ECU SCREENS wraps up their spring season with a new comedy by Alan Bennett. Allelujah! will screen on Friday, April 26th at 6:30 PM in the Raymond J. Estep Multimedia Center of the Bill S. Cole University Center. It is open to the public and the cost is $10 for community members. ECU students receive free admission, sponsored by ECU SCREENS.
Allelujah! is a hilarious, satirical drama centered on a small hospital at risk of closure due to budget constraints. A documentary crew helps the hospital fight for survival by following the daily struggles at the hospital. Alan Bennett, who is 84 years old, focuses the play on the geriatric ward and the “old people’s choir.” The play is “subversively political” (The Guardian) but also “leaves you bobbing on a wave of happiness” (Independent).
The characters each have their own method for keeping the hospital open. They include Samuel Barnett as Colin, a government consultant who argues “The state should not be seen to work. If the state is seen to work, we shall never be rid of it.” Deborah Findlay, as Sister Gilchrist, takes a more direct approach to making more hospital beds available. Sacha Dhawan plays an immigrant doctor with genuine concern for the patients’ well-being, but he is facing his own crisis as the end of his student visa puts him at risk for deportation.
The runtime is 2 hours and 30 minutes and includes an interval, when ECU SCREENS will serve free ice cream to audience members. The production has a BBFC rating of “15,” as the play contains strong language. NT Live is the National Theatre's groundbreaking project to broadcast the best of British theatre to cinemas around the world.
The next ECU SCREENS event on Wednesday, July 3rd at 6:30 pm will be The Madness of George III, also written by Alan Bennett.
To learn more about ECU SCREENS, like the ECU SCREENS Facebook page. For more information about the Royal National Theatre in Great Britain and National Theatre Live screenings, visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/. Dr. Rebecca Nicholson-Weir, co-director of ECU SCREENS, may be contacted at (580) 559-5929 or rnichlsn@ecok.edu.
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