NT Live
National Theatre Broadcast live via satellite to the cinema screen.
Travelling
Light
By Nicholas Wright
Thursday 9th February, 7.00pm - 9.35pm
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How had a twenty-two year-old pretentious layabout, quite frankly, in
an unknown shtetl, along with a Gentile housemaid, made a discovery that
would elude every other cinematic pioneer for years to come?
In a remote village in Eastern Europe, around 1900, the young Motl Mendl
is entranced by the flickering silent images on his father’s cinematograph.
Bankrolled by Jacob, the ebullient local timber-merchant, and inspired
by Anna, the girl sent to help him make moving pictures of their village,
he stumbles on a revolutionary way of story-telling.
I was obsessed with the way she looked on screen. I used to say to her,
it was as though there was a light underneath her skin. One could see
right into her soul. Like she’d invented a new language that everyone
in the world could understand.
Forty years on, Motl – now the famed American film director Maurice
Montgomery – looks back on his early life and confronts the cost
of fulfilling his dreams, both to himself and those he left behind.
Following Vincent in Brixton and The Reporter, Nicholas Wright’s
new play is a funny and fascinating tribute to the Eastern European immigrants
who became major players in Hollywood’s golden age; and a haunting
look at the stories we tell about our own lives.
The award-winning Antony Sher returns to the National to play Jacob.
Running time: 2.30 hours approx.
Unreserved seating
All £12
