Following Vincent in Brixton and The Reporter Nicholas Wright’s new play Travelling Light is a funny and fascinating tribute to the Eastern European immigrants who became major players in Hollywood’s golden age and a haunting look at the stories we tell about our own lives.
The award-winning Antony Sher will star as Jacob, an ebullient timber-merchant whose encouragement of a young man’s enthusiasm for cinematography leads to success far beyond their remote Eastern European village. Directed by The National Theatre’s Nicholas Hytner.
In a remote village in Eastern Europe, around 1900, the young Motl Mendl is entranced by the flickering silent images on his father’s cinematograph. Bankrolled by Jacob and inspired by Anna, the girl sent to help him make moving pictures of their village, he stumbles on a revolutionary way of story-telling. Forty years on, Motl – now the famed American film director Maurice Montgomery – looks back on his early life and confronts the cost of fulfilling his dreams, both to himself and those he left behind.
This performance will be certificated “As Live” and the content has not been viewed by the BBFC. There is no official age restriction but Cornerhouse recommends certificate 12A.
Post-screening Q&A
Guardian and Observer film critic Jason Solomons will be hosting a Q&A with Travelling Light director Nicholas Hytner and writer Nicholas Wright following the screening of the play. You can tweet, email or use Facebook to send your questions to the panel using the links below, before the start of the play or during the interval. The Q&A will start at 21:35 and end at 22:05.
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