Life of Pi and Best of Enemies to be broadcast in cinemas

Filmed versions of recent West End shows Life of Pi and Best of Enemies are coming to cinemas.

The two productions will be available to watch on the big screen later this year as part of National Theatre Live.

About to wrap up its run in London ahead of a UK tour, Life of Pi will be available to watch at select venues on 30 March.

The play, adapted from the Yann Martel novel of the same name, first premiered in Sheffield in 2019 and will play its final West end performance on 15 January 2023 before touring from August.

Following the sinking of a cargo ship that leaves just five survivors, we are taken to the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean where they are stranded on a single lifeboat. A sixteen-year-old boy along with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a hungry Bengal tiger are left at the mercy of nature, who is harsh and forgiving.

Time is against them and they have one mission; to survive. Like the book and the 2012 film of the same name, it is an epic adventure full of hope, that tests their endurance and pushes their limits.

The show is adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti with direction by Max Webster, puppet design by Tim Hatley and Finn Caldwell of Gyre and Gimble and Nick Barnes, lighting by Tim Lutkin, composition by Andrew Mackay, sound by Carolyn Downing, video by Andrzej Goulding and original casting by Polly Jerrold.

Meanwhile James Graham’s new play Best of Enemies will be available in cinemas on 18 May.

The sold-out hit from the Young Vic and Headlong, which originally premiered at the Young Vic in December 2021, examines the bitter political rivalry between William F Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal.

The West End run opened in 2020 with Zachary Quinto (The Boys in the Band, American Horror Story, Star Trek) making his West End debut as Gore Vidal opposite David Harewood (Homeland, Super Girl, Ten Percent) reprising his role as William F. Buckley Jr.

1968 – a year of protest that divided America. As two men fight to become the next President, all eyes are on the battle between two others: the cunningly conservative William F Buckley Jr., and the iconoclastic liberal Gore Vidal.

Beliefs are challenged and slurs slung as these political idols feud nightly in a new television format, debating the moral landscape of a shattered nation. Little do they know they’re about to open up a new frontier in American politics, and transform television news forever…

Directed by Jeremy Herrin, the production is inspired by a documentary by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon.

For more information, venues and ticket visit ntlive.com

Other shows coming to cinemas at part of National Theatre Live this year include Good starring David Tennant as well as the recent productions of The Seagull, The Crucible and Othello.