Live Theatre At Home – What’s On?

The Covid-19 virus has changed the world within just a few weeks. Almost all countries are afflicted by now with varying degrees of severity. This means we have to adapt, to conform, to take it into consideration. Nations are trying to fight it with all our resources, financially, physically, mentally. We do fear for our health and the health of our loved ones. We have the means to isolate, to protect ourselves and to find help, if and when we do get sick. And yes we fear for our financial security. We are in a privileged position, though. And lucky with other things to think about.

What will we do to fill our time? What will we become? Both during and after the pandemic?

Art and culture are brilliant means to help us through this time. But because of the restrictions put upon us, we can’t go out and visit museums, cinemas or theatres. All over the world these institutions have now found ways to reach out to their audiences and connect with us digitally. With museums and cinema, more solitary experiences, connection can be easily achieved with virtual tours and already established streaming services.

But what about theatre? It is very much about seeing something live, but also about sitting next to other people laughing, crying and hopefully being amazed together. (Read some of my theatre reviews here.)

NT Live has been dipping its foot into other ways of making their plays available for quite some time, but it has always been about transporting the theatre experience into a cinema experience – most of the time as live as if you were sitting in the West End. Now, with theatres closed, the National Theatre and many other theatres open their archives to stream plays to the culture starved audiences at home.

It’s not quite the same thing, but I for one am grateful to revisit some of my favourites and discover new gems. But it is not just the British scene that is doing so, all over the world cultural institutions like the Met Opera in New York, the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, the Schaubühne in Berlin have followed suit and  I want to give you a quick oversight of all the offers of plays, ballets, operas and the likes (internationally with a heavy emphasis on Germany – my home country!).

Many are very time restricted (streaming only live or for 24-hour-windows), others are making their plays available for up to a month. All of the productions are either in English, with English subtitles or not reliant on a language.

If you haven’t been able to see the very best, culture all over the world has to offer, here is your chance…

Barn Theatre
Breach Theatre
Hampstead Theatre
National Theatre At Home
Royal Court Theatre
Royal Opera House
Sadlers Wells
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
Goodman Theatre
Metropolitan Opera New York
Opera de Paris
Bolshoi Theatre streams available 24 hours
Bayerische Staatsoper
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Gorki Theatre
Komische Oper Berlin
Münchner Kammerspiele
Schaubühne
Staatsoper Berlin

These are just the ones, who do regular shows in the coming weeks. There are many more smaller theatres who do one-offs.

So it makes sense to look up the website of your favourite local theatre, to find out what they are up to.

All are free but remember: in order for us to have theatres left to go to after Corona, we will need to not just take, but also give.

So after enjoying the culture of the world – open your hearts and wallets and donate!

Stay safe and enjoy the arts at home – love, Bee x

P.S. if you’d like to add the links to your favourites/local theatres please do so in the comments below.