The Old Vic to stream archived shows for free as part of new digital project

The Old Vic has launched a new digital project to offer audiences content online while it's locked down.

Venue ambassadors Claire Foy and Matt Smith will lead a new online Old Vic Education Hub with resources, how-to guides, and interviews to inspire teachers, students, and parents, guardians and carers, while an intergenerational scheme will connect over-60s with primary school children through letters, emails and phone calls.

Several of The Old Vic's archive recordings will be released for free on YouTube starting with the award-winning production of Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls, which is directed by Sally Cookson. The production, featuring the original cast, will go live at 7pm on Friday 5 June and will be available to watch until Thursday 11 June.

In collaboration with the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff, the theatre will present a new podcast, Playcrush, presented by Joe Murphy, while the Old Vic's new associate artist Ella Hickson will Instagram Live workshops with aspiring creatives

The theatre has also launched a major celebration of the NHS, which will run in 2021. Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo has penned a new monologue about the ongoing crisis, with the Old Vic also releasing past monologues online on YouTube every week.

The venue's artistic director Matthew Warchus said: "We seem to be turning a corner with the government's conditional plan to reopen society, but we can expect events like theatre, which involve mass gatherings, will be amongst the last to return. There's clearly still some way to go before we can resume performances from our stage."