National Theatre

NT Live The Habit of Art 22 April 2010

a new play by Alan Bennett

This performance will be broadcast live with several cameras in the auditorium and views of the stage may be blocked at any time during the performance. Please note:

• This is a studio performance.
• The light and sound will be adjusted for broadcast.
• There will be 360degree filming – resulting in audience members being filmed.
• Everyone must be seated by 6.45pm. No latecomers will be admitted.
• Tickets are priced at £10 for the whole auditorium.

 Visit the NT Live website to learn more and to find your nearest venue.

About the show

5 STARS 'Another absolute cracker, often wonderfully and sometimes filthily funny, but also deeply and unexpectedly moving.' Daily Telegraph

5 STARS 'Bennett the maestro returns with a multi-layered masterpiece.' Independent

Auden often said that metre and rhyme led him down unexpected paths to thoughts he wouldn’t otherwise have had, and in this respect versification and fornication are not so different.

Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera, Death in Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W H Auden. During this imagined meeting, their first for twenty-five years, they are observed and interrupted by, amongst others, their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station.

You are a rent boy. I am a poet. Over the wall lives the Dean of Christ Church. We all have our parts to play.

Alan Bennett’s new play is as much about the theatre as it is about poetry or music. It looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult men, and at the ethics of biography. It reflects on growing old, on creativity and inspiration, and on persisting when all passion’s spent: ultimately, on the habit of art.

‘In the end,’ said Auden, ‘art is small beer. The really serious things in life are earning one’s living and loving one’s neighbour.’

World Premiere

The Habit of Art is sold out for all performances in the current booking period up to 6 April 2010 (except for Day Seats and the possibility of returns).

More performances are on sale to members from 28 January and to the General Public from 17 February, for dates from April onwards.

NT Members are able to book for these performances ahead of the general public - click here for more information on membership and to join online.

The Habit of Art on Tour

Cast to be announced, tour dates available.