Its intense plot may be enough to give anyone indigestion, but a new production of Network at the National Theatre is inviting audiences to watch the ferocious media satire while having a three-course meal on its vast Lyttelton stage.
A limited number of tickets will be available through a ballot system for theatregoers to have an “immersive dining experience” as they watch the play, which will star Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston as the desperate TV news anchor Howard Beale. The show will have its own onstage restaurant, entitled Foodwork, where theatregoers will be seated by a maitre d’ after arriving through a secret entrance.
Dishes on Foodwork’s two menus include portland crab cocktail, short rib and ox cheek bourguignon, and gin and tonic sorbet. Audiences may either dine at tables or at an onstage bar. There are 42 places on stage at each performance. Tickets for a table seat are £95; a place at the bar is £75.
The restaurant is sure to be stylish: it is designed by Jan Versweyveld, who regularly creates sleek, minimal sets for the play’s director, Ivo van Hove. The pair previously collaborated on the Young Vic’s A View from the Bridge, the David Bowie musical Lazarus, and Obsession, starring Jude Law, one of their many stage projects adapted from films.
Network follows the topsy-turvy fortunes of Beale, who announces that he will kill himself during a live broadcast because his show is getting poor ratings. He instantly becomes a folk hero and leads the nation’s viewers in a rallying cry: “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this any more.”
Beale was memorably portrayed by Peter Finch in Sidney Lumet’s 1976 film – the performance saw Finch become the first actor to be posthumously awarded an Oscar. Paddy Chayevsky’s screenplay has been adapted by Lee Hall for the National’s production. Network, which co-stars Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery, will open on 4 November.
