Travelling Light is a new play by Nicholas Wright, staged in the National Lyttelton theatre.

Travelling Light is set around 1900 in a remote village in Eastern Europe, where the young Motl Mendl is entranced by the flickering silent images on his father’s cinematograph. Bankrolled by Jacob, the ebullient local timber merchant, and inspired by Anna, the girl sent to help him make moving pictures of their village, he stumbles on a revolutionary way of story-telling.

Forty years on, Motl – now a famed American film director – looks back on his early life and confronts the cost of fulfilling his dreams.

Following Vincent In Brixton and The Reporter, Nicholas Wright’s new play Travelling Light is a funny and fascinating tribute to the Eastern European immigrants who became major players in Hollywood’s golden age.

Travelling Light stars the Olivier Award-winning Antony Sher, whose previous work with the National Theatre includes Primo and Stanley, and is directed by NT’s Artistic Director Nicholas Hytner.