The Crown’s Claire Foy and Matt Smith will star in socially distanced, live-streamed performances of Lungs at the Old Vic Theatre in London.
Foy and Smith, who received rave reviews for the play last Autumn, will rehearse via webcam and perform the live streamed show of Duncan Macmillan’s two-hander on a nightly basis. The auditorium will remain empty.
Directed by Matthew Warchus, Lungs is a funny, powerful, though provoking piece about on a young couple battling their own anxiety and moral dilemma about starting a family when the state of the planet is in crisis.
Read a round-up of reviews for Lungs
Following on from Lungs, the Old Vic will present socially distanced play readings from its empty auditorium, with a full line-up to be revealed.
Each performance of Lungs and each subsequent play reading will be available for up to 1000 people per night (with some matinees) replicating the usual audience capacity size. ‘Tickets’ will be available for between £10 and £65, and, though all audiences will have the same “view” for the live stream, the venue is asking for the financial contribution to be seen as a donation.
Lungs will be presented in June, with performance dates and times to be confirmed. Further productions are also to be announced.
The theatre has described it as an “exciting creative experiment and also crucial in igniting the box office now all our usual channels of revenue have been entirely wiped out”.
