it once was.
Do you have any thoughts on the subject? Share them below!
Comments
Lesley Croft
I saw Frankenstein a few weeks ago at The Grand in TST, Benedict Cumberbatch played the doctor and Jonny Lee Miller his creation. I was truly impressed by the performance, I love the introduction and short interviews with the cast giving further insight into their process and inspiration behind playing the characters. I also saw MacBeth last year in a cinema in Stockport which was actually performed in Manchester in a disused church. Kenneth Branagh played MacBeth. That was also marvellous. Both experiences were wonderful and both times I wished I was there in the front row - but I couldn't so am ultra happy to have this alternative.
23 October 2014