Stage on screen continues with the best of the world stage

Video: Vakhtangov Theatre's award-winning 'Uncle Vanya' will be screened Jan. 13 in the Ethel M. Barber Theater.

EVANSTON - Seven critically acclaimed plays from the U.K. and Russia captured on film will be screened in winter and spring of 2018 as the Stage on Screen series continues at Northwestern University’s Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts.

Each Stage on Screen broadcast will be shown for one night only at either the Josephine Louis Theater, 20 Arts Circle Drive, or the Ethel M. Barber Theater, 30 Arts Circle Drive, on the Evanston campus.

Stage Russia HD offerings include “Uncle Vanya,” an award-winning production by Vakhtangov Theatre, the breathtaking modern opera “Drillalians” by the Stanislavsky ElectroTheatre and Red Torch Theatre’s revelatory production of “The Three Sisters,” performed wholly in sign language.

National Theatre Live presents four new broadcasts including works by American dramatist Tennessee Williams, the new comedy “Young Marx” by writing duo Richard Bean and Clive Coleman and new takes on Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” and “Macbeth.”

The schedule for winter and spring 2018 is as follows:

• Stage Russia HD: “Uncle Vanya”
by Anton Chekhov
Saturday, Jan. 13, 2018, 2 p.m.
Ethel M. Barber Theater

This unique adaptation is about what Chekhov’s characters think and what they admit to only in moments of emotional turmoil. They are at times tongue-tied or overly brutal, but their revelations break out of them fervently, desperately, just as a man breaks out of a stuffy room into the open air. A Golden Mask Winner for Best Drama, Vakhtangov Theatre’s “Uncle Vanya” features the inimitable Sergey Makovetsky as Voynitsky.

Presented in Russian with English subtitles, the running time is three hours (with one 15-minute intermission).

• National Theatre Live: “Young Marx”
by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman
Wednesday, March 7, 2018, 7 p.m.
Ethel M. Barber Theater

It’s 1850, and Europe’s most feared terrorist is hiding in Dean Street, SoHo. Broke, restless and horny, the 32-year-old revolutionary is a frothing combination of intellectual brilliance, invective, satiric wit and child-like emotional illiteracy. Creditors, spies, rival revolutionary factions and prospective seducers of his beautiful wife all circle like vultures. His writing blocked, his marriage dying, his friend Engels in despair at his wasted genius, his only hope is a job on the railway. But there’s still no one in the capital who can show you a better night than Marx.

Directed by Nicholas Hytner and written by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman, the production reunites the creative team behind Broadway and West End hit comedy “One Man, Two Guvnors.”

• Stage Russia HD: “The Three Sisters”
by Anton Chekhov
Saturday, March 10, 2018, 2 p.m.
Ethel M. Barber Theater

Timofey Kulyabin is one of the most prominent directors on the Russian theater scene today. His operas and plays have been performed on the stages of the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow's venerable Theatre of Nations and overseas in Vienna and Paris. In this Red Torch Theatre production of “The Three Sisters,” Kulyabin has taken this classic drama and reinvented it as an epic parable about finding harmony through suffering. The entire cast, save for one, communicate throughout the performance solely in sign language. By doing so, the selfishness, isolation and lack of mutual understanding are dangerous and laden with disaster, the characters defenseless against a huge "sounding" world. A revelation of experimental theater that miraculously remains entirely Chekhovian.

“The Three Sisters” is presented in International Sign Language and Russian with English subtitles. The running time is four hours (including one 15-minute intermission).

• Stage Russia HD: “Anna Karenina”
based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy
directed and choreographed by Angelica Cholina
Josephine Louis Theater

This unique production of "Anna Karenina" is a modern dance interpretation of Leo Tolstoy's classic novel, originally published in serial installments from 1875 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger. Telling the life story of the titular Anna, a St. Petersburg aristocrat, against the backdrop of late 19th century Russian society, Tolstoy's novel is widely considered a pinnacle in realist fiction. Cholina strives to find the equivalent of Tolstoy's words in harmony and movement, as every gesture holds as much meaning as a word. The music of Alfred Schnittke helps to reveal the characters of the drama and their depth, together with elegance and mood corresponding to the amplitude of the novel.

"Anna Karenina" is presented in Russian with English subtitles. Running time is 2 hours and 45 minutes with one intermission.

• National Theatre Live: “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”
by Tennessee Williams
Wednesday, April 4, 2018, 7 p.m. 
Josephine Louis Theater

On a steamy night in Mississippi, a Southern family gathers at its cotton plantation to celebrate Big Daddy's birthday. The scorching heat is almost as oppressive as the lies the family members tell. Brick and Maggie dance around the secrets and sexual tensions that threaten to destroy their marriage. With the future of the family at stake, which version of the truth is real - and which will win out? Directed by Benedict Andrews, the cast features Sienna Miller, Jack O'Connell and Colm Meaney.

• National Theatre Live: “Julius Caesar”
by William Shakespeare
Wednesday, May 16, 2018, 7 p.m.
Ethel M. Barber Theater

Caesar returns in triumph to Rome and the people pour out of their homes to celebrate. Alarmed by the autocrat’s popularity, the educated élite conspire to bring him down. After his assassination, civil war erupts on the streets of the capital. Nicholas Hytner’s production will thrust the audience into the street party that greets Caesar’s return, the congress that witnesses his murder, the rally that assembles for his funeral and the chaos that explodes in its wake.

“Julius Caesar” stars Ben Whishaw, Michelle Fairley, David Calder and David Morrissey.

• Stage Russia HD: “Drillalians”
by Boris Yukananov
Saturday, May 19, 2018, 2 p.m.
Ethel M. Barber Theater

Alongside earthly reality, another civilization exists parallel to it. Drillalia, the land of the Drill, is inhabited by numerous races and its people throughout history have traveled to and from Earth, leaving signs of genius behind, while opening up their own world to destruction. We follow the initiation and adventures of a Drillalian prince on a journey through time and space in an effort to save his people. Boris Yukananov's visionary modern opera for Stanislavsky ElectroTheatre in Moscow perfectly weds drama and music.

“Drillalians” is presented in Russian with English subtitles, the running time is two hours and 30 minutes (with two 10-minute intermissions).

• National Theatre Live: "Macbeth"
by William Shakespeare
Thursday, May 24, 2018, 7 p.m.
Josephine Louis Theater

The ruined aftermath of a bloody civil war. Ruthlessly fighting to survive, the Macbeths are propelled toward the crown by forces of elemental darkness. Shakespeare’s most intense and terrifying tragedy, directed by Rufus Norris, will see Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff return to the National Theatre to play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

The Wirtz Center's Stage on Screen broadcasts are sponsored by a generous grant from The Alumnae of Northwestern University. National Theatre Live is supported by funding from Arts Council England and SkyArts.

Tickets are $20 for general public, $16 for Northwestern faculty and staff and $10 for students with valid ID Tickets are available online at the Wirtz Center website, by phone at 847-491-7282 or in person at the Wirtz Center box office in the Barber Theater lobby, 30 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston.     

The Wirtz Center is a member of the Northwestern Arts Circle, which brings together film, humanities, literary arts, music, theater, dance and visual arts.