Art & Entertainment
Hammer Theatre Center Presents Fall 2023 Shakespeare Festival Featuring National Theatre Live Screenings of Shakespeare’s Othello, Hamlet and King Lear
Hammer Theatre Center invites audiences to partake in an exclusive festival-style event in Downtown San Jose with National Theatre Live (NT Live) screenings of three popular Shakespeare titles shown in repertory: Shakespeare’s Othello, Hamlet and King Lear.
Shakespeare’s Othello, directed by Clint Dyer (Deputy Artistic Director of the National Theatre.) Filmed in front of a live audience at the Lyttelton stage of the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s compelling tragedy of boundary-defying love features Giles Terera (Hamilton, Blues for an Alabama Sky, NT Live: Hamlet) and Rosy McEwen (The Alienist, Motion Sickness, Close to Me, Blue Jean, Vesper) in a gripping new production brought startlingly up to date by a stellar cast. Met with critical acclaim, Othello has been hailed as “Extraordinary…revelatory and relevant” (WhatsOnStage) and “transfixing, full of vision” (The Independent). The NT Live screenings of Othello will be presented at 2:00pm, Friday, September 15 and 6:30pm, Sunday, September 17, 2023.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, directed by Lyndset Turner. Filmed live from the Barbican, Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange, Sherlock, The Power of the Dog) plays the title role of Shakespeare’s great tragedy. Now seen by over 900,000 people worldwide, the original 2015 broadcast returns to international cinemas to mark National Theatre Live’s 10th birthday.
As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father’s death but paralyzed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state. “One of the most visually and atmospherically stunning productions I’ve ever seen, of anything, ever.” (Time Out). The NT Live screenings of Hamlet will be presented at 6:30pm, Friday, September 15, and 2:00pm, Saturday, September 16, 2023.
Shakespeare’s King Lear, directed by Jonathan Munby. Filmed live from London’s West End, Ian McKellen’s ‘extraordinarily moving portrayal’ (Independent) of King Lear. Chichester Festival Theatre’s production received five-star reviews for its sell-out run, and transferred to the West End for a limited season. Considered by many to be the greatest tragedy ever written, King Lear sees two aging fathers – one a King, one his courtier – reject the children who truly love them. Their blindness unleashes a tornado of pitiless ambition and treachery, as family and state are plunged into a violent power struggle with bitter ends. Acclaimed as “nuanced and powerful” (The Times) this is a contemporary retelling of Shakespeare’s tender, violent, moving and shocking play. The NT Live screenings of King Lear will be presented at 6:30pm, Saturday, September 16, and 2:00pm, Sunday, September 17, 2023.
All shows are at the Hammer Theatre Center, 101 Paseo De San Antonio, San Jose. Tickets on sale now (Single show $20; festival pass, student and senior discounts available.) For more information, the public may visit hammertheatre.com or call (408) 924-8501.
Launched by the British National Theatre, NT Live is the theatre’s groundbreaking initiative to broadcast world-class theatre to movie screens. Each broadcast was filmed in front of a live audience in London, with cameras carefully positioned throughout the auditorium to ensure that viewers get the “best seat in the house” view of each production.
Owned by the City of San Jose and operated by San Jose State University, the Hammer Theatre Center is a state-of-the-art performance venue located in the heart of downtown San Jose at 101 Paseo De San Antonio, between 2nd and 3rd Streets. The theatre has presented an array of offerings including outstanding professional productions, community-based works, SJSU shows, and concerts, as well as dance, music, talks, film screenings—even live aerial performances with dancers suspended outside, scaling the sides of the iconic blue building. From jazz performances to mariachi extravaganzas to National Theatre Live film screenings, Cinequest film festival presentations, ballet and modern dance shows, kid-friendly performances, live art, and more, the Hammer’s mission is to serve the community through artistic and educational programming that express the unique characteristics and diverse cultures of Silicon Valley.
