'Outside Broadcast': Looking Backwards and Forwards, Live Theatre in the Cinema--NT Live and RSC Live

Abstract

This paper explores the fairly recent phenomena of the live broadcasting of canonical theatrical and literary texts in cinema venues. It investigates how these productions are dependent on innovative technology and also utilise conventions and tropes from the earliest outside broadcasts. The paper considers ideas of place-shifting, necessitated by the productions existence in one time and two places, and considers how the performances are positioned as both ground-breaking and nostalgic. It is argued that the productions construct notions of ‘liveness’ and shape their own ‘communities of perception’, which help negotiate the theatrical and filmic blend of the productions. The paper considers how such broadcasts challenge the notion of ‘live theatre’ versus ‘film’ which has become a staple of adaptation criticism.