THE KITCHEN at cinemas around New Zealand for limited season

THE KITCHEN by Arnold Wesker is broadcast to cinemas around New Zealand for a strictly limited season by NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE from 27th October 2011

A superb revival – The Independent

Arnold Wesker’s THE KITCHEN, featuring a cast of 31, is the second in the current series of NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE broadcasts to 19 cinemas for a strictly limitedseason around New Zealand from 27th October to 19th November 2011. Directed by NT Associate Bijan Sheibani, whose staging ‘brilliantly breaks the bonds of naturalistic drama' (Daily Telegraph), the production will be filmed live at the National’s Olivier Theatre and broadcast to hundreds of screens around the world (see www.ntlive.com for other international dates).

Fabulous, fast-moving direction... With wit and energy it keeps you gasping –
The Times

Superbly inventive... The acting ensemble is outstanding – Daily Telegraph

1950s London. In the kitchen of an enormous West End restaurant, the orders are piling up: a post-war feast of soup, fish, cutlets, omelettes and fruit flans. Thrown together by their work, chefs, waitresses and porters from across Europe – English, Irish, German, Jewish – argue and flirt as they race to keep up. Peter, a high-spirited young cook, seems to thrive on the pressure. In between preparing dishes, he manages to strike up an affair with married waitress Monique, the whole time dreaming of a better life. But in the all-consuming clamour of the kitchen, nothing is far from the brink of collapse.

Arnold Wesker’s extraordinary play premiered at the Royal Court in 1959 and has since been performed in over 30 countries. THE KITCHEN puts the workplace centre stage in a blackly funny and furious examination of life lived at breakneck speed, when work threatens to define who we are.

Arnold Wesker’s plays include Chicken Soup with Barley, Love Letters on Blue Paper, Caritas, Chips with Everything, Roots, I’m Talking About Jerusalem, Their Very Own and Golden City, The Old Ones, Longitude, Denial and Break My Heart.

Bijan Sheibani is an Associate Director at the NT, where his credits include Our Class and Greenland. He was formerly the Artistic Director of ATC for whom he directed co-productions of The Brothers Size and Eurydice with the Young Vic, and the Olivier Award-winning production of Gone Too Far! with the Royal Court.

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE performances are filmed live in high definition and broadcast via satellite to over 700 cinemas around the world, live in Europe and time delayed in the US and Canada, and delayed screenings in countries further afield. There are over 120 venues in the UK alongside venues in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, India, Scandinavia and Europe. The performances at the National are nominated in advance to allow cameras greater freedom in the auditorium.

THE KITCHEN screening runs 2 hours, 35 minutes including pre-show and interval.

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE is presented in partnership with Aviva.

NZ Cinemas are as follows:

1. Arthouse Cinema New Plymouth
2. Bridgeway Cinema Auckland
3. Cinema Gold Havelock North
4. Cinema Gold Palmerston North
5. Circus Cinema Martinborough
6. Hollywood Sumner
7. Lido Hamilton
8. Lighthouse Cinemas Petone
9. Majestic Cinema Taihape
10. Matakana Cinemas
11. State Cinema Nelson
12. Odeon Cinema Gisborne
13. Penthouse Wellington
14. Rialto Cinema Tauranga
15. Rialto Cinemas Auckland
16. Rialto Cinemas Dunedin
17. Shoreline Cinema Waikanae
18. Reading Invercargill
19. Top Town 3 Blenheim

Tickets are $20 for children/senior citizens, $25 for adults.

For images, etc www.ntlive.com or www.rialtodistribution.com

ENDS

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