For Calendar Editors
What: Hammer Theatre Center invites audiences to partake in an exclusive festival-style event in Downtown San Jose with National Theatre Live (NT Live) screenings of three popular Shakespeare titles shown in repertory. Titles include Shakespeare’s Othello, directed by Clint Dyer (Deputy Artistic Director of the National Theatre) and featuring Giles Terera (Hamilton, Blues for an Alabama Sky, NT Live: Hamlet) and Rosy McEwen (The Alienist, Motion Sickness, Close to Me, Blue Jean, Vesper) ; Hamlet, directed by Lyndset Turner and featuring Benedict Cumberbach (Doctor Strange, Sherlock, The Power of the Dog); and King Lear, directed by Jonathan Munby and featuring Sir Ian McKellen.
Where: Hammer Theatre Center
101 Paseo De San Antonio, San José
(Between 2nd and 3rd Streets)
When: 2:00PM and 6:30PM
Friday, September 15, 2023 – Sunday, September 17, 2023
Info: For specific showtimes and tickets ($20), the public may visit hammertheatre.com or call (408) 924-8501. Discounts for multiple shows, Seniors (62+) and SJSU Community (staff, faculty, students, alumni) are also available.
Press: Contact Katie Hahn, Hammer Theatre Center
katherine.santos@sjsu.edu
Photos: Downloadable high-res photos are available here:
https://bit.ly/HammerGraphics
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"The Mummy," the 2017 Tom Cruise action-horror film widely regarded as among the largest theatrical failures in his filmography, has emerged as one of Prime Video’s top-performing films, according to reports tracking the platform’s charts. One report placed the film at the 10th spot on Prime Video’s top movies list.
The film was meant to launch Universal’s "Dark Universe," a planned shared cinematic world built around the studio’s classic monster properties. That plan collapsed after "The Mummy" opened to poor reviews and underwhelming domestic box office, and no further Dark Universe films followed.
The streaming resurgence comes as Cruise’s own on-screen monster-movie history draws fresh attention: reports note the film is being rediscovered by viewers nearly a decade after its theatrical run, arriving on Prime Video after what one report described as an underwhelming box office performance at the time. Cruise starred as Nick Morton alongside Russell Crowe, Annabelle Wallis, and Sofia Boutella, who played the title character.
It isn’t clear what’s driving the renewed interest, whether algorithmic promotion, nostalgia, or simple curiosity about a film best remembered for its failed franchise ambitions. Prime Video has not issued a statement explaining the title’s chart position, and no viewership numbers have been made public.
The film’s climb echoes a broader pattern: other theatrical disappointments, including a 2020s Gerard Butler action film, have found similar second lives on streaming platforms long after their box office runs ended.
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Art & Entertainment
Netflix’s October 2026 Slate: ‘East of Eden’ Adaptation, Ben Affleck Thriller, ‘Diplomat’ Season 4
Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk
Netflix’s October 2026 lineup centers on a handful of high-profile originals: Florence Pugh leads the cast in this new adaptation of the classic Steinbeck novel, Ben Affleck and Gillian Anderson star in this political thriller, and "The Diplomat," an Emmy-nominated drama, returns for season four.
The month’s release calendar, detailed in an industry preview, spans more than twenty titles across scripted drama, documentary, anime, reality and international programming, reflecting Netflix’s now-standard approach of pairing a few marquee originals with a steady stream of licensed catalog titles and global-market series aimed at different audience segments.
The Steinbeck adaptation, a limited series titled "East of Eden," casts Pugh as Cathy Ames and arrives October 1 as one of the platform’s more literary bets of the fall. It lands alongside a wave of licensed films that same day, including "Ad Astra," "The Devil Wears Prada," "The Sixth Sense," "Pearl Harbor" and multiple seasons of "NCIS" — the kind of familiar-title bulk that typically pads a month’s new-content count alongside the originals.
October 9 brings "Animals," a political thriller starring Affleck and Anderson about a mayoral candidate and his wife drawn into dangerous territory after their son’s kidnapping, according to the preview and a trailer that has circulated separately. The same week, October 8, brings "Below," a six-episode supernatural thriller starring Josh Hartnett set in a coastal town terrorized by something in the water — a project Netflix has also been promoting through its own trailer release.
