ECU SCREENS will kick off Fourth of July festivities the day before Independence Day with the multi-award-winning drama The Madness of George III.
National Theatre Live’s first-ever broadcast from the Nottingham Playhouse in the United Kingdom will be screened at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 3, in the Raymond J. Estep Multimedia Center of the Bill S. Cole University Center.
The event is open to the public. Tickets are $10 for community members and $5 for ECU students.
Written by Alan Bennett, one of Britain’s best-loved playwrights, The Madness of King George III was also adapted into a BAFTA Award-winning film following its premiere on stage in 1991.
This new production features Olivier Award-winner Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Wolf Hall), in a performance that has been praised by London’s theatre critics as “sensational” (Observer), “electric” (The Guardian) and “mesmerizing” (What’s On Stage).
It’s 1786, 10 years after the United States declared its independence from Great Britain and three years after George the III signed the Treaty of Paris bringing a formal end to the American Revolution. The King is still the most powerful man in the world, but his behavior is becoming increasingly erratic as he succumbs to fits of lunacy. With the King’s mind unraveling at a dramatic pace, ambitious politicians and the scheming Prince of Wales threaten to undermine the power of the Crown and expose the fine line between a king and a man.
The runtime is 2 hours and 40 minutes and includes an interval, when ECU SCREENS will serve free ice cream to audience members. The production has a BBFC rating of “12A,” the U.S. equivalent of PG-13. NT Live is the National Theatre's groundbreaking project to broadcast the best of British theatre to cinemas around the world.
The next ECU SCREENS event on Wednesday, Sept. 3, at 6:30 pm will be Joseph Mankiewicz’s All About Eve. Directed and adapted for the stage by Ivo van Hove from the 1950 20th Century Fox Academy Award winner, All About Eve, will feature Gillian Anderson (X-Files, Downton Abbey) and Lily James (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again) in a recorded live production from the West End in London.
To learn more about ECU SCREENS, like the ECU SCREENS Facebook page. 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 for more information.
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