Amazon Prime Video to broadcast four productions filmed by the National Theatre exclusively in the UK and Ireland

Titles include Fleabag, the original one-woman stage show from Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Frankenstein with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, directed by Danny Boyle and Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch

Ian McKellen on Stage will have its small screen premiere exclusively on Prime Video

LONDON: 25 May, 2021: Amazon Prime Video and National Theatre have today announced a collaboration which will see four productions filmed by the National Theatre broadcast exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in the UK and Ireland from 11 June.

The productions include the National Theatre's Frankenstein, directed by Academy Award winner Danny Boyle and written by Nick Dear, in which joint Olivier Award winners Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternate the roles of the creature and Victor Frankenstein; the stage production of Fleabag written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and filmed at Wyndham's Theatre in the West End, and Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch, directed by Lyndsey Turner filmed at the Barbican in 2015. In addition, Prime members will be able to watch Ian McKellen On Stage, in which Ian McKellen performs extracts from some of his most iconic performances as part of his 80th birthday celebration, available for fans to watch at home for the first time.

"The National Theatre have brought us some of the most memorable theatrical productions of the past decade, and we are delighted to give our customers across the UK and Ireland an opportunity to experience them," comments Martin Backlund, Head of Content, UK, Ireland and Nordics at Prime Video. "The cream of UK acting talent so often started their career in theatre, and we want to shine a light on the incredible heritage we have here."

Lisa Burger, Executive Director and Joint Chief Executive of the National Theatre, says: "Over 12 years of broadcasting British theatre into cinemas with NT Live, we have built up an incredible array of filmed productions. It is with enormous pride that we announce this new collaboration with Amazon to share four productions for audiences to enjoy across the UK and Ireland on Prime Video. As theatre-makers continue to be impacted by the pandemic, this will also enable us to further support the artists behind the work. Audiences will have the best seat in the house for some of the most popular British productions of the last decade."

Prime Video has provided access to live theatre and comedy previously including more than 30 stand-up specials from comedians like Nish Kumar, Dane Baptiste and Jen Brister as part of Soho Theatre Live, which launched exclusively on Prime Video in December 2020.

Amazon recognises the importance of a thriving theatre industry to the continued health of the film, television and creative industries and in August 2020, Prime Video and Amazon Studios donated £500,000 to the Theatre Community Fund, launched by Olivia Colman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Francesca Moody to provide hardship grants to theatre workers and freelancers across the UK, as well as a £1 million donation in the UK to the Film and TV Charity's COVID-19 Response to kick-start a new grants scheme to help the industry recover from the pandemic.

Prime members will be able to watch the National Theatre series anywhere and anytime on the Prime Video app for smart TVs, mobile devices, Fire TV, Fire TV stick, Fire tablets, games consoles, on Virgin's V6 TV Box, the Talk Talk TV set top box, Apple TV, Chromecast, BT TV or online at www.amazon.co.uk/primevideo. Prime Video is available in the UK and Ireland at no extra cost to a Prime membership for just £7.99 a month or £79 per year. New customers can find out more at amazon.co.uk/prime and subscribe to a free 30-day trial.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

FRANKENSTEIN

Filmed live in 2011 from the Olivier stage of the National Theatre in London, this thrilling production, directed by Academy Award winner Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours), sold out at the National Theatre and became an international sensation in cinemas around the world.

Jonny Lee Miller (Trainspotting, Elementary) and Benedict Cumberbatch (The Mauritanian, 1917) jointly won the Olivier Best Actor Award for alternately playing the roles of the creature and Victor Frankenstein. Naomie Harris (Moonlight, Skyfall) plays Elizabeth, the fiancé of Victor Frankenstein.

Mary Shelley's 1818 novel was adapted for the stage by Nick Dear.

Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein's bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the increasingly desperate and vengeful Creature determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal.

The cast also includes Ella Smith, John Killoran, Steven Elliott, Lizzie Winkler, Karl Johnson, Daniel Millar, Jared Richard, George Harris, Martin Chamberlain, Daniel Ings, Mark Armstrong, John Stahl, Andreea Padurariu, John Killoran, Josie Daxter and William Nye.

