Live play set in the final minutes of the general election to be broadcast in TV first While theatre has been broadcast on television and in cinemas before, most notably during the National Theatre's NT Live series, it is the first time a live play has been designed to air in real time. Josie Rourke, the artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, admitted the complicated live elements make the play a "risk," with just two weeks of live shows at the theatre before the broadcast finale. She added: "I genuinely don't know what all of the outcomes of it will be, but one outcome will be some learning and maybe some recalibrating of people's thinking about how theatre might work on television." It will be written by James Graham, who previously collaborated with Rourke on the acclaimed Privacy. A spokesman for Channel 4, which will broadcast the play on May 7 on its digital channel More4, said it will be a "snapshot of Britain in 2015," adding: "There is barely any other real-world precinct left where people of all classes, race, age and faith must physically turn up, as themselves, cheek-by-jowl with their neighbours, in order to fulfil their civic responsibility." Kate Pakenham, the Donmar's executive producer, said: "This partnership will enable us to broaden the reach of the play, bringing the Donmar into living rooms all around the UK live and in real time on the night of the election, in a first for British theatre." The Donmar's forthcoming season will also see Simon Russell Beale star in another new commission, about the Occupy demonstration around St Paul's Cathedral in 2011. He will play the dean of the cathedral in the fictionalised story, entitled Temple.