David Farnor | On 10, Apr 2020

BBC iPlayer is headed to the theatre this weekend with Wise Children now available to stream.

With theatres shut cross the UK due to the coronavirus pandemic, a growing number of venues and companies are streaming productions on-demand, some for free, some as part of subscription services. While the National Theatre and Andrew Lloyd Webber are both dropping productions for free on YouTube, BBC iPlayer is now joining the pack with Emma Rice’s take on Angela Carter’s great last novel.

Filmed live at York Theatre Royal in 2019, with support from The Space, the production is a celebration of show business, family, forgiveness and hope. Loved by audiences and critics since its premiere at The Old Vic in 2019, Wise Children follows twin showgirls, charting the glorious glamour and the darkness and pain of a life on stage. Expect show girls and Shakespeare, sex and scandal, mischief and mistaken identity – and butterflies galore.

The filmed production is part of the Beeb’s push to provide culture during the national quarantine, with a number of adaptations of books and plays that are on the current exam syllabus – including King Lear starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thomspon, Tess Of The D’Urbevilles starring Gemma Arterton, Pride And Prejudice and Great Expectations starring Gillian Anderson. Russell T Davies’ adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will also air on BBC Four at 9pm on 19th April before returning to BBC iPlayer.

For more on digital theatre, see our guide to streaming plays online here – or head this way for our full stay-at-home culture festival QuaranstreamFest.)

Wise Children is available on BBC iPlayer until June 2020.

Add to Watchlist