3. National Theatre Live. The Beginning of a Revolution

In June 2009 at the initiative of Royal National Theatre in London, National Theatre Live appeared – a revolutionary project through which theatre performances are live streamed. The first one was Phedra⁶⁹ by Racine. The show was live streamed in 73 movie theatres from Great Britain and in 200 others all over the world. The broadcasting was a great success about which The Guardian wrote: “The main lesson is that a theatre production can be made democratically available to a mass audience without any loss of quality. For generations we have been told that the theatre is elitist. Last night it was shown that a supposedly difficult classical tragedy can speak simultaneously to people across the globe… this is only the beginning of a revolution in making theatre available in ways of which we had never dreamed.”⁷⁰ For more than 13 years, The National Theatre of London has been live streaming its shows, at the moment having over 5.5 million spectators and being present in over 5000 locations all around the world.