NT Live to beam James McAvoy, Maxine Peake, Caroline Quentin and Richard Fleeshman on to Edinburgh cinema screens in 2020

NT Live, which celebrated 10 years of broadcasts this year, will bring a host of top actors including James McAvoy, Maxine Peake, Caroline Quentin, Richard Fleeshman, Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley to Capital screens next year in new theatrical productions Cyrano de Bergerac, The Welkin, Jack Absolute Flies Again and Romeo and Juliet.

X-Men and Atonement star James McAvoy returns to the stage in an inventive new adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac at London's Playhouse Theatre.

Fierce with a pen and notorious in combat, Cyrano almost has it all - if only he could win the heart of his true love Roxane. There’s just one big problem: he has a nose as huge as his heart. Will a society engulfed by narcissism get the better of Cyrano - or can his mastery of language set Roxane’s world alight?

Edmond Rostand’s masterwork, adapted by Martin Crimp, with direction by Jamie Lloyd, will be broadcast live in to Edinburgh venues on 20 February 2020.

The Welkin, a new play by award winning playwright Lucy Kirkwood, will see Shameless and Silk star Maxine Peake lead the cast in a play set in rural Suffolk in 1759.

As the country waits for Halley’s comet, Sally Poppy is sentenced to hang for a heinous murder. When she claims to be pregnant, a jury of 12 matrons are taken from their housework to decide whether she’s telling the truth, or simply trying to escape the noose.

With only midwife Lizzy Luke prepared to defend the girl, and a mob baying for blood outside, the matrons wrestle with their new authority, and the devil in their midst.

The Welkin will be beamed live into cinemas on 21 May 2020.

Later in the year, Jack Absolute Flies Again, based on Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The Rivals will be the third of the new productions to be beamed into Edinburgh cinemas and theatres.

July 1940. After an aerial dog fight, Pilot Officer Jack Absolute flies home to his intrepid young Hurricane squadron at RAF Fontwell (formerly Malaprop Hall, East Sussex).

Back on British soil, Jack is shocked to find his old flame, Lydia, on the base. Setting his sights on winning her heart, Jack’s advances turn to anarchy when the young heiress demands to be loved on her own terms. Caroline Quentin and Richard Fleeshman are amongst the cast.

Finally, Jessie Buckley and The Crown's Josh O’Connor play the two young lovers who strive to transcend a world of violence and corruption in a new production of Romeo and Juliet directed by National Theatre Associate Simon Godwin. Fisayo Akinade is cast as Mercutio.

To date NT LIve, which is broadcast into most city cinemas including Vue, Odeon, The Cameo and Festival Theatre, has screened more than 80 theatre productions reaching an overall audience of nearly nine million people in 2,500 venues across 65 countries including 700 in the UK.

Recent broadcasts have included Julius Caesar with David Morrissey and Ben Whishaw, Follies with Imelda Staunton, Yerma with Billie Piper and Rosentcrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead with Daniel Radcliffe.

To find your nearest venue screening NT Live productions go to http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk