Viewpoint: Screen test

Before 2006, the idea of watching a play or an opera from the discomfort of a cinema seat, with the scent of popcorn, nachos and hotdogs wafting through the air, would have been ludicrous. But New York’s Met Opera’s broadcast of a live performance of The Magic Flute to cinemas changed that. Arts institutions the world over, from Glyndebourne to the Bolshoi Ballet, started to copy the Met and soon cinemagoers were pouring out of multiplexes, amazed at the intimacy and immediacy of these screenings. 

The amalgamation of live performance and cinema sounded, to my ears at least, to be a terrible idea. When I finally took the decision last year to subject myself to a broadcast of the National Theatre’s production of Frankenstein, I was confident that my knee-jerk prejudice would be confirmed. I was wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would recommend it, even if getting a ticket might prove easier said than done.