Network

Professor Matthew Wright was selected as the Musical Director for Network, the UK stage debut of Hollywood actor Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) at the National Theatre.

Network is based on the 1976, four-time Academy Award winning film of the same name, written by Paddy Chayefsky, about the struggles of a fictional television network, UBS, in a dystopian media landscape. It centres around the networks anchor, Howard Beale, and the fallout on discovering he has only a fortnight left to air due to declining ratings. In his final broadcast he unravels live on screen. But when the ratings soar, the network seize on their newfound populist prophet, and Howard becomes the biggest thing on TV. The film has been adapted for the stage by playwright and screenwriter, Lee Hall, most famous for Billy Elliot, and will be directed by renowned Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove.

Professor Matthew Wright worked with composer Eric Sleichim to devise and arrange a 10 channel digital musical score that he will perform onstage at the National Theatre alongside the cast and as part of BL!NDMAN [hybrid], a quartet of laptop performers. The performances reached a live audience of more than 65,000 people during its run between 4th November 2017 and 24th March 2018. In March 2018, Sleichim was nominated for an Oliver Award for best sound design.