Rufus Norris's production has a humane, dignified sweep Please do not contact your credit card company as that will slow the process down and put an additional burden on our box office and ticket agent teams. Viewed on its own terms, the evening grips throughout in its embrace of the multiple contradictions of contemporary Indian life as here filtered through those existing quite literally off the scrap of that country's gathering economic power. The piece features a cast including Andrew Garfield ( The Social Network ), Denise Gough ( Paula ), Nathan Lane ( American Crime Story ), James McArdle ( Ammonite ), Susan Brown ( It's A Sin) and Russell Tovey ( Years and Years ). Press alt + / to open this menu. Meera Syal and Bharti Patel in Behind the Beautiful Forevers Credit: Photo: Richard Hubert Smith Following a sold out run at the National Theatre, the acclaimed production of The Ocean at the End of the Lane transfers to the West End from October 2021. Nathalie Armin. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, David Hare's adaptation of Katherine Boo's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, works as both play and portent. @NationalTheatre. Even more importantly is what Rufus Norris's epic staging – this director's most confident work yet at this address – may signal about the sort of National Theatre we have in store when Norris launches his artistic directorship for good in the spring. Corruption at its most appalling. 30 May 2018. Filmed by National Theatre Live. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, David Hare's adaptation of Katherine Boo's Pulitzer Prize … If you click through to seat selection (where you'll see either best available or a seating plan), you will be seeing the most up-to-date prices. And if an incident-packed second half sometimes seems to be moving from climax to climax, that gathering urgency only amplifies one's engagement with a cross-section of characters whom one doesn't encounter often on this or any stage. And while the younger men at the same time scramble to get by as either "sorters" or "keepers" of the detritus that is their environmental lot, the imposing matriarch, Zehrunisa (a fierce-eyed Meera Syal, the name player in a cast that is notable throughout), finds herself at grievous odds with the vengeful, one-legged Fatima (Thusitha Jayasundera, here marking her second David Hare play in a row), the prostitute who lives on the other side of the kitchen wall. Madame Kalamazoo is a mysterious storyteller, who writes funny daily stories for children and will happily email them to you for FREE via the National Theatre. Hiran Abeysekera, left, and Shane Zaza as toiler Abdul in Behind the Beautiful Forevers at the National Theatre, London. India is surging with global ambition. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, National Theatre Rufus Norris staging works both on its own terms and as a bold sign of what's to come. Play; Show Closed. London Theater Review: ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’ National Theatre, London; 1,160 seats; £35, $110 top. Were this the only story, ’Behind the Beautiful Forevers’ would be an exceptionally strong play. Sections of this page. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: … SOLT also runs the Olivier Awards, West End LIVE, TKTS, Theatre Tokens, Kids Week and the New Year Sale. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, David Hare's adaptation of Katherine Boo's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, works as both play and portent. We are now cancelling all performances up until and including 31 May 2020 to help us process existing bookings whilst we wait for further clarity from the government in terms of when we will be able to reopen. 190. It's not just that the Hare-isms are there to be spotted: a line about needing only one good student to make a teacher's life worthwhile echoes a sentiment previously expressed in Skylight. And though the material might seem geographically and temperamentally removed from the habitual terrain of a dramatist who has spent his career (much of it at the National) chronicling what he has called "the loveless English", Hare gracefully elides any perceived divide. Pal Aron. Also launching on the platform today is Polly Findlay’s 2012 thrilling contemporary staging of Antigone, with a cast including Christopher Eccleston (Thor, The A Word, Doctor Who) and Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who, Broadchurch), and National Theatre Director Rufus Norris’ 2014 production of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, written by David Hare and based on the book by Katherine Boo, with a cast including Meera … Behind the Beautiful Forevers, National Theatre 10 Nov 14 – 14 Jan 15 , 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM This November writer and national treasure Sir David Hare will transform American journalist Katherine Boo’s unforgettable book into a play directed by Rufus Norris starring Meera Syal Based on Katherine Boo’s non-fictional account of life in the Mumbai slums, David Hare’s adaptation follows the Husains, a family who earn a living from sorting plastic