what to watch online - june 28-july 4

One Painting, Many Voices - Copernicus – National Gallery
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​A fascinating short film about Nicolaus Copernicus, the man and the astronomer, and the painting, perhaps the most important ever painted by a Pole, Jan Matejko's 'Copernicus'. Copernicus it was who told the world that the earth goes round the sun, rather than the other way around.

​This painting of him, surrounded by the tools of his astronomical trade, Poland's national icon, is on loan from Kraków's historic Jagiellonian University and is currently on exhibition at the Gallery.

This splendid little documentary has comments from art historians, experts, critics, astronomers and many others, each providing another detail to add to the sum of our enjoyment of the painting and our understanding of both the subject and the artist.

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Mischief Movie Night In
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That hugely talented, madcap troupe of Mischief Theatre, described by many, including me, as ‘the funniest theatre troupe in Britain’ is now online, streaming for the whole of July, a different show every night. The audience decides the genre, the location, and the title, entirely improvised.
July 1 – Aug 1 £10

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A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad) – Silent Uproar
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Following award-winning, sell-out London and Edinburgh seasons, and prior to appearing off-Broadway, this cabaret musical by double Olivier Award winner Jon Brittain with music by Matthew Floyd Jones explores how it’s OK to not be OK.

Sally’s a happy person. She doesn’t let little things get her down and almost never cries. But she’s got an illness. It makes her feel like she isn’t the person she wants to be, but she doesn’t want anyone to know about it. This multi-award-winning musical was commissioned by the Hull company, Silent Uproar, who champion writers to create daring and fun nights out to make the world a little bit better.
Streamed July 1-4 then available on demand July 5-1  £12 plus £3 transaction fee

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Rites of Passage - Glyndebourne Summer Symphonies
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A series of four lovely concerts to be streamed live from the Glyndebourne Festival, between July 2 and Sept 19, showcasing the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.  First up is this week, Rites of Passage, an evening that conjures two different visions of heaven, Mahler’s Symphony No.4, preceded by Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Robin Tacciati conducts the LPO with soprano Sally Matthews. You can buy all four or one at a time.
After first playing, you will have 48 hours to finish watching the concert. The next, Out of Chaos starts streaming from 16 July, Ceremonies and the Quest for Light from 20 August, Schools of the Romantic Heart from 10 September. All can be accessed on www.marquee.tv.
July 2 then available for 48 hours. £50 for all four or £14.99 each. 50% off with Code GLYN50.

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L’Elisir D’Amore – Glyndebourne Festival Opera
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Staying at Glyndebourne (and on a sunny evening who wouldn’t want to stay at Glyndebourne?), Italian conductor Maurizio Benini makes his house debut conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Annabel Arden’s 2019 production of Donizetti’s intoxicating and deeply touching opera, whose fast-moving comic story unfolds the romantic rivalry between penniless farmhand and bumptious soldier, both vying for the love of Adina.
Can the bogus Dr. Dulcamara’s potion - the elixir of love - help farmhand Nemorino win her heart? Peter Auty sings Nemorino with Ekaterina Siurina as Adina and Luciano di Pasquale as Dr Dulcamara.

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The Oresteia - Theatre for a New Audience - Aeschylus
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You’ll have to hurry if you want to catch this one as it’s only streaming until Tuesday and I haven’t seen it yet, but I think, on the evidence of the casting, it’s probably worth it.
 
The Oresteia is based on the three plays by Aeschylus - Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides. They are among the oldest plays in the Western canon and consist of the only surviving trilogy from the ancient Greek theatre.
 
Due to the epic nature of the story and length of the original text, The Oresteia is rarely performed in its entirety, but Ellen McLaughlin’s version of the trilogy has been adapted into one sleek and fast-paced evening of theatre with a modern resonance. The Oresteia is the story of the House of Atreus.
 
The story begins with Agamemnon’s slaughter of his daughter, an act committed in the name of martial duty and pious sacrifice, but deemed unforgivable by his wife, Clytemnestra, who is undoubtedly one of the most primal and psychologically complex figures in all of literature. Her act of vengeance in turn sets in motion once more the bloody cycle of that family’s history and the events that follow cast a harsh and penetrating light on any assumptions we like to make about civilization and the nature of human justice. What does history demand? What is justice? What do we owe each other? The Greeks ask all the toughest questions.
This Oresteia is directed by Andrew Watkins, the large cast includes Kathleen Chalfant. 
Streaming continuously online for 96 hours: June 25 at 7PM through June 29 at 7pm.

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Shook – Papatango
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​From a very old play to a very new one.
Shook by the very young Samuel Bailey (he’s 31 but looks 12) won the Papatango New Writing Prize, was nominated for 7 OffWestEnd Awards and The Stage Debut Award for Best Writer, and was due to transfer to the West End. Then coronavirus hit.

Now it has been revived as a film by a BAFTA-winning filmmaker James Bobin. Inspired by true stories, Shook looks at three young offenders who are due to become fathers while incarcerated. As Cain, Riyad and Jonjo embark on parenting classes under the instruction of Grace, their different histories slowly emerge and their different futures take shape. Grace’s job is to turn these teenagers into parents, ready to take charge of their futures. But can they grow up quickly enough?  Funny and poignant, Shook examines the young people society shuts away.
Streaming June 25-31 £10 with access to for 48 hours after purchase.

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It’s Only a Play – George Street Playhouse
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​This is one of those cases where a flop became a massive hit and had the playwright not been a certified Broadway golden star nobody would have dreamed of reviving Terrence McNally’s 1980s farce after several disastrous early productions. But the writer was Terrence McNally and Broadway knew it was only a matter of time before he rewrote it and got it right which he did in June 2014 when it opened on Broadway and ran for nearly two years, through three cast changes, recouping its entire investment.
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It’s Only a Play is set at the opening-night party for a Broadway show. To work at all, the play needs a cast of ace comedians who can milk the assembled egos and their petty feuds. Luckily, the George Street Playhouse has wrangled crackerjacks, including Andy Grotelueschen, Julie Halston, Christine Toy Johnson and Triney Sandoval. Now through July 4

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Marguerite and Armand – Royal Ballet
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This is Fredrick Ashton’s beautiful and emotional retelling of Alexandre Dumas' novel, La Dame aux Camelias, which is also familiar to us through Verdi’s opera La Traviata.

​Ashton famously created this poignant ballet on Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev in 1963, and here it is performed by Italian guest danseur from American Ballet Theater, Roberto Bolle, and in her farewell performance, Zenaida Yanowsky who, despite her name, is French and Spanish. Gorgeous.

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Tiny House - Westport Playhouse
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It’s a safe bet that when the Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut opened in 1931, its founders did not expect the 90th-anniversary season would be taking place in a virtual universe even H.G. Wells couldn’t imagine. But here we are, with Michael Gotch’s new play about folks at a Fourth of July picnic, discussing retrofitting their lives.
 
Nick and his wife Sam have left the chaos of the world behind for their tiny house among the sequoias — or so they think! But fireworks fly when a quirky cast of characters converge upon their tiny enclave for a Fourth of July barbecue, and we’re reminded that there is no easy escape.

They rehearsed over Zoom, for best environmental practices filmed the actors on green screens for the sets, and assembled a team of digital artists to create a forest paradise for this unexpectedly virtual production, instead of their live theatre.
June 29-July 18 $25

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