THEATRE fans in Wharfedale will soon be able to watch some of the best new productions live - in Otley.

The Courthouse has signed up to the National Theatre Live scheme, which broadcasts the best of British drama around the world, live.

The initiative has proven a great hit at other venues around the UK and will become a regular feature at the Otley arts venue from this September.

The Courthouse’s first live broadcast will be on Thursday, September 1 at 7pm when it will be showing The Deep Blue Sea, by Terence Rattigan.

Directed by Carrie Cracknell, the critically acclaimed production stars award-winning actress Helen McCrory, whose recent TV credits include Peaky Blinders and Penny Dreadful, and Tom Burke, from War and Peace and The Musketeers.

The story is set in West London in 1953, and begins when Hester Collyer is found by her neighbours in the aftermath of a failed suicide attempt.

Details then begin to emerge about her tempestuous affair with a former RAF pilot and the breakdown of her marriage to a High Court judge.

The National Theatre's website, promoting the play, says: "With it comes a portrait of need, loneliness and long-repressed passion.

"Behind the fragile veneer of post-war civility burns a brutal sense of loss and longing."

Then on Thursday, September 22 - again at 7pm - a 'darkly comic new take' on The Threepenny Opera, by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, will be shown at the Courthouse.

The 'play with music' focuses on Macheath, an amoral criminal - also known as Mack the Knife - who marries Polly Peachum.

The union incenses Polly's father, who controls London's beggars, and he proceeds to try to get Mack hanged.

The play stars Olivier Award winner Rory Kinnear as Macheath with Rosalie Craig as Polly and Haydn Gwynne as Mrs Peachum.

The National Theatre says: "This bold, anarchic production is brought to you by a creative powerhouse: adapted by Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), and directed by Rufus Norris (Everyman, London Road)."

It adds: "Contains scenes of a sexual nature, violence and filthy language."

Tickets to both screenings cost £12 and can be booked by visiting otleycourthouse.org.uk, calling (01943) 467466 or dropping in at the Courthouse, on Courthouse Street.