Tyler Perry returns October 2 with "Doing Life," a romantic drama starring Naomi Baker and Jay Reeves. It will be Perry’s eighth feature made for Netflix, following titles including "A Fall from Grace," "A Jazzman’s Blues" and "Mea Culpa," continuing a production relationship between Perry and the platform that dates back several years.
Keri Russell reprises her role in "The Diplomat" season four on October 15, continuing the well-received original series. Also on the documentary side: "Lorne," director Morgan Neville’s look at "Saturday Night Live" creator Lorne Michaels, featuring interviews with Tina Fey, Conan O’Brien, Maya Rudolph and Chris Rock, out October 5, and "Schumacher ’94 — The Birth of a Legend," chronicling Michael Schumacher’s 1994 Formula 1 title run, out October 2.
The rest of the slate leans international and genre-specific: a Korean fantasy-horror series ("Dead-End Job"), a German psychological thriller ("The Trap"), a Filipino horror-mystery ("Balaraw: Blood Island"), a Polish biographical drama about rock musician Jan Borysewicz ("Less of a Stranger"), and returning anime and reality titles including "Blue Box" season two and "Love Village" season three.
Netflix has not published an official release calendar for the month as of this writing; scheduling for later-October titles beyond October 15 was not detailed in the available preview.
Studio CarryOnHarry Perspective
Literary adaptations and prestige limited series represent a deliberate bet by streaming platforms that quality and cultural weight still matter to subscribers—that not everyone optimizes for quantity alone. This taps into a deeper hunger: the desire to feel like a viewing choice was *earned* rather than merely convenient, especially when a book like "East of Eden" carries decades of classroom authority and critical standing.
In practice, this strategy appears most valuable at moments of subscriber churn or price increases. A household genuinely torn between services may stay for a prestige drama they can discuss at work or defend to skeptical family members—"we’re watching the Steinbeck adaptation"—in ways a fourth reality dating show cannot match. Awards nominations amplify this effect: an Emmy or Golden Globe nomination becomes free marketing that whispers "this matters."
The constraint here is that prestige does not automatically translate to viewership at scale. A critically adored limited series may underperform the analytics of a mid-tier reality show, making it harder to justify the cost to shareholders. Netflix’s preview itself suggests these titles anchor a broader, more eclectic slate—they’re not the whole strategy, just the visible crown jewel.
The most useful way to interpret this may be not as Netflix suddenly becoming a literary platform, but as a company recognizing that different subscriber segments value different legitimacy markers. A Florence Pugh adaptation and a Tyler Perry romantic drama coexist because they’re solving different retention problems for different viewers.
From the Editor — Harry Johal
"That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings." — F. Scott Fitzgerald
I was scrolling through release schedules on my phone this morning—the kind of thing you do while your coffee cools—when I landed on Florence Pugh cast as Cathy Ames. "East of Eden" on Netflix in October. And Fitzgerald’s line came to mind: "You discover that your longings are universal longings."
It stopped me. Because what Netflix is really doing here, underneath all the slate announcements and subscriber retention math, is banking on exactly that discovery. They’re not just releasing a Steinbeck adaptation. They’re releasing permission—permission to sit with a story that millions of readers before you sat with, to feel what they felt, to ask the same questions about ambition and corruption and family that Steinbeck asked seventy years ago.
That’s the real hunger. Not for more content. For confirmation that what moves you isn’t private or small. That your longing to understand cruelty, or redemption, or the weight of a name—these aren’t quirks. They’re human. Universal.
A prestige adaptation doesn’t guarantee viewership. The analytics don’t always justify the cost. But it does something subtler: it reminds people that they’re not alone in what they want to watch, what they want to feel, what they want to *mean* by choosing one story over another. In a world that treats everything as convenience, that reminder matters more than most things Netflix will release that month. Maybe more than Netflix knows.
Read more People’s Choice stories on Studio CarryOnHarry. Reporting via Live News Vault.
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