bottles, as they seek to make improvements to their Annawadi shack with the help of tiling company Beautiful Forevers. The specifics, though, have been displaced a continent away to a rubbish-strewn Mumbai community lying beneath the airport flight path in which a neighbourly grievance escalates into a wider tragedy that ends by putting an entire way of life on trial. For more than 40 years, TKTS was our on-the-day theatre ticket box office in Leicester Square. Rufus Norris’ rich and colourful production shocks and saddens but is a sure sign of great things to come for the National Theatre in 2015. Due to the current pandemic various venues and productions are making announcements for their individual shows. Playing a sort of inverse Candide hard-scrabbling his way through this worst of all possible worlds in perpetual hope of betterment and self-improvement, Zaza anchors proceedings with unshowy ease, leaving the greater pyrotechnics to the endearingly rabid Hiran Abeysekera as Sunil, the most determinedly agile of the scavengers attempting to spin refuse into gold. If you click through to seat selection (where you'll see either best available or a seating plan), you will be seeing the most up-to-date prices. Share. Book tickets & view the latest movie showtimes for NATIONAL THEATRE: BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS at Landmark Theatres Midtown Art Cinema,GA. Produced in association with Scott Rudin Available at least until 7 February 2022. Chook Sibtain - Sub-Inspector Shankar Yeram, Shane Zaza - Abdul Husain Behind the Beautiful Forevers image by Richard Hubert Smith. I had some concerns in advance that this might be one of those occasions in which we are aware of money being conspicuously spent to replicate the conditions of poverty, though in fact Katrina Lindsay (sets) and Paule Constable (lighting) between them navigate the difficult task of depicting conditions without prettifying them. From her uncompromising … ... but despite an impressive and massive … Currently closed due to the current situation, we are now selling our great last minute seats and prices online. Peppered with moments of extreme violence – we’re talking eye-gouging to outrival Shakespeare – it won’t appeal to everyone but it’s certainly a must-see for those wanting something bold, different and a taster of what Director designate Norris will bring to the venue. If you have booked via a ticket agent they will also be in contact with you directly. In India’s biggest slum, beyond the luxury hotels surrounding Mumbai airport, lives Zehrunisa and her 16-year-old son Abdul whose gift for trash sorting is the source of his family’s income and ambitions to fund a new life. If you find a mistake, please let us know by emailing enquiries@soltukt.co.uk. We will be showing Behind the Beautiful Forevers live from the National Theatre, London on Thursday 12th March 2015. Behind The Beautiful Forevers (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith) Anjana Vasan and Anneika Rose in Behind The Beautiful Forevers (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith) Mariam Haque, Thusitha Jayasundera and Meera Syal in Behind The Beautiful Forevers (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith) In the meantime stay safe and healthy. Fans of Boo’s book will no doubt relish in seeing her story in all its glory on the National Theatre’s vast Olivier stage, bringing to life the vibrant community of Annawadi and its bustling setting in the shadow of Mumbai airport. About this show. Tickets range from £15, £25 and £35. National Theatre director Rufus Norris said: “Angels in America is one of those productions that stays with you always - a seminal piece of theatre that has a … Hiran Abeysekera. Behind The Beautiful Forevers is a commendable attempt to dramatize a topical non-fiction story on a grand, Dickensian scale. Review: Behind The Beautiful Forevers at the National Theatre, London . The first half so skilfully weaves together the narrative strands that one feels after the interval as if all involved are having to compress the various stories unduly in order not to turn a three-hour play into a TV mini-series. Go and see it if you haven’t already! But that sense of excess in its way also honours surely the largest and best Asian ensemble the National has ever hosted, all of whom compel attention and make one wish for yet more time in their company. 21. At one point the authorities find a man murdered with his eyes and anus torn out. Meera Syal (The Kumars, Goodness Gracious Me, Rafta Rafta at the National) returns to the National Theatre, directed by Rufus Norris (Broken, London Road).Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo spent three years in Annawadi recording the lives of its residents. Our Review 2 / 5. Incoming chief Rufus Norris directs. You can book tickets for the show through the venue’s website or, alternatively, you can catch it in one of 550 UK cinemas when it is broadcast via NT Live on 12 March. Olivier Theatre, National, London. Vincent Ebrahim. Sartaj Garewal. