ECU SCREENS kicks off its spring season with Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land,” starring Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.
Recorded live at Wyndham’s Theatre in London, this comic classic will be shown in the Raymond J. Estep Multimedia Center of the Bill S. Cole University Center on Friday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. General admission tickets are $10. Admission is free for ECU students. Free ice-cream will be served during the interval.
Following their hit run on Broadway, McKellen and Stewart return to the West End stage for a performance that features “Two of the greatest actors ever born in one of the greatest plays ever written” (Time Out).
One summer's evening, two aging writers, Hirst (Stewart) and Spooner (McKellen), meet in a Hampstead pub and continue their drinking into the night at Hirst's stately house nearby. As the pair become increasingly inebriated, and their stories increasingly unbelievable, the lively conversation soon turns into a revealing power game, further complicated by the return home of two sinister younger men.
The Daily Telegraph claims McKellen and Stewart are “unmissable” in this play, which the Evening Standard says is “packed with tension and conflict” (Evening Standard).
The broadcast will be followed by an exclusive Q&A with the cast and director Sean Mathias.
ECU SCREENS is collaborating with Sigma Tau Delta and The Honors Student Association to host this and other productions by NT Live, the National Theatre's groundbreaking project to broadcast the best of British theatre to cinemas around the world.
“No Man’s Land” is the first of four recorded-live stage productions to be presented by ECU SCREENS this spring. Next up is “Frankenstein,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Victor Frankenstein and Jonny Lee Miller as the Creature on Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. On March 23 at 7 p.m., ECU SCREENS will present its first recorded-live Russian stage production: “Anna Karenina,” Vakhtangov Theatre’s modern dance interpretation of Leo Tolstoy's classic novel. The spring season will conclude on Thursday, April 13t with “Operation Mozart,” an afternoon and evening of talks and performances celebrating the 18th century composer. Starting at 4 p.m., ECU faculty and students, including the University Chorale, will perform music composed by Mozart, and ECU’s Dr. Joshua Grasso will give a talk about Mozart’s status as a historical and cultural figure. “Operation Mozart” will culminate at 7:30 p.m. with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain’s production of “Amadeus.”
Earlier in the spring, ECU SCREENS will also host ECU’s sixth annual Foreign Film Festival, featuring free foreign films on Fridays in February at 4 p.m. This year’s selections include: “The Black Hen” (Nepal) on Feb. 3; “Labyrinth of Lies” (Germany) on Feb. 10; “The Golden Dream” (Mexico) on Feb. 17; and “Where Do We Go Now?” (Lebanon) on Feb. 24. ECU faculty members will introduce each film and door prize winners will go home with books, DVDs, foods and works of art celebrating the cultures represented by the featured films. All Foreign Film Festival screenings are free and open to the public.
To learn more about ECU SCREENS and the spring schedule, like the ECU SCREENS Facebook page or visit www.ecuscreens.blogspot.com. For more information about the Royal National Theatre in Great Britain and the NT Live screenings, visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/. Dr. Rebecca Nicholson-Weir, co-director of ECU SCREENS, may be contacted at (580) 559-5929 or rnichlsn@ecok.edu.
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