Fifty Years on Stage (2013)

I’d previously seen a truncated version of this that aired on TV, but now I’ve seen the complete version through National Theatre Live. Celebrating, as the title says, fifty years of the National Theatre, all manner of talented actors come together to pay tribute to some of the many shows performed on that stage.

As such, there’s no plot summary to speak of. Countless actors appear to perform short excerpts from dozens of shows: busy ensemble scenes, intimate two-handers, snippets of monologues, and the occasional musical number. All are from shows performed at the National Theatre, some with the original actors reprising their roles.

Tribute is paid in other ways as well. The live performance is augmented by short talking heads of actors reminiscing about their experience working at the National Theatre or discussing the scene they’re about to perform. A small number of archival clips from early productions are shared. And the first scene of the event is the opening scene of Hamlet, which was the National Theatre’s inaugural performance in 1963; to take it a step further, the very first line of Hamlet is spoken, not by an actor onstage, but through an archival recording of the actor from that first production.

So many noteworthy actors and scenes here. We get snippets from, not one, but two Tom Stoppard plays that debuted at the National Theatre, including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead! Benedict Cumberbatch is in that tribute, performing Rosencrantz’s “dead in a box” monologue, and we also get a scene from Arcadia featuring Rory Kinnear and Anna Maxwell Martin. For Shakespeare, we get Hamlet, Othello, and Antony and Cleopatra, plus archive footage of a very young Ian McKellen playing Richard III.

What else? Most of the original cast from The History Boys reunites to perform the French lesson scene, which is fun. Dominic Cooper and Andrew Scott do the critical talk between Louis and Prior from the early scenes of Angels in America, with Scott doing a splendid job as Prior Walter. Judi Dench sings “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music—other musical performances include “Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat” from Guys and Dolls and “The Rain in Spain” from My Fair Lady. We get a scene from No Man’s Land, although not with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen—that production came a few years after this. Instead, it features Michael Gambon and Derek Jacobi. A scene from War Horse showcasing the beautiful puppetry.

Lots of other terrific actors on display. We get Adrian Lester, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Christopher Eccleston, Ralph Fiennes, Simon Russell Beale, Penelope Wilton (Harriet Jones, prime minister!), and archive footage of Anthony Hopkins, just to name a few. At the end of the show, the actors come out in batches, according to the decade when they first worked at the National Theatre. There are, I believe, six whose history with the theatre dated back to its earliest productions in the ‘60s, including Maggie Smith and Derek Jacobi, and the “classes” of actors just get more numerous from there. A lovely way to pay tribute to a special place and to celebrate theatre itself.

Warnings

Language, violence, sexual content, and thematic elements.