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, National Theatre By CW Contributor on 4/11/2014 This November writer and national treasure Sir David Hare will transform American journalist Katherine Boo’s unforgettable book into a play, directed by Rufus Norris, starring Meera Syal Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian Michael Billington Hundreds of plastic bottles falling from the ceiling in a visually and audibly stunning spectacle. The NT presents a range of new plays and... Jump to. Available at least until 7 February 2022. Productions of, say, Hamlet are a dime a dozen, but how many people could pull off an evening on this scope and scale with such dispatch? In India’s biggest slum, beyond the luxury hotels surrounding Mumbai airport, lives Zehrunisa and her 16-year old son Abdul whose gift for trash sorting is the source of his family’s income and ambitions to fund a new life. Share: Behind The Beautiful Forevers is not a play for the faint-hearted. At the end of 2020, the National Theatre announced their own streaming service, National Theatre at Home.. Today, three new productions are launching on the platform: Angels in America, Antigone and Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Location: Olivier (National Theatre), West End View Map. He is the family breadwinner, having taken up the void left when his father's illness left him unable to work. Cast. The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly. Their dreams are big, but fragile and just one accusation could shatter the whole … Behind The Beautiful Forevers at the National Theatre with details on the production from the stage section of Tuppence Magazine, including info on the cast. Madame Kalamazoo's Magical Mail . Seen from that perspective and others, as well, Behind the Beautiful Forevers marks quite a beginning. 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A production from National Theatre. Behind The Beautiful Forevers will run from November 10, 2014 until April 13, 2015 at the Olivier Theatre, part of South Bank’s National Theatre. Just think, you could go and see a matinee of Behind the Beautiful Forevers and John in the evening and come out feeling thoroughly depressed. Simply enter your email address in the box below, Mumbai moment: Meera Syal (right) heads the cast of `Behind the Beautiful Forevers', This must be surely both the largest and best Asian ensemble that the National has ever hosted, all of whom compel attention and make one wish for yet more time in their company. ... NATIONAL THEATRE: BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS Trailer. We are processing in strict date order of performance, so you are likely to be contacted after the date you were due to go to the theatre. Please check with the individual shows for details. It was first seen in 2017. Review – Behind the Beautiful Forevers / John, National Theatre Saturday 22 November 2014 . Jane … Those who haven’t thumbed the near 300 pages of Boo’s epic study, which was built from her three years spent in India, will leave wanting to find out more about those living in the poorest areas of the country, whose experiences aren’t always realistically depicted in the media. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, National Theatre, review: Magnificent. If this differs from what we've written on the calendar, please bear with us, as those prices will update soon. Such Englishness as there is arises out of the desire of the education-minded young Manju (a charming Anjana Vasan, pictured above left), daughter of the local fixer Asha (Stephanie Street), to try to come to grips with the plot of Mrs Dalloway. Find out more. Also launching on the platform today is Polly Findlay’s 2012 thrilling contemporary staging of Antigone, with a cast including Christopher Eccleston (Thor, The A Word, Doctor Who) and Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who, Broadchurch), and National Theatre Director Rufus Norris’ 2014 production of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, written by David Hare and based on the book by Katherine Boo, with a cast including Meera … A production from National Theatre. Viewed on its own terms, the evening grips throughout in its embrace of the multiple contradictions of contemporary Indian life as here filtered through those existing quite literally off the scrap of that country's gathering economic power. Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday! Esh Alladi. But beyond the luxury hotels surrounding Mumbai airport lies a makeshift slum, full of people with plans of their own. Behind The Beautiful Forevers (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith), Anjana Vasan and Anneika Rose in Behind The Beautiful Forevers (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith), Mariam Haque, Thusitha Jayasundera and Meera Syal in Behind The Beautiful Forevers (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith), Anneika Rose and Anjana Vasan Behind The Beautiful Forevers (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith), Shane Zaza and Hiran Abeysekera in Behind The Beautiful Forevers (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith), Stephanie Street and Anjana Vasan in Behind The Beautiful Forevers (Photo: Richard Hubert