Cate Blanchett has asked audiences to stop filming during performances of Electra/Persona at the National Theatre, in a clip an audience member posted to Instagram on 18 September.
Cate Blanchett has asked audiences at the Lyttelton Theatre to stop filming performances of Electra/Persona, addressing the house herself rather than leaving it to a front-of-house announcement.
The request reached a wider audience than the one in the room when a theatregoer posted a clip of it to Instagram on 18 September, captioned as a message from Blanchett to those filming during the show. In it, speaking to the audience, she draws a line between the curtain call and the performance itself.
“There are few places on this planet where we can simply be together and be present. I understand you like filming the curtain call – and it is kind of flattering in a way – but for anyone who is filming the show, please don’t, because it spoils it for the next group of people who come in and are present with us. So thank you very much.”
The footage was posted by the account @tinkerbella.1107, under the hashtag of Blanchett’s own name. Which performance it was recorded at is not something we can establish from the clip.
Electra/Persona is a new play by Benedict Andrews, drawn from Sophocles and from Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, and Andrews directs it himself. Blanchett appears alongside Nina Hoss and Ella Lily Hyland. The production runs two hours straight through with no interval, and latecomers are not admitted until 50 minutes in — an evening with no break in it, which is part of why a lit screen in the stalls has nowhere to hide.
The notices for the production were strong when it opened, and we gathered them in our Review Roundup for Electra/Persona.
Electra/Persona is booking at the Lyttelton Theatre until Saturday 10 October 2026, having begun its run on Wednesday 19 August.
