Understanding livecasting: Exploring the relationship between theatre, cinema and livecasting

Since 2008, the Royal National Theatre has been beaming several plays per year into cinemas across the United Kingdom in the form of livecasts. These live transmissions have created a form of access to the National Theatre previously unavailable to those outside London, and have been well enough received by audiences to have become a fixture of cinema programming across this country and others. Taking NT Live (the National Theatre’s digital wing responsible for livecasting) as its focus, this dissertation aims to fill the current gap in academic writing dealing with livecasts. How is livecasting related to past attempts to record or transmit theatre, and how have those predecessors’ aesthetics been drawn upon by NT Live? The relationship between historical precedents (such as live television dramas, pre-recorded theatre and Electronovision) and livecasting are examined from aesthetic and historical perspectives. The specific set of aesthetics visible in livecasting are analyzed through textual analyses of several NT Live productions, and the impact of film language on the plays transmitted is examined as a key aspect of the hybridized medium of livecasting. The “liveness” of livecasting is also examined with reference to existing theoretical frameworks within film and television and theatre studies, and livecasting’s offer of co-presence in time, but not space, is discussed. How are livecast audiences expected or encouraged to feel a part of the theatre experience, if at all? The experience of attending a livecast as opposed to a film or play is examined, and the degree to which livecasts make theatre available to wider audiences is discussed as a key element of this new technology, particularly with reference to the National Theatre, whose remit and very name suggest that its plays should be available to the widest audience possible. This dissertation provides a discussion of some of the most fundamental aspects of livecasting, a subject bound to receive further academic treatment as this new transmedia option becomes more firmly entrenched in our cultural landscape