If you’re looking to inject some culture into your life, check out some of the cool theatre performances direct from stages around the world into your living room right here in the UAE.
Here are five recommended by Sharjah Performing Arts Academy (SPAA)’s executive director, Professor Peter Barlow.
Settle down in the best seats in the house and enjoy.
Into the Woods
Originally performed in London’s Regents Park, Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods weaves together many famous fairy tales in an allegorical story of family, love, growing up and the hazy areas between right and wrong. The production was captured by Digital Theatre live at London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and was directed by Timothy Sheader.
The performance can be rented online here
Sweeney Todd
An award-winning tale that has been retold time after time on the stage, in film and in musicals around the world, Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as a villain of the Victorian penny dreadful serial, The String of Pearls. The play follows the story of Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street and his partner in crime, Mrs Lovett.
The performance can be streamed or bought through Filmed on Stage
Memphis: The Broadway Musical
Set in the places where rock and roll was born in the 1950s, Memphis tells the fictional story of DJ Huey Calhoun, a good local boywith a passion for R&B music and Felicia Farrell, an up-and-coming black singer that he meets one fateful night on Beale Street. Despite the objections of their loved ones, they embark on a dangerous affair. As their careers rise, the relationship is challenged by personal ambition and the pressures of an outside world unable to accept their love.
The performance can be streamed on Filmed on Stage
The Crucible
The Crucible is a partially fictionalised telling of the Salem witch trials. Accusations of witchcraft spiral out of control and many must choose between reputation and integrity. Captured by Digital Theatre live at London’s Old Vic, The Crucible was directed by Yaël Farber.
The play can be rented online
The School for Wives
Paris’s esteemed Odeon has released its 2018 production of The School for Wives, a theatrical comedy written by the seventeenth century French playwright Molière on vimeo.
The performance can be streamed here
