The Boys Are Kissing
Zak Zarafshan’s “audacious and adventurous” debut play, about the uproar caused by two nine-year-old boys kissing in the playground, was embraced by critics at London’s Theatre503 earlier this year. Tickets for this recording can be bought until 7 March – the film is then available to watch for a month.
Rolling Down the Road
Who needs The Wheels on the Bus? All hail this rambunctious musical theatre show for families in which David Gibb drives a doubledecker powered by songs. Aimed at the over-threes, it is presented by Little Seeds Music, The Story Museum in Oxford and Half Moon theatre. Rent for 48 hours.
The Snow Queen
Bid winter farewell with director Reija Wäre and composer Tuomas Kantelinen’s production inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s story, performed on skates in Finland. Figure skater (and former Finnish national champion) Laura Lepistö takes the title role. Available from Arte until 9 April.
Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends
One of this autumn’s hottest West End tickets is a celebratory revue for the maestro of musical theatre. You can still catch the one-off 2022 concert that inspired it on BBC iPlayer: a dream cast includes Helena Bonham Carter, Petula Clark, Judi Dench, Maria Friedman, Damian Lewis and Julia McKenzie.
Our Generation
“They’ve been so generous as to give us a portion of their lives,” said Alecky Blythe of the dozen teenagers she interviewed over five years. Blythe and director Daniel Evans did them proud with this verbatim play about entering adulthood in a pandemic. The National Theatre and Chichester Festival theatre’s production is available from NT at Home.
Longevity in Dance
This year Sadler’s Wells opens its fourth London stage, at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, but it remains committed to its Digital Stage for living-room audiences, too. Available for free, Longevity in Dance is a vibrant collection of films, showcasing talents including kathak performer and choreographer Nahid Siddiqui.
Measure for Measure
One of the more recent additions to the Globe Player, online home of Shakespeare’s Globe, is former artistic director Dominic Dromgoole’s farewell production of the problem play in 2015, with Mariah Gale as Isabella and Kurt Egyiawan as Angelo.
Car a’ Mhuiltein
The National Theatre of Scotland presents a new Gaelic short film that is beautifully shot on the Isle of Lewis as playwright Iain Finlay Macleod returns to the themes of his 2011 drama Somersaults. It’s a meditation on how it might feel to be the last speaker of a language.
Four Poems from Ukraine
A year on from Russia’s invasion, Ukraine’s ProEnglish theatre continues its partnership with the Finborough in London to present a poetry quartet on YouTube performed by British actors (including Toby Stephens) and Ukrainian actors (including Alex Borovenskiy, artistic director of the ProEnglish theatre).
Death and the King’s Horseman
As a fellow at Cambridge, Wole Soyinka would pass a bust of Winston Churchill and feel the overwhelming desire to topple it. This, he later said, fuelled his playwriting career including Death and the King’s Horseman, set in Nigeria during the colonial period. Tawiah M’Carthy’s 2022 revival for Ontario’s Stratford festival is newly available.