Smith), First Published Please bear with us as we try to keep this page as up to date as possible. Abdul is accused (along with one of his sisters and his father) of Fatima's death. Accessibility Help. Behind The Beautiful Forevers | National Theatre At Home: Now Streaming. Nicholas Hytner, in charge until April, programmed Beyond the Beautiful Forevers. Official Trailer: Cat On A Hot Tin Roof | National Theatre At Home: Now Streaming. For more details about the Behind The Beautiful Forevers play, please visit the National Theatre website. Meera Syal leads an all-Indian cast, giving a formidable performance as the sharp-tongued Zehrunisa Husain. Reviewed Nov. 18, 2014. The project, too, has unleashed an energy that hasn't always been evident in Hare's work of late. London Theatre News Today: Friday 12 March, The Prince Of Egypt to reopen from 1 July, Jerwood Foundation announces Jerwood Blue Sky Fund, a £1 million donation to the Theatre Artists Fund & Help Musicians, London Theatre News Today: Monday 15 March, London Shows 2021: Great theatre to look forward to this year, Due to the current pandemic various venues and productions are making announcements for their individual shows. If this differs from what we've written on the calendar, please bear with us, as those prices will update soon. 19 November 2014, Last Updated He is one of the main characters of the book. Flying the flag for the younger cast members are Anjana Vasan and Anneika Rose, whose portrayal of Manju and Meena, and the close friendship they share, provides some unbeatably heart-warming, and eventually heartbreaking, moments in the show. There is nothing that you need to do if your performance has been cancelled, but we do ask for your patience. Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically. Find out more and book. In order for us to serve our audiences the best we can, please do not get in touch with your point of sale if you have booked for performances after 31 May. Our producers continue to plan for all eventualities dependent on the individual needs of their shows and we will provide further updates on specific shows as and when they become available. Murders, shocking suicides, corruption, foul language and deep injustices are all competing for attention. Early worries that a parade of characters speaking in direct address to the audience would result in the story feeling as if it were being narrated as opposed to dramatised soon fall away – so much so, in fact, that a rather abrupt ending leaves one wondering what has since happened to a half-dozen or more people whose fates we have come very much to care about. Mumbai moment: Meera Syal (right) heads the cast of `Behind the Beautiful Forevers' Photos by Bill Knight for theartsdesk . Behind The Beautiful Forevers. If you have booked directly with the theatre or show website for an affected performance, please be assured that they will contact you directly to arrange an exchange for a later date, a credit note/voucher or a refund. In India’s biggest slum, beyond the luxury hotels surrounding Mumbai airport, lives Zehrunisa and her 16-year old son Abdul whose gift for trash sorting is the source of his family’s income and ambitions to fund a new life. National Theatre Live: Behind the Beautiful Forevers (2015) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Please bear with us as we try to keep this page as up to date as possible. Polly Findlay’s 2012 staging of Antigone has a cast including Christopher Eccleston (Thor, The A Word, Doctor Who) and Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who, Broadchurch), and National Theatre Director Rufus Norris’s 2014 production of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, written by David Hare and based on the book by Katherine Boo, has a cast including Meera Syal (The Split). We look forward to welcoming you back into our theatres as soon as we are allowed to resume performances. Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Opening Night: 10 November 2014 Final Performance: 05 May 2015. • Abdul is a boy in his mid to late teens and a second generation garbage picker. ... Creatives. In so doing, he reminds us that the National's implicit remit, its name notwithstanding, has always embraced the international, as well. The landscape here is rife with the same clashes of class, caste, and financial circumstance that Hare has long anatomised on home turf. David Hare (based on the book by … NT Live cinema … Zehrunisa and her son Abdul aim to recycle enough rubbish to fund a proper house. 