100%
Tomatometer
100%
Popcornmeter
6.2
TMDB
Academy Award® nominee Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient, Schindler’s List, Oedipus at the National Theatre) plays Jack Tanner in this exhilarating reinvention of Shaw’s witty, provocative classic. Jack Tanner, celebrated radical thinker and rich bachelor, seems an unlikely choice as guardian to the alluring heiress, Ann. But she takes it in her assured stride and, despite the love of a poet, she decides to marry and tame this dazzling revolutionary. Tanner, appalled by the whiff of domesticity, is tipped off by his chauffeur and flees to Spain, where he is captured by bandits and meets The Devil. An extraordinary dream-debate, heaven versus hell, ensues. Following in hot pursuit, Ann is there when Tanner awakes, as fierce in her certainty as he is in his. A romantic comedy, an epic fairytale, a fiery philosophical debate, Man and Superman asks fundamental questions about how we live.
National Theatre Live: Man and Superman starring Ralph Fiennes
Budget
Not disclosed
Revenue
Not disclosed
Studio
National Theatre
Nicholas Le Prevost
Roebuck Ramsden
Ferdinand Kingsley
Octavius Robinson
Ralph Fiennes
Jack Tanner/Don Juan
Indira Varma
Ann Whitefield/Ana
Christine Kavanagh
Mrs Whitefield
Clare Clifford
Miss Ramsden
Faye Castelow
Violet
Elliot Barnes-Worrell
Straker
Naomi Cranston
Housekeeper/The Sulky Social Democrat
Nick Hendrix
Hector Malone
Corey Johnson
Malone
Tim McMullan
Mendoza/The Devil
3 reviews · 1 critic · 1 fan
1 fresh · 0 rotten
What a piece of work is “Man and Superman”? Hard work, to be frank. George Bernard Shaw’s experimental juggernaut — deemed unstageable in 1903 — makes for three and a half hours of tangled philosophy: a blow-away light comedy weighed down by footnotes. It’s a play for changing times, a bid to throw off the past and make things anew, and yet Simon Godwin’s handsome, modern-dress revival at the National Theatre treats it as a cultural artefact. His production abandons its audience, offering no clues for decoding the text, while Ralph Fiennes plays the motor-mouth social reformer Jack Tanner like a tongue-twister challenge. You keep up or else.
Title
National Theatre Live: Man and Superman
Released
May 14, 2015
Rated
12A
Region of Origin
United Kingdom
Original Audio
English
Runtime
3h 40m
Status
Released
Studio
National Theatre
