National Theatre Live: The Habit of Art

National Theatre Live: The Habit of Art (2010)

DramaComedy

National Theatre Live’s 2010 broadcast of Alan Bennett’s acclaimed play The Habit of Art, with Richard Griffiths, Alex Jennings, and Frances de la Tour, returns to cinemas as part of the National Theatre's 50th anniversary celebrations. 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 25 years, they are observed and interrupted by, amongst others, their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station. Alan Bennett’s 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. One of the first five episodes also released on terrestrial TV on a 2009 BBC TV series titled "National Theatre Live".

Directors: Robin Lough, Nicholas Hytner.

Casts

	Richard Griffiths as Fitz / W. H. Auden
	Alex Jennings as Henry / Benjamin Britten
	Frances de la Tour as Kay
	Stephen Wight as Tim / Stuart
	Philip Childs as Brian
	Elliot Levey as Neil
	John Heffernan as George
	Barbara Kirby as Joan
	Martin Chamberlain as Ralph
	Laurence Belcher as Young Boy
	Adrian Scarborough as Donald / Humphrey Carpenter
	Tom Attwood as Tom

Crew