NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE PRESENTS "THE HABIT OF ART"

Sunday, May 16th at 1:00 p.m.
and Tuesday, May 18th at 7:00 p.m.
Admission: $15.00 general; $10.00 Loft Cinema members
Tickets on sale now!
**HD Digital Presentation made possible by Cox Communications**

From LONDON'S NATIONAL THEATRE comes the world premiere of The History Boys author ALAN BENNETT's new play THE HABIT OF ART!
Part of NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE, showcasing world-class stage productions filmed in stunning High Definition and broadcast to cinemas around the world!

"5 STARS! Another absolute cracker, often wonderfully and sometimes filthily funny, but also deeply and unexpectedly moving." - DAILY TELEGRAPH

"5 STARS! Bennett the maestro returns with a multi-layered masterpiece." -INDEPENDENT (UK)

"The surprise of Alan Bennett's new fictionalized bio-drama about W H Auden and Benjamin Britten is the high laugh count ... witty and passionate." - VARIETY

Poet W H Auden often said that metre and rhyme led him down unexpected paths to thoughts he wouldn’t otherwise have had, and in this respect versification and fornication are not so different.

Composer 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 in twenty-five years, they are observed and interrupted by, amongst others, their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station.

You are a rent boy. I am a poet. Over the wall lives the Dean of Christ Church. We all have our parts to play.

Alan Bennett’s new 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.

"In the end," said Auden, "art is small beer. The really serious things in life are earning one’s living and loving one’s neighbour."

Written by Alan Bennett, award-winning author of stage and screen (The History Boys, The Madness of King George, Prick Up Your Ears).
Directed by Nicholas Hytner, known for helming such movies as The Madness of King George, The Crucible, and the film version of The History Boys, as well as the National Theatre's recent stage production of Phedre starring Helen Mirren.
Starring Richard Griffiths, well-known for his role as Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter films, as well as the stage and film versions of The History Boys, and such films as Withnail and I and Bleak House, as W H Auden, and Alex Jennings (The Queen, Babel) as Benjamin Britten.
Also starring Danny Burns, Martin Chamberlain, Philip Childs, Frances de la Tour, John Heffernan, Barbara Kirby, Elliot Levey, Adrian Scarborough and Stephen Wight.

**This performance was filmed in HD at London's National Theatre on April 22nd, 2010 for broadcast to cinemas around the world.