National Theatre Live’s Encore airing of Alan Bennett’s acclaimed play “The Habit of Art” with Richard Griffiths, Alex Jennings and Frances de la Tour  screens at Orcas  Center on Thursday, Nov. 21 at 7:30 p.m. The play is directed by long-term Bennett collaborator Nick Hytner.

This multi-layered postmodern masterpiece is centered on a meeting between poet WH Auden and composer Benjamin Britten (Alex Jennings) in 1972, some 30 years after the failure of the opera they wrote together.

But the play is not just about this meeting; it is a rehearsal of the play, so includes the stage manager – a brilliant Frances de la Tour – who steps in occasionally to read the part for an absent actor, the writer, who must field complaints about his play, and even a casual walk on from another play being performed elsewhere in the theatre complex.

Tickets are $18 for adults, $13 students, $2 off for Orcas Center members, and may be purchased at www.orcascenter.org or by calling 376-2281 ext. 1 or visiting the Orcas Center Box Office open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from noon to 4 p.m.