Streamed Theatre

Streamed Theatre

With live theatres shut for over a year, theatre goers have had to satisfy their desire to see live performances through the new streaming services that so many professional producers have developed and promoted. Having reviewed over sixty streamed shows over the last year it has been fascinating to see how different companies have adapted to the new media.   

Some have used Zoom windows to create dialogues between their actors like the excellent “Staged” with Michael Sheen and David Tennant or the fascinating “Love in the Lockdown” about two creatives adapting the Decameron for the modern day with Rachel Sterling. The first is available on BBC I Player, the second on You tube. Also via zoom was the immersive version of “Sherlock Holmes” from Enfant Terrible where we the audience try to solve the mystery and in “Cinderella” from Pantolive, zoom enabled them to give some viewers a “front row” seat where cast interacted with them.

The tiny Barn theatre in Cirencester has led the way in creativity by turning its venue into a TV studio and producing a succession of very well-made shows. “The Picture of Dorian Grey” is a wonderful reimagining of the classic Oscar Wilde story into the world of Vloggers and the “Elephant in the Garden”, a one woman show, based on Michael Morpurgo's about refugees from Nazi Germany. 

Original Theatre have produced a series of excellent traditionally staged shows which have translated well to the media. “Good Grief” is a beautifully written exploration of the stages of grief, “Barnes People” is four separate monologues written by Peter Barnes and a “Splinter of ice” is a wonderful conversation between the author Graham Greene and the defected spy Kim Philby. The latter will be available to see live in theatres later this year.

Other notable successes were the imaginatively staged “Sunset Boulevard” filmed all around the Curve Leicester and three excellent short films on the impact of Covid on mental and physical health and isolation called “Distance Remaining”. 

What can we learn from these successes? As always, the success is about the quality of the story telling and the creativity in capturing that for streaming. It is not always about the size of the budgets although the technical skills to capture the audio, edit from a choice of camera angles and adjusting the light for TV do make a huge difference to the streamed experience. Best not to attempt to do it live as well!

Nick Wayne 

Event Cinema

One of the ways to get out safely in a post Lockdown world is to attend one of the drive in or open air cinemas that are popping up around the country this summer often in interesting and iconic locations. We booked and went to Blenheim Palace to see the Luna Drive In Cinema presentation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (which I had not watched since 1976!). 

We booked a General Admittance large car (£35) for 4 people and pre-ordered a food hamper at a total cost of £83.50. The top price is £80 for a VIP Experience or £45 for the Golden Circle for a 2-person car.

There are 8 Luna venues offering the Drive-In experience this summer running from mid-July through to October with mainly archive films and a few more recent releases. They are also offering NT Live’s Fleabag, the Royal Ballet Swan Lake, and a version of La Boheme 

.https://www.lunadriveincinema.com/

Arrival

The official site opening time was 8 pm with access to the cinema location, in a field at the rear of the Palace from 8.30 pm for a 9.30 start. However, we entered the Palace grounds shortly before 8 pm and were parked by 8.15 in first row of the large cars (Row P). There were already at least 5 rows of smaller cars already parked when we arrived. A position reference (P5) was attached to the driver’s wing mirror on arrival.

The wireless speaker unit and pre-ordered cold food was given to us as we drove up to the site entrance without delay using number plate recognition. The stewards were masked, and some wore face shields, but we did not need to speak to any of them.

By the film start time we estimated there were around 16 rows of 25 cars parked (400 vehicles) mostly with 2 occupants. Given the nature of the film only a handful were obviously in the Rocky Horror cult costumes!

Facilities

The single portable toilets were on the left side of the site, well-spaced with two hand sanitisers for each 4 cubicles and a simple queuing system, although there were never queues of more than 1 or 2 during the evening. A portable sanitizer unit was also used to clean the inside of the toilets during the evening. The toilets were clean with a blue flush and a better quality than many such temporary facilities.

The hot food offer was ordered from their website by mobile phone using the car position reference and was delivered to the car bonnet within 15 minutes of ordering by one of a large team of staff on foot or electronic scooters. It was simple offer of Burgers, Nachos, Crepes, and drinks, all reasonably priced. The Cappuccino’s were catering pack instant type so do not expect Costa or Starbucks!

The cold food hamper was satisfactory with a good three cheese platter with charcoal crackers and a dips selection with Tortilla chips.

Film technical

The film was front projected on a blow-up screen which was easily visible from the front seats but less good for the two persons in the backseats with a clear good sound quality on the wireless receiver placed on the dashboard. It had volume control and mute button. Before the film there was music from Magic radio and then Pearl and Dean adverts including the main event sponsor Mitsubishi. The radio broadcast was played again after the film until we handed the receiver back!

Exit arrangements

We were reminded before and after film to remain stationary with lights off until told to move by stewards at end of the film and we saw no one try to leave before instructed to move. There were plenty of stewards present to manage the exit using red illuminated battens and the collection of speakers was quick and efficient as we left the site. Cars were released in rows from the front of the site (so Golden circle people could arrive late and leave first).

It took us around 15 minutes from the end of the film to be called forward to leave.

It was extremely orderly and even the exit from the Palace Grounds of 400 cars seemed to go smoothly without delays.

Conclusion

This was an interesting experience after lockdown and was done as well as or even better than we might have expected. I am not sure what it would be like in rain as that would require car ignitions to be on to keep windscreen clear! 

We enjoyed seeing the film again and the setting was good but for us an hour’s drive each way to get there and a relatively expensive ticket price for old content means we will not rush to repeat the experience, although we have been sent a 10% discount code for a repeat visit.

But if you live locally (within 30 minutes drive)  and want a safe night out, it is worth giving it a go and the staff work very hard to make it a safe and efficient experience.

https://www.lunadriveincinema.com/