NT LIVE: “THE MAGISTRATE”

I attended my third “NT Live” event last Thursday (Jan 17 2013), which was “The Magistrate” by Arthur Wing Pinero, and starred, amongst others, the well-known American actor John Lithgow.

Whilst I know that I’ve mentioned it before, for those of you who don’t know, these are events where a play is performed live in London in front of cameras which broadcast the entire show live or, in the case of places in different time zones, “as live” to various cinemas around the world so that many more of us can get the opportunity to see some of the rather incredible stage shows which get performed in the West End that we wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to.

Anyway, it really wasn’t a play I was all that familiar with, to be honest, but it turned out that it was a rather wonderful, witty and entertaining night out and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, despite all of the other stuff that we’re struggling to find time to deal with at the moment.

We even managed to find the time to sit down for a meal at a nearby Tapas place beforehand, which, given my recent struggles to find the time to actually eat, was something of a miracle.

To be honest, this was the first time that we’d attended one of these events at a different venue to the one we usually book for, mostly because this time the tickets were booked for us, and the venue we went to was nearer to the home of the person doing the booking, and the seating was deemed to be far more comfortable that the place we usually went to.

However, because it was a multiplex rather than an “Art House” cinema, they did seem to have less understanding of what the needs of a theatrical audience might be. After all, the whole notion of the “as live” experience is that the venue basically becomes a theatre for the night which ought to mean that late comers aren’t allowed in, and I will admit that the amount of chatter going on behind me did rather spoil the first five minutes for me as I couldn’t hear what the actors were saying because of some general mutterings about car parking, traffic and whatnot, which together with the little old lady who kept waving to her friend to let him know where she was sitting (right in front of me), and the woman who arrived and stood in front of me for a full minute as she removed her coat, it was all rather distracting.

During the interval some of the “old regulars” pulled out thermos flasks full of coffee rather than pay cinema prices for their massive cola drinks (which is not quite the same as slipping to the bar for a swift G‘n’T I’ll grant you), all this in a cinema that once hit the local headlines for refusing to let people bring in their own sweeties bought in the Tesco over the road.

Luckily, the show was brilliant enough to get beyond such distractions, with some wonderful lyrics written for the songs which covered the scene changes, some fabulous performances from the entire cast, although John Lithgow’s “silent comedy” routines with a bat and a leaning doorway – and his rather excellent accent - did rather steal the show.

It was beautifully designed too, with stunning costumes and the most ingenious sets based upon the idea of a Victorian pop-up book, all of which made the lapsed stage designer in me very envious indeed.

Anyway, I’m sure all of this means nothing to those of you who missed it, and the whole “NT Live” rights situation probably means that DVD releases remain unlikely unless enough people persuade them that there might just be a market for such things. If your appetite has been whetted, your best bet is probably keep hassling the website for a repeat showing (which they do occasionally do…) or hope against all hope that BBC4 (which feels like the natural home for such things) lasts long enough for them to consider showing a season of these plays in a couple of years or so.