National Theatre Live: ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ starring James Corden launches weekly lockdown series
National Theatre at Home will keep the theatre coming with the hilarious 'One Man, Two Guvnors'.
By Will Stroude
Words: Markus Bidaux
We’ve binged everything on Netflix and we need a break from our marathon of Disney+ princesses, so we’re thrilled to learn that the National Theatre are offering a series of plays from their collection of filmed world-class productions for free.
The National Theatre at Home launches at 7pm UK time on Thursday 2 April (tonight!) with One Man, Two Guvnors starring former Attitude cover star James Cordon.
The play will be available to watch for free on YouTube for one week at which point another play will take its place every Thursday. The critically acclaimed One Man, Two Guvnors was the hottest ticket in 2011 when hit the West End.
I was lucky enough to get tickets during its original run and can confirm it was laugh-out-loud camp fun. Set in 1963 Brighton, the plot revolves around Francis Henshall (James Cordon) who ends up working for two separate guvnors, one who has killed the others brother and neither knowing they are both in Brighton.
It is a tale of calamity played brilliantly by a cast loving every minute of their time on stage.
Gavin and Stacey star Corden recently admitted he questioned whether he would ever play a better part.
“Being in One Man, Two Guvnors is what I consider to be the high point of my career.” Cordon explained . “I can almost chart my professional life as anything that happened before One Man, Two Guvnors and anything that happened after.
“Any of the things that happened in my life subsequently are only due to my being in that play.”
After One Man, Two Guvnors, Jane Eyre hits the digital stage (9 April); then the thrilling stage-adaptation Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island with Arthur Darvill (Doctor Who’s Rory and Rip Hunter in Legends of Tomorrow) play Long John Silver (16 April); and the final play of the month is Shakespeare’s classic comedy Twelfth Night featuring Friday Night Dinner’s Tamsim Greig as Malvolia.
You can stream National Theatre at Home here.