CINEMA NOUVEAU SCREENS NATIONAL THEATRE PRODUCTION OF DAVID HARE’S NEW PLAY, BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS

‘David Hare’s adaptation of Katherine Boo’s acclaimed study of a Mumbai slum breaks new ground for the National’ ­– Observer

‘A triumph for David Hare and Meera Syal. The play leaves you deeply affected’ - Guardian

A new play from renowned British playwright David Hare, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, will be screened in Cinema Nouveau theatres from Saturday, 04 April, launching the new season from National Theatre Live. Based on the book by Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo and directed by Rufus Norris, the production was filmed for cinema broadcast from the National’s Olivier Theatre in London.

Meera Syal leads the cast of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, which will have four screenings only at Cinema Nouveau theatres in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town: 04, 08 and 09 April at 19:30, and on Sunday, 05 April at 14:30. Bookings are now open.

India is surging with global ambition. But, beyond the luxury hotels surrounding Mumbai airport lies a makeshift slum, full of people with plans of their own. Zehrunisa (Meera Syal) and her son Abdul aim to recycle enough rubbish to fund a proper house. Sunil, twelve and stunted, wants to eat until he’s as tall as Kalu the thief. Asha seeks to steal government anti-poverty funds to turn herself into a ‘first-class person’, while her daughter Manju intends to become the slum’s first female graduate.

But their schemes are fragile. Global recession threatens the garbage trade, and another slum dweller is about to make an accusation that will destroy Zehrunisa herself, and shatter the neighbourhood.

Katherine Boo spent three years in Annawadi recording the lives of its residents. From her uncompromising, award-winning book, David Hare has fashioned a tumultuous play on an epic scale.

Meera Syal is known to a huge television and film audience for work including Goodness Gracious Me, The Kumars, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Absolutely Anything, Scoop and Anita and Me (from her own book). Her theatre work includes Rafta, Rafta for the National Theatre, Much Ado About Nothing (RSC), The Killing of Sister George (West End) and Shirley Valentine (Menier Chocolate Factory).

David Hare has written fifteen original plays for the National Theatre, including The Power of Yes, Gethsemane, Stuff Happens, The Permanent Way, Amy’s View, Skylight (screened recently at Cinema Nouveau), The Secret Rapture, The Absence of War, Murmuring Judges, Racing Demon, Pravda (written with Howard Brenton) and Plenty. His many screenplays include Turks and Caicos, Salting the Battlefield, Page Eight, The Hours and The Reader.

Katherine Boo is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a former reporter and editor for The Washington Post. Her first book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, also won the 2013 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award and was a 2013 Pulitzer Finalist.

In April 2015, Rufus Norris will become Director of the National Theatre, where he has directed Table, The Amen Corner, London Road, Death and the King's Horseman and Market Boy. Screen work includes Broken, which won the British Independent Film Award for Best Film, and the film of London Road which will be released in June.

Magnificent. Rufus Norris’s production has a humane, dignified sweep that captivates’ – Independent

The full cast of Behind the Beautiful Forevers is: Hiran Abeysekera, Esh Alladi, Nathalie Armin, Pal Aron, Tia-Lana Chinapyel, Vincent Ebrahim, Sartaj Garewal, Mariam Haque, Thusitha Jayasundera, Muzz Khan, Ranjit Krishnamma, Manjeet Mann, Nikita Mehta, Anjli Mohindra, Tia Palamathanan, Bharti Patel, Ronak Patani, Chook Sibtain, Anneika Rose, Gavi Singh Chera, Stephanie Street, Meera Syal, Anjana Vasan, Assad Zaman and Shane Zaza.

The production is designed by Katrina Lindsay, with lighting by Paule Constable, sound by Paul Arditti, fight direction by Kate Waters and video design by Jack Henry James. 

Behind the Beautiful Forevers releases on South African screens from Saturday, 04 April, for four screenings only:  04, 08 and 09 April at 19:30, and on Sunday, 05 April at 14:30 – only at Cinema Nouveau theatres in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town. 

The running time of this production is 2hrs 50mins, including a 20-min interval.

For booking information on Behind the Beautiful Forevers, download the Ster-Kinekor App on any Nokia, Samsung Android, iPhone or Blackberry smart phone for updates, news and to make a booking. Visit www.cinemanouveau.co.za or sterkinekor.mob. Follow us on Twitter @nouveaubuzz and on Facebook at Cinema Nouveau. For queries, contact Ticketline on 0861 Movies (668 437).

The discounts and benefits for cardholders of SK Club, Discovery Vitality and Edgars Club loyalty programmes do apply for all live theatre productions. Special prices for school and group bookings are also available on request.

View the trailer of Behind the Beautiful Forevers here: http://sterkinekor.com/?cinemaID=11#/trailer/6887/Behind%20the%20Beautiful%20Forevers%20%28NT%20Live%29/

Hi-res images for this production are available at: www.skpictures.co.za

National Theatre Live enables audiences to experience the best of British theatre throughout the year, as the NT brings cameras into the auditorium to record and broadcast performances from stage to screen. Over three and a half million people have experienced a National Theatre Live broadcast via satellite, both live and time-delayed, in more than 2 000 venues in over 40 different countries around the world, including South Africa. National Theatre Live events are distributed outside the U.K. through New York-based BY Experience, the pioneer of global live “alternative content” digital cinema events.

Forthcoming productions from National Theatre Live to be screened at Cinema Nouveau in South Africa within the next few months include:

A View from the Bridge (releases on 25 April 2015)

by Arthur Miller

Don’t miss this stellar cast led by Mark Strong (The Imitation Game; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) in the Young Vic’s ‘magnetic, electrifying, astonishingly bold’ production –

The Evening Standard, Guardian and Independent’s top theatre pick of 2014. 

The great Arthur Miller confronts the American dream in this dark and passionate tale. In Brooklyn, longshore-man Eddie Carbone welcomes his Sicilian cousins to the land of freedom. But when one of them falls for his beautiful niece, they discover that freedom comes at a price. Eddie’s jealous mistrust exposes a deep, unspeakable secret – one that drives him to commit the ultimate betrayal. The visionary Ivo van Hove directs this stunning production of Miller’s tragic masterpiece, broadcast from London’s West End by National Theatre Live.

The Hard Problem (releases on 16 May 2015)

a new play by Tom Stoppard

Hilary, a young psychology researcher at a brain-science institute, is nursing a private sorrow and a troubling question at work, where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness?

This is ‘the hard problem’ which puts Hilary at odds with her colleagues who include her first mentor Spike, her boss Leo and the billionaire founder of the institute, Jerry. Is the day coming when the computer and the MRI scanner will answer all the questions psychology can ask? Meanwhile Hilary needs a miracle, and she is prepared to pray for one.

‘Stimulating. Absorbing. A rich, ideas-packed work.’ – Guardian

Man and Superman (releases on 13 June 2015)

by Bernard Shaw

Academy Award®-nominee Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient, Schindler’s List) plays Jack Tanner in this exhilarating reinvention of Shaw’s witty, provocative classic. A romantic comedy, an epic fairy tale, a fiery philosophical debate, Man and Superman asks fundamental questions about how we live.

‘Dazzling. Ralph Fiennes proves his star status. Indira Varma is a triumph.’ – The Times