Doctor Faustus is Christopher Marlowe's most renowned and controversial work. Famous for being the first dramatised version of the Faustus tale, the play depicts the sinister aftermath of Faustus's decision to sell his soul to the Devil's henchman in exchange for power and knowledge. In the first-ever staging of this menacing drama at the Globe Theatre, Matthew Dunster's production features Paul Hilton as the arrogant, power-hungry Faustus and Arthur Darvill as the sardonic Mephistopheles, and includes several impressive magical stunts along the way.
National Theatre Live: Coriolanus (2014)
When an old adversary threatens Rome, the city calls once more on her hero and defender: Coriolanus. But he has enemies at home too. Famine threatens the city, the citizens’ hunger swells to an appetite for change, and on returning from the field Coriolanus must confront the march of realpolitik and the voice of an angry people.
True West (1984)
A screenwriter gets conned out of selling a script to a Hollywood producer by his brother, who pitches his own idea for a movie. This video recording of the 1982 Steppenwolf Theatre Company production was later broadcast by PBS.
Scotland, PA (2001)
In a modernized retelling of "MacBeth" set in 1970s suburban Pennsylvania, Joe McBeth, an unambitious hamburger stand employee, is driven to success by his scheming wife.
All's Well That Ends Well - Live at Shakespeare's Globe (2012)
Helena loves the arrogant Bertram, and when she cures the King of France of his sickness, she claims Bertram as her reward. But her new husband, flying from Helena to join the wars, attaches two obstructive conditions to their marriage - conditions he is sure will never be met. Featuring Olivier-award winning actress Janie Dee as the Countess of Roussillon.
The Merry Wives of Windsor (2011)
The fat knight Sir John Falstaff imagines that Mistress Ford and Mistress Page are both taken with him and so, attracted as much by their husbands’ money as their personal charms, he decides to woo them both. But the women are up to the old lecher’s tricks and turn the tables on him with a series of humiliating assignations, midnight terrors and a very damp, extremely smelly laundry basket. Gutsy, colloquial and bustling with vivid characters, The Merry Wives of Windsor is a brilliantly constructed farce and the only comedy Shakespeare set in his native land. It is also the ancestor of English bourgeois comedy and gave birth to a tradition that reaches down to the modern TV sitcom. The production made merry with the relationship between the life of middle-class Elizabethan England and the late medieval period in which the play is set.
Love's Labour's Lost - Live at Shakespeare's Globe (2010)
A scholarly king and his three companions swear off the society of women for three years, only to have a diplomatic visit from a French princess and her three ladies-in-waiting thwart their intentions.
Henry VIII - Live at Shakespeare's Globe (2010)
The Tudor Court is locked in a power struggle between its nobles and the Machiavellian Cardinal Wolsey, the King's first minister and the country's most conspicuous symbol of Catholic power. Wolsey's ambition knows no bounds and when his chief ally, Queen Katherine, interferes in the King's romance with Ann Bullen, he brings ruin upon himself, the Queen and centuries of English obedience to Rome.
Shakespeare's Globe: As You Like It (2010)
Thea Sharrock's irresistible 2009 production of Shakespeare's popular romantic comedy stirs wit, sentiment, intrigue and love into a charming confection which challenges the traditional rules of romance. At its heart, a feisty but feminine Rosalind (Naomi Frederick), in love with the endearingly naïve Orlando (Jack Laskey), uses her disguise as Ganymede to counsel him playfully in the art of wooing. Distraction is provided by Dominic Rowan, a remarkably funny Touchstone, and Tim McMullan, whose sonorous tones are perfectly suited to the lugubrious wit of Jaques. Filmed in High Definition and true surround sound.
Noises Off... (1992)
Hired to helm an Americanized take on a British play, director Lloyd Fellowes does his best to control an eccentric group of stage actors. With a star actress quickly passing her prime, a male lead with no confidence, and a bit actor that's rarely sober, chaos ensues in the lead up to a Broadway premiere.
Timon of Athens (2018)
Renowned for his extreme generosity, the Athenian nobleman Timon has fallen prey to flatterers and false friends, on whom he showers lavish gifts and extravagant hospitality. His loyal steward, Flavius, tries to warn him of the financial consequences of such reckless expenditure, while the cynical philosopher Apemantus mocks his naivety, but Timon ignores them both. When his money runs out and his creditors demand payment, Timon sends confidently to his "friends" for help. When all refuse him, he throws one last party - one that heralds a dramatic change in his attitude to the world.
Papy fait de la résistance (2021)
A staging of Martin Lamotte and Christian Clavier’s play “Papy fait de la résistance” by Serge Postigo.
Gemini (1982)
Filmed version of the hit Broadway show with two of the original stars. Set in the backyard of a blue collar South Philadelphia neighborhood early in the summer of 1973, the comedy-drama focuses on the 21st birthday celebration of Harvard student Francis Geminiani. In attendance are his divorced blue collar father Fran and Fran's widowed girlfriend Lucille, next-door neighbor Bunny Weinberger and her overweight son Herschel, and Francis' classmates, the wealthy WASP Hastings siblings; Judith (who seeks romance with Francis) and Randy (the object of Francis' unexpressed affection), who have arrived unexpectedly, much to their friend's dismay. All are dysfunctional to varying degrees, and the interactions among them provide the play with its comic and dramatic moments.
Bill Bellamy's Ladies Night Out Comedy Tour (2013)
Bill Bellamy's groundbreaking comedy tour brings together some of today's hottest male comics on showcase for the ladies of America. Featuring comics Ali Siddiq, Jay Reid and D'Lai.
Ian Bagg: Getting to F**King Know You (2013)
In his first one-hour stand-up comedy special, Ian Bagg "gets to know you" with his precise and razor sharp tongue, leaving no class clown wanna-be untouched. So let the hecklers be warned. Bagg's untraditional style of stand-up comedy is crafted on stage and on the spot as he "works the crowd" - personally and up-close - in a way that few comics have mastered.
The Impostors (1998)
Wrongly accused of physically abusing a fellow actor, starving thespians Arthur and Maurice find themselves pursued by the law aboard a cruise ship.
Arseniko kai palia dantela (1981)
Members of an otherwise typical New York Brooklyn family are "tortured" by a kind of hereditary madness. In the meantime, the adopted nephew Mortimer tries to do everything to protect his two aunts, who indulge in a variety of dangerous acts, such as poisoning lonely and homeless elderly people, and burying them in the basement of their house. When another niece, Jonathan, arrives, the situation will spiral out of control. The play was released on DVD by Radiotileorasi magazine in December 2010 (78th DVD of the "ERT Cultural Film Archive" series).