Program to bring acclaimed shows to cinemas in China

The new season of a theater program, New Live in China, launched by Beijing-based company, ATW Culture, will bring 36 productions to cinemas across the country in the second half of the year, including plays, operas, ballets and musicals, from the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France and Spain.

The highlights will include the play The Lehman Trilogy, produced by the acclaimed National Theatre Live, directed by Academy Award winner Sam Mendes and featuring three-time Olivier Award winner Simon Russell Beale.

Also on the list is the latest London revival of Arthur Miller's play All My Sons, featuring two-time Academy Award winner Sally Field; Henry V featuring Olivier Award winner Jamie Parker by Shakespeare's Globe, and five ballet productions by the Bolshoi Ballet, the celebrated Russian theater, including The Sleeping Beauty and Don Quixote, both performed by principal dancer Olga Smirnova.

"Of the 36 productions to be screened in the project, New Live in China, which is in its fifth year, 70 percent are the latest productions of European theaters," says Li Chongzhou, the CEO of ATW Culture. "It (the program) allows audiences to watch the latest theater productions being performed on the other side of the world."

Since 2015, New Live in China, supported by the British Council, has been offered to Chinese viewers by ATW Culture, the main distributor representing Britain's National Theatre Live in China.