Phedre

Helen Mirren as Phedre, National Theatre 2009. Photo / Supplied

Rating: ****
Verdict: Almost better than being there.

This is the first in a series of at least four productions by Britain's National Theatre to be delivered to cinema audiences worldwide under the rubric "NT Live". In appropriate time zones (Britain, Europe and North America), the screenings of the June 25 performance were actually live; at this end of the world they arrive as digital projections.

The story of Phedre, wife of Theseus, the founder-king of Athens, and her tragic lust for her stepson Hippolytus has inspired dramas by Euripides and Seneca, but this is the play by the 17th-century French tragedian Racine.

As a technical undertaking, it has to be adjudged a triumphant success: the theatregoers present paid only £10 ($25) as compensation for the intrusive presence of the half-dozen cameras, but for the rest of us it's as good as being there - if not better, thanks to the intelligent framing and judicious use of medium close-ups.

Hytner, the director of the National Theatre, and of such high-tone stage-to-screen hits as The Madness of King George, The Crucible and The History Boys, instructed his actors to play to the audience, not the camera, and the result is compellingly close to a theatrical, rather than a cinematic, experience.

If the performance itself was at times less than riveting, that may be down to the raw material; on the strength of this, Racine is a good reminder of how good Shakespeare is.

Mirren is unquestionably an actress at the height of her powers, and she manages an affecting blend of the girlish and the tragically crazed. But the new translation, by former poet laureate Ted Hughes, is blend of vernacular and self-conscious metaphor that at times teeters on the edge of the banal.

That said, it is a muscular, brisk interpretation of a classic and a feast for theatre-lovers.

The screenings, over the next week only (keep an eye on the papers) constitute a bold move by a local distributor, which deserves support: later seasons (of a Shakespeare, a new play by Alan Bennett and a work based on a Terry Pratchett novel) are promised. Enjoy.

Cast: Helen Mirren, Dominic Cooper, Margaret Tyzack
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Running time: 125 mins
Rating: Exempt