NT's Romeo and Juliet re-conceived as a made for TV film

As the desperate stop-go struggle to reopen our theatres and find some way of helping them to survive continues it’s intriguing to see The National Theatre thinking outside the proverbial box to rescue their planned production of Romeo and Juliet.
But as I’ve said on many occasions on this blog the world of the Arts is full of creative thinkers and, if there is a way to adapt and survive, they will find it.
I realise it’s not quite that simple - financial survival is  also a requirement and though the Government has stepped in with some gratefully received help, for many it is sadly not going to be enough, particularly as this second lockdown begins to bite.
However over at the National, Shakespeare’s timeless tale of star-crossed lovers starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley has been re-conceived as a made for TV film.
The theatre is temporarily transforming the huge Lyttelton auditorium into a film studio and say the production, adapted by Emily Burns and directed by Simon Godwin, will be screened next spring.
It is planned that Romeo & Juliet will be released as an original 90 minute  film on Sky Arts (now available on Freeview) and PBS in the US.
The production will be shot by a team combining experts in both theatre and film and is believed to  be hoping top  embrace the physical space and architecture of the theatre in telling the telling of the story.