276. by Matt Wolf Wednesday, 19 November 2014. Filmed by National Theatre Live. Behind The Beautiful Forevers, National Theatre Based on Katherine Boo’s non-fiction book of the same title, David Hare’s new play for the National Theatre feels both epic yet intimate, a play on a large scale that studies small human pettiness that can dominate – and decimate – our lives. @DoctorChristian @WhichPennySmith @NationalTheatre amazing, moving, life affirming, powerful, funny, sad, shocking and brilliant #BehindtheBeautifulForevers, @TulipSiddiq Blown away by ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’ – amazing acting and incredible set. Her despair at seeing her family behind bars and her regret at not providing the bribe that could have prevented it all is truly heartbreaking. If you find a mistake, please let us know by emailing. Cast includes Meera Syal. Olivier (National Theatre), West End. 4. For that would be the better way round; the latter is shorter than the former’s Act 1. NATIONAL THEATRE: BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS (NR) 3 hrs, 10 mins RELEASE: 04/12/2015 CAST: Meera Syal, Shane Zaza, Hiran Abeysekera, Stephanie Street, … His cause of death, according to the authorities, is tuberculosis. Behind The Beautiful Forevers is playing in the Olivier Theatre until 13 April. Overcome with jealousy, their one-legged neighbour Fatima, whose relationship with the Husains has never exactly been civil, sets fire to herself, laying the blame with the family she despises and throwing them into the uncompromising and unjust hands of India’s legal system. We now sell our famous TKTS Booth discounts online here at Official London Theatre. And Norris artfully but never over-pictorially does the rest, moving from monsoon conditions to the separate shower from up in the flies of a cascade of plastic, from the intimate to the epic and back again with near-cinematic ease. But the larger themes of dislocation and loss, whether familial or economic, have coursed through Hare's work from the outset, an earlier Indian-set play (A Map of the World, from 1982) indicating something of the global reach that Behind the Beautiful Forevers follows up on with real force. We are so sorry that in these testing and difficult times you are not able to enjoy the show you have booked for and hope the following helps clarify next steps in respect of your tickets . We’d like to thank everyone who has been patient and kind in dealing with their ticket providers so far and we are sorry that we cannot process your order as quickly as we would like. There is something inherently poetic about the play’s title, but don’t be fooled, this is a hard-hitting tale of violence, corruption and vice in modern day India. A subsequent conversation about the nomenclature in Congreve's The Way of the World – of all unlikely topics – delights by dint of its very incongruousness. Also launching on the platform today is Polly Findlay’s 2012 thrilling contemporary staging of Antigone, with a cast including Christopher Eccleston (Thor, The A Word, Doctor Who) and Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who, Broadchurch), and National Theatre Director Rufus Norris’ 2014 production of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, written by David Hare and based on the book by Katherine Boo, with a cast including Meera … Soon after hundreds of plastic bottles crash onto the stage … 218,264 were here. However, we want to reassure you that you will be contacted, and your order will be processed, but please do bear with us. Please be reassured that if we have to cancel future performances you will be directly contacted by your theatre or ticket provider. While theatres are currently closed, various venues and productions are making announcements for their individual shows, including cancellations and rescheduled performances. Words by Nicola ... Arts Culture. The American journalist Boo spent well over three years in the Mumbai slum of Annawadi, chronicling the citizenry with a detail that gives a piece of concerted non-fiction a novelistic, even Dickensian feel. 10. As free with her body as the sweary Zehrunisa is with her tongue (between this and the Sophie Stanton character in Made in Dagenham, onstage expletives are quite the thing at the moment), Fatima turns galloping envy into an act of self-immolation that threatens ruin on multiple fronts and lands Zehrunisa's eldest son, Abdul (Shane Zaza, in a breakout performance), in the legal dock. While the production also boasts commendable performances from the male actors, particularly Shane Zaza as the industrious Abdul whose rubbish sorting efficiency is the envy of his rivals, it truly is the female performers who shine in this impeccably well-pitched production. Also launching on the National Theatre at Home platform is Polly Findlay’s 2012 thrilling contemporary staging of Antigone, with a cast including Christopher Eccleston (Thor, The A Word, Doctor Who) and Jodie Whittaker (Doctor Who, Broadchurch), and National Theatre Director Rufus Norris’ 2014 production of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, written by David Hare and based on the book by … As her fellow slum dwelling matriarchs, Thusitha Jayasundera adds a touch of humour to her performance as the Husain’s deceiving neighbour Fatima by taking her insults one step further than Syal’s Zehrunisa, and Stephanie Street demands both sympathy and derision from the audience as Asha, a woman who has herself suffered yet is intent on gaining from others’ suffering. There has been some concern expressed – not least from Norris himself – about his lack of experience in the classical canon, to which Beautiful Forevers represents an immediate rebuke. How, then, to bring both people and events into manageable theatrical form?