JULY 5: I hadn’t updated in a while, but finally did update in another post. So much of this isn’t true anymore!
THERE IS SO MUCH INTERESTING FREE THEATRE TO WATCH ONLINE RIGHT NOW.
It's a Smorgasbord for theater nerds.
My suggestion: find a comfortable space in a dark room, and use headphones.
Here's my list of things to watch, and to keep an eye on in the world of watching theater from around the world. I'll try to keep it updated, and also welcome suggestions!!
The Schaubuhne, which is my happy place, is streaming a different play every day from 6:30pm in Berlin until midnight. For those of us in the US, that's solidly in the middle of the day but so many of these plays are worth missing out on sunlight (of course I feel that way). Some have subtitles, some don't. (Blasted by Sarah Kane is April 30!)
The Berliner Ensemble is doing a program called BE at Home. The plays change once a week on Friday, and run through the week. I haven't seen any that are titled, but this week (April 24) is Medea, and it's a fascinating production even without English.
Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin is airing a play every Wednesday at 6pm in Germany for 24 hours. I think they all have English titles.
La Comedie Francais has a program called La Comedie continue! They are airing a different play every day, with a lot of pre-show content from the actors in their company. The plays are on youtube live, so you have to watch it at the time that they are airing (usually 8:30pm Paris time), or you miss it. No titles, but some of the work is Moliere or other things you might have translations of on your bookshelf, so you can follow along. Or just watch!
Odeon-Theatre de l'Europe in Paris is streaming a lot of work including a Moliere Cycle, some of which has titles.
Stage Russia has been streaming shows for free on the weekends.
Piccolo Teatro di Milano is airing some programming, including the Lehman Trilogy in it's original Italian 5-hour version (no titles!)
May 1-8 Theatertreffen, the annual theater festival in Berlin presenting outstanding work in German language theater, is online this year: --mostly no titles but some of it are plays you probably know like Hamlet or Sweet Bird of Youth.
The Barbican is Streaming Cheek by Jowl's Measure for Measure AND Cheek by Jowl is also streaming their production of The Winter's Tale.
The Stratford Festival in Ontario is streaming plays for 3 weeks at a time. Starting April 30 they have a Coriolanus directed by Robert LePage!
Dead Centre Theatre (Dublin/London) is streaming their play Lippy if you click here. Password "context" (I loved the play I saw of theirs in Dublin in 2015, and am excited to see this.)
On May 1 there is a Hamletmachine directed by Robert Wilson streaming here from 1986 (in German!)
And of course, The National Theatre is streaming a play every week.
Also, a wonderful theater maker and former student of mine has put together this page that has some of these things plus far far more. It’s basically an entire theater education through watching these plays. It’s a much more exhaustive list of productions, I think I’ll keep this list a little smaller and more manageable, but if you want to get deep into the resources of streaming on the internet… Travis is there for you.