Frankenstein is directed by Danny Boyle, with set design by Mark Tidesley, costume design by Suttirat Anne Larlarb, lighting design by Bruno Poet, music and sound score by Underworld, movement direction by Toby Sedgwick, fight direction by Kate Waters, music associate is Alex Baranowski and sound design by Underworld and Ed Clarke.

FLEABAG

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's original, hilarious, one-woman play that inspired the BBC's hit international multi-award-winning TV series Fleabag, which is also available to watch on Amazon. Written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Killing Eve), this is a rip-roaring look at some sort of woman living her sort of life.

Written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and directed by Vicky Jones (Run), Fleabag started its life on-stage at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013, winning a Fringe First award that encourages new work. Since then, Fleabag has been performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge in London, Korea and New York, and has also toured across the UK and to Australia with Maddie Rice playing Fleabag.

This filmed version of the award-winning play from the stage of Wyndham's Theatre is a production from DryWrite, Soho Theatre and Annapurna Theatre and was filmed live in 2019 by National Theatre Live.

HAMLET

BAFTA winner Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game, Sherlock) plays Hamlet with Ciarán Hinds (The Terror, Game of Thrones) as Claudius, Sian Brooke (Good Omens, The Terror) as Ophelia, Anastasia Hille (Baptiste, Keeping the Faith) as Gertrude and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Mary Poppins Returns, Paddington 2) as Laertes in Shakespeare's famous tragedy, filmed live in London.

In 2015, Sonia Friedman Productions' Hamlet was the fastest selling ticket in theatre history with all 100,000 tickets selling out in minutes.

As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father's death but paralysed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state.

The cast also includes Leo Bill, Karl Johnson, Jim Norton, Barry Aird, Eddie Arnold, Nigel Carrington, Ruairi Conaghan, Rudi Dharmalingam, Colin Haigh, Paul Ham, Diveen Henry, Amaka Okafor, Dan Parr, Jan Shepherd, Morag Siller, Matthew Steer, Sergo Vares and Dwane Walcott.

Directed by National Theatre Associate Lyndsey Turner (Top Girls, Chimerica), set designs are by Es Devlin with costume designs by Katrina Lindsay, video by Luke Halls, lighting by Jane Cox, music by Jon Hopkins, sound by Christopher Shutt, movement by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and fights by Bret Yount.

Presented by Sonia Friedman Productions and filmed live in 2015 from the Barbican Theatre.

IAN MCKELLEN ON STAGE

In 2019, Ian McKellen set out on a tour of more than 80 theatres around the country with a new solo show to celebrate his 80th birthday. The tour encompassed theatres that he knew well and some he didn't: from Bolton Town Hall, where his father worked, to the Olivier stage where he had played roles such as Coriolanus to Captain Hook. The show then played a limited season in the West End, raising funds for theatre charities.

Alongside stories and anecdotes from his illustrious career on stage and screen, Ian McKellen also performs extracts from his most iconic performances, including Shakespeare's King Lear and Tolkien's Gandalf from Lord of the Rings.

Directed by Sean Mathias with costume design by Philip Stephens for Unconditional and props design by Lizzie Frankl.

This production was presented by the Ambassador Theatre Group Productions and filmed by National Theatre Live at the Harold Pinter Theatre in 2020.

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About the National Theatre

The National Theatre's mission is to make world class theatre that's entertaining, challenging and inspiring - and to make it for everyone. It aims to reach the widest possible audience and to be as inclusive, diverse and national as possible with a broad range of productions that play in London, on tour around the UK, on Broadway and across the globe. The National Theatre's extensive UK-wide learning and participation programme supports young people and schools through performance and writing programmes like Connections, New Views and Let's Play, while Public Acts creates ambitious new works of participatory theatre in sustained partnership with theatres and community organisations around the country. The National Theatre extends its reach through digital programmes including NT Live, which broadcasts some of the best of British theatre to over 2,500 venues in 65 countries, the National Theatre Collection, which makes recordings of shows available to UK schools and the global education sector, and now National Theatre at Home. The National Theatre invests in the future of theatre by developing talent, creating bold new work and building audiences, partnering with a range of UK theatres and theatre companies. For more information, please visit nationaltheatre.org.uk @NationalTheatre @NT_PressOffice