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June 28, 2010
National Theatre's London Assurance Broadcast in HD on June 28

LENSIC PRESENTS

National Theatre Live
LONDON ASSURANCE

June 28, 7 p.m.

A live performance from the UK’s National Theatre broadcast to 330 cinemas worldwide

Santa Fe, NM – The Lensic Performing Arts Center presents a late addition to the hugely successful pilot season of NT Live, the new initiative by the National Theatre to broadcast live performances of plays onto cinema screens worldwide: a live broadcast of Boucicault’s brilliantly funny Victorian comedy London Assurance, starring Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw in Nicholas Hytner’s sell-out hit production at the Olivier Theatre, on June 28.
The performance will be shown in high definition at The Lensic on June 28 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $22 and $15 for Lensic members and students.

The pilot season of NT Live has broadcast four plays since its launch in June 2009: Racine’s Phédre with Helen Mirren in the title role; Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well; Well; a family show, Terry Pratchett’s Nation; and Alan Bennett’s new play The Habit of Art with Richard Griffiths, Alex Jennings and Frances de la Tour.
Dion Boucicault, the Irish genius of London theater in the age of Dickens, wrote London Assurance in 1841 and thereby created in Lord Harcourt and Lady Spanker, two of the great comic roles for the English stage, played in this new NT production by Simon Russell Beale and Fiona Shaw.

Sir Harcourt Courtley is lured away from the epicenter of fashionable London by the promise of a rich and beautiful bride, Grace, forty-five years his junior. Arriving at Oak Hall, Gloucestershire, he marvels at this rural Venus until her charms are eclipsed by her hearty cousin, the foxhunting Lady Gay Spanker. Meanwhile his disguised son turns up in flight from his creditors and falls head over heels for Grace. When Lady Spanker discovers the young couple, she needs little prompting from the visiting chancer Dazzle to lead Sir Harcourt astray.

The full cast is: Mark Addy, Richard Briers, Matt Cross, Fiona Drummond, Mark Extance, Richard Frame, Junix Inocian, Tony Jayawardena, Simon Markey, Laura Matthews, Prasanna Puwanarajah, Paul Ready, Simon Russell Beale, Nick Sampson, Maggie Service, Fiona Shaw, Michelle Terry and David Whitworth. The production is directed by Nicholas Hytner and designed by Mark Thompson, with lighting by Neil Austin, music by Rachel Portman and sound by John Leonard.

To date, the pilot season of NT Live has played to over 100,000 people in 22 countries around the world. A second season of NT Live will launch in autumn 2010 and will include Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with Rory Kinnear in the title role, Clare Higgins as Gertrude and Ruth Negga as Ophelia, directed by Nicholas Hytner; and Danny Boyle’s production of Frankenstein, a play by Nick Dear, based on the novel by Mary Shelley, in early 2011. Dates for these and other NT Live broadcasts will be announced later this year. The number of cinemas and performing arts venues participating in the venture continues to grow with each new screening.

NT Live performances are filmed live at the National Theatre in high definition and broadcast via satellite to 300 cinemas around the world, with over 75 in the UK alongside venues in the USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Scandinavia and Europe.





Event Details:
The Lensic Performing Arts Center presents National Theatre of London in HD: London Assurance, June 28 at 7 p.m.

Ticket Info: $22; $15 for Lensic members

Tickets are available through the Tickets Santa Fe box office located at The Lensic at 211 W. San Francisco St. in Santa Fe, open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and Saturday from 12 to 4 p.m. The box office is open on Sundays from 12 p.m. until show time and is closed if there is no show. Tickets can be charged by phone by calling Tickets Santa Fe at The Lensic at 505.988.1234 or purchased online at www.TicketsSantaFe.org.

Press Information: Contact Emily Crawford, Director of PR & Marketing, to arrange for photos at 505-988-7050 ext. 211 or ecrawford@lensic.org. For further information or photos about NT Live and London Assurance, please contact Jennifer Reynolds, National Theatre on 0044 (0)20 7452 3233 or jreynolds@nationaltheatre.org.uk

About The Lensic Artistic Presentations
Since 2001, the nonprofit Lensic Performing Arts Center has presented and produced artistic performances in the renovated and historic Lensic Theater. The Lensic’s year-round programming is integral to fulfilling the organizational mission to present local, national and international artists in diversified, cross-cultural performances. Since its opening, The Lensic has increased its independent production and presentation schedule, which includes The Lensic Presents, a year-round effort to present diverse programming that showcases national talent.

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