“Witty and Moving:” The Habit of Art Streams Live

— from Orcas Center —

Thursday, Nov. 21, 7:30 p.m., Orcas Center:

A conversation between Benjamin Britten and WH Auden is described in “The Habit of Art”

National Theatre Live’s Encore airing of Alan Bennett’s acclaimed play “The Habit of Art,” with Richard Griffiths, Alex Jennings and Frances de la Tour screens at Orcas Center on Thursday, November 21st at 7:30 pm. The play is directed by long-term Bennett collaborator Nick Hytner. They also worked together on “The History Boys” and “People.”

A multi-layered postmodern masterpiece, centered on a meeting between poet WH Auden and composer Benjamin Britten (Alex Jennings) in 1972, some 30 years after the failure of the opera they wrote together. But the play is not just about this meeting; it is a rehearsal of the play, so includes the stage manager – a brilliant Frances de la Tour – who steps in occasionally to read the part for an absent actor, the writer, who must field complaints about his play, and even a casual walk on from another play being performed elsewhere in the theatre complex.

“The Habit of Art” written by one of the Britain’s best known and best loved playwrights 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.

“Another absolute cracker, often wonderfully and sometimes filthily funny, but also deeply and unexpectedly moving.” Daily Telegraph

”Bennett the maestro returns with a multi-layered masterpiece.” Independent

Tickets for “The Habit of Art” from NT Live: Encore series are $18 for adults, $13 students, $2 off for Orcas Center members, and may be purchased at www.orcascenter.org or by calling 376-2281 ext. 1 or visiting the Orcas Center Box Office open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from noon – 4 p.m.