The Song Lantern

Although the past two years have been challenging for the Theatre industry, they also showed its incredible strength and resilience. Through interviews with West End performers and creatives, this documentary outlines the difficulties presented to our industry over the course of the pandemic, as well as highlighting changes - both positive and negative - that have come from it. An emotional reflection on a battle it was worth fighting for. All profits will be going to 'Acting for Others', an organisation that provides support to all theatre workers through 14 member charities. We hope these stories full of passion for Theatre inspire you just as much as they inspired us!

In a dark, velvety theatre, there is a first kiss between Pietro and Tommaso. When the lights come back on, however, the two students have different expectations of what might follow. The chaos of awakening desire in its complexity and sensuality is told and made almost physically tangible through looks and gestures, approach and retreat, hope and fear.

In May 2014, just months after Dan died, the DSM Foundation commissioned award-winning playwright Mark Wheeller to write a verbatim play that told his story, so other young people could learn the lessons he sadly no longer could, and make choices that would keep them safe. The title takes Dan’s joking last words to his mum, Fiona, before he left home for what turned out to be the last time: ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’. Mark worked on the very first production with his talented youth theatre company in Southampton, Oasis Youth Theatre, and the play had its first public performances in March 2016, with previews in Southampton and its premiere at the BRIT school, just a mile from Dan’s home in Croydon, South London.

Two actors perform a play without an audience.

Dr Frankenstein obsesses over his creation in Blackeyed Theatre’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s masterpiece, in which The Creature is brought to life through puppetry. Captured live at Wilde Theatre, Bracknell, in 2022, this production features ensemble storytelling, multi-roling and live music and explores themes of revenge, prejudice and ambition.

An 11-year old vendor of pirated copies of films in a downtown capital tries every possible way in his position to watch a film for the very first time inside the comfort of a cinema.

Directed by Lithuanian choreographer, Anželika Cholina, this multiple award-winning Vakhtangov Theatre production of Anna Karenina tells the story of Tolstoy’s classic novel entirely in contemporary dance. In this way, Cholina succeeds in finding the equivalent of Tolstoy's words in harmony and movement, with every gesture holding meaning. The distinctive music of Alfred Schnittke helps to reveal the inner turmoil of the characters and their depth. Winner of the "Villanueva Award", Best Foreign Performance, International Havana Theatre Festival; Winner "Crystal Turandot" Best Debut Performance, Olga Lerman.

It’s Sylvia and Marek’s wedding and you are all invited. Over the course of a hot summer’s day, a family gathers to welcome a newcomer into their midst. But as the vodka flows and dances are shared, passions boil over and the limits of love are tested. What happens when the happiest day of your life opens the door to a new, frightening and uncertain future?

Telling the true story of Marvin Bijou, a young boy from a working-class family in a small village, who suffers constant bullying at school and home for being ‘different’ – too sensitive and too feminine. A chance encounter with a drama teacher opens the doors to a world that offers him the chance to escape his situation.

The painter Lili Elbe was the first person to have gender confirmation surgery in the 1930s. The homonymous opera is a glimpse into the life of Lili Elbe and her wife Gerda Wegener (also a famous painter) through Lili's transition at a time when such surgery was still completely uncharted territory.

Movie of the stage play McQueen (written by British playwright James Phillips), at the St James Theatre, London, in May 2015 Featuring: Stephen Wight as Lee Dianna Agron as Dahlia, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Laura Lees and David Shaw-Parker

In the early hours of the morning on the campus of an American college, Martha, much to her husband George’s displeasure, has invited the new professor and his wife to their home for some after-party drinks. As the alcohol flows and dawn approaches, the young couple are drawn into George and Martha’s toxic games until the evening reaches its climax in a moment of devastating truth-telling.

The film adaptation of Kazuo Kikuta novel "Kumo no Ue Dangoro Ichiza", which enjoyed great success at the performances of the Toho Takarazuka Theater at the end of the year. The troupe "Kumo no Ue Dangoro" continues to tour from town to village. The small cast of the troupe includes its leader (Kenichi Enomoto), Norizo (Norihei Miki) and Taizo (Mutoshi Happa), who play female roles - they are all super actors, each of whom plays five roles. Dan Goro dreams of performing in a major theater and tries to put on a big show with a young man he meets in Shikoku named Sakai (Frankie Sakai), but...

Disillusioned by their art, an actor approaching the end of their 20s embarks on a surreal series of events leading them to reflect on their journey so far, what’s ahead, and the big question: Are they just wasting their time?

Subjection

294 statečných

A woman finds herself grappling with the haunting presence, as she navigates through shadows over her present existence.

Set in a dimly lit, nearly deserted cinema hall, the film follows a protagonist whose encounters with a fellow moviegoer, a projectionist, and the presence of an unseen voyeur take on a charged, sexual undercurrent. As boundaries between experience and liminality blur, the cinema hall becomes a space of shared, ambiguous encounters where desire, tension, and vulnerability intertwine.

Andrea Pennacchi questions whether it is still possible to restore the Homeric poems in all their power and tries in his own way, starting with the literal text and then enriching the narrative with reflections, memories, insights and fantasies.

Michael Morpurgo's heart warming story of a champion Chelsea footballer set against the backdrop of the Second World War.