The Boy With Two Hearts
Hamed and Hessam Amiri’s story about how their family fled the Taliban and reached the UK for their brother to have urgent medical treatment was nimbly staged by Amit Sharma in a compelling production at Wales Millennium Centre in 2021. Its later run at the National Theatre can now be seen on the NT’s streaming service.
Manipulate festival
Manipulate, Edinburgh’s international festival of visual theatre and animated film, has two programmes of online shorts, available 3-5 February. Who could resist titles such as The Awakening of the Insects (from Stéphanie Lansaque and François Leroy) and I Gotta Look Good for the Apocalypse (by Ayçe Kartal)?
The Gretchen Question
Staged in 2022 by the Thames at the Master Shipwright’s House in Deptford, Melly Still and Max Barton’s show about the climate crisis leaps from an 18th-century polar expedition to a perilous future, creating what Kate Wyver called a “web of empire, expansion and devastation”. This film version is available from Fuel until 20 February.
Mr Saturday Night
Billy Crystal’s musical arrived on Broadway in 2022, 30 years after the movie on which it’s based. Crystal reprises his role as the fading comedian out to reboot his career in a tale that has notes of the TV series Hacks in its exploration of how jokes (and their tellers) change with age. On BroadwayHD.
Home X
Kakilang (formerly Chinese Arts Now) launches a two-month theatre festival exploring “the notion of diasporic cultures in modern times” with Home X, a hi-tech show at the Barbican’s Pit which brings together performers in Hong Kong and London. A complementary interactive online experience runs 10-25 February.
Faustus: That Damned Woman
By making Faustus female, playwright Chris Bush explored “how we treat women who pursue greatness, and how traits that seem admirable in men here might warrant damnation”. Chester’s Storyhouse and Fallen Angels Dance Theatre present a new production of the 2020 play, with livestreamed performances on 11 and 12 February.
Sweet Porridge
London’s Little Angel theatre has a merry collection of puppetry shorts including Tiny Light’s delightful wintry tale of a little girl, her canine companion and a magic porridge pot that spills over, covering a whole town in gloopy, glistening, out-of-control oatmeal.
Ukiyo-e: Images of a Floating World
The European culture channel Arte has a huge archive of documentaries, concerts and programmes that can be watched for free online. There is a particularly strong dance selection including this captivating 2022 production for the Grand Theatre of Geneva by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, meditating on a world in constant motion.
Punchdrunk: Behind the Mask
Peek behind the scenes of Punchdrunk’s epic The Burnt City in this Sky Arts documentary which celebrates the immersive theatre company whose meticulously realised, often sensational shows strive, as artistic director Felix Barrett says, to make you feel as if you’re “falling backwards with your hairs standing up on the back of your neck”. Available on Freeview.
Kiss Me, Kate
This year Cole Porter’s songs fuel a new musical of Roman Holiday at Theatre Royal Bath and Wodehouse in Wonderland, a touring show about the Jeeves and Wooster creator. Meanwhile, BroadwayHD has added Michael Blakemore’s 1999 West End revival of Porter’s masterpiece – starring Brent Barrett and Rachel York – to their catalogue. It’s too … darn … hot!
