London's Best of Enemies Will Screen In Cinemas This May

The play was filmed live earlier this year in London's Noël Coward Theatre after a successful season at the Young Vic. National Theatre Live captured the play during its limited engagement in February which received rave reviews from critics.

This will be the fifth play filmed as part of The National Theatre's 13th season of NT Live. Upcoming plays in the series include the Broadway hit Life of Pi and GOOD with David Tennant.

In 1968 America, as two men fight to become the next president, all eyes are on the battle between two others: the cunningly conservative William F. Buckley Jr., and the unruly liberal Gore Vidal.

During a new nightly television format, they debate the moral landscape of a shattered nation. As beliefs are challenged and slurs slung, a new frontier in American politics is opening and television news is about to be transformed forever.

"Best of Enemies" will premiere in cinemas around the world May 15, 2023 with full listings now available through the National Theatre Live website. The play is expected to become part of the National Theatre's online streaming library, National Theatre at Home, following its cinema engagements.

Earlier this month it was announced GOOD With David Tennant will premiere in cinemas this April. The Broadway and West End hit Life of Pi will premiere in cinemas on March 30.

In her review for The Guardian, Arifa Akbar said: "Both actors are restricted by the highly stylised roles they play, but they never become impersonations. That is partly because the verbatim aspect of the script contains so much genuine, articulate anger and clashing ideologies that they hold us rapt. The question of whether this game-changing debate lowered or elevated the discourse is floated in the drama. Was this a slanging match or televised intellectualism? Sadly, we know the answer to that now."