Theatre streaming is not a threat to in-person attendance, new research shows | Theatre
Theatrical streaming services and cinema screenings of stage performances pose no threat to “personal” participation and make audiences more adventurous. New research commissioned by the National Theater.
Announcing the findings on Monday, NT director Indhu Rubasingham said the boom in film theaters raised important questions, including concerns that popular initiatives such as NT Live and NT at Home would have a negative impact on live attendance. The organization commissioned a study by agency Indigo to learn more about audiences’ attitudes towards filmed theatre.
When asked about specific benefits of watching theater at home, the second most popular response to Indigo’s survey was “I can discover new performances I hadn’t considered before.” The most compelling benefit was “I can watch it on my own time,” including the ability to pause a performance and return later. Other popular perks included the ability to re-watch a show the audience had already seen live in the theater and the chance to watch more performances than you could manage in person.
Participants emphasized that viewing at home was a “lower risk way to try something new” and that financial pressure was the main reason they attended in-person theater less than they would like. Indigo’s report notes that “there is little evidence that filmed theater reduces in-person theater attendance overall,” and that 93% of survey respondents who watched at least one filmed theater production, either in a theater or online, also attended a performance in person.
Kerry Radden, deputy director at Indigo, said: “Our industry has been worried about what filmed theater means since the pandemic thrust it into the spotlight. What our research has discovered is that filmed theater has the potential to grow audiences rather than being a threat to the live experience. The vast majority of audiences are also dedicated and frequent theatre-goers.”
As part of the research, an online audience survey was conducted over 11 days, collecting approximately 5,500 responses from people across the UK. The research revealed what Indigo calls a hierarchy of preferences in how to watch theatre; In-person performance remained the clear preference at 89%. The report notes that “movie attendance is younger than in-person cinema – with more than half of moviegoers under the age of 35 visibly streaming in the last 12 months.” Since 20% of those who watch movies at home and 15% of those who watch in person are disabled, it has been observed that watching over the internet also increases access.
Matt Risley, chief digital officer at the National Theatre, said: “Filmed theater should never be designed to replace the magic of live performance – it is a complementary offering that can lower barriers, support discovery and keep people committed to theater over time.”
Tom Powis, managing director of production company Wessex Grove, told a panel discussion at the National Theater that filmed theater serves to “accelerate” the life of productions that have a “short and limited” run in the theatre. Powis said the film version of the West End hit Vanya, starring Andrew Scott, was conceived by the play’s director Sam Yates as his “own artistic creation”. Director Justin Martin, whose productions of Suzie Miller’s legal dramas Prima Facie and Inter Alia have become NT Live hits, agrees that film theater is becoming increasingly sophisticated and “the more you do it, the more you learn about its potential”. He compared the close-ups in the film version of Inter Alia to his own “rehearsal room experience” in the production, to “being there with an actor”.
Martin said that when one of his productions is shot on screen and edited, “you can control the rhythm in a different way” and the real advantage is “going into close-up” so the audience can see the details of the performance. When he watched the movie Inter Alia, he said: “I had forgotten the nuance of what Rosamund said. [Pike, the lead actor] “He was doing it.” Martin said future filmed theater productions “will need to be more deliberate” and use “more cameras, different angles” to further push the new art form.
Prima Facie has been watched by approximately 1.5 million people in theaters since its first release in 2022. Inter Alia was broadcast live to 50,000 people across the UK and has been seen by over 450,000 people in cinemas worldwide via NT Live to date; This is more than seven times the total audience it reached during its run at the National. It’s currently running in the West End and will transfer to Broadway later this year.
After the success of Prima Facie and Inter Alia, Martin and Miller are planning a third game to complete a legit trilogy; The result will be a streamable trilogy of films that will be “an experience you can’t have in the theater like a box set,” Martin said.
Rubasingham said NT at Home and NT Live “are not side projects for us”. He added that the initiatives are “part of us meeting audiences where they are” and a way to “extend the life and reach of our performances.”
