A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF A LONDON THEATRE-GOER

It's half-term, the kids are away and all London is your plaything - so what do you do? Go to the theatre, of course! Here's my account of what happened when I did just that.

Since I'm obliged to turn up for the day job, my first decision was to limit myself to three nights out in the week. I know that I'm going to be awake for a good couple of hours after returning home after an evening's entertainment and I also know that I can't sleep for five hours, then work for ten hours, then sit in an audience for another three hours, Monday to Friday. So staying home for two weekday evenings was enough to keep my brain alert and my body vertical!

Next decision concerns cost. Unless it's a once in a lifetime honeymoon or post-Lottery win binge, few of us can pay top dollar regularly for theatre seats. Fortunately, there's a dizzying array of prices from the straightforward Stalls, Circle or Upper Circle options, through to discounts for previews or late ticket availability or for Friends and Supporters and er... the Press. Never think that a show is too expensive or sold out - there's always wriggle room if you're prepared to be flexible. (It's my belief that the myriad of seat prices for sports events and theatres will soon be swept away by models used by Ryanair and other low cost airlines that use a real-time computerised algorithm to drive profit through maximising loading - selling seats on a plane and selling seats in a theatre are pretty much the same businesses, when you strip them down to essentials).

So where should I spend those three precious nights on the town? Naturally, there's the reviews at your favourite website Broadwayworld.com to guide you and it's not unusual to be able to find at least five reviews online for even the most obscure of productions. But there's also the venue to consider. I decided to avoid the trip to London's West End (and, especially, the trip home) and I don't much care for the cramped legroom of its Victorian theatres - average height of a Victorian man was 5 foot 6 inches or so and it shows even today in the splendid auditoria of London's Theatreland. So I looked to the extraordinary range of theatres beyond the West End for my week as a culture vulture.    

The New Wimbledon Theatre has recently been refurbished and comes as close as gets to providing a West End experience in the suburbs. With excellent transport links, it attracts audiences drawn from all over South London, with some very mixed houses in terms of age and social class, although predominantly white and most likely middle managers and teachers (aspirant, actual or retired). It is definitely event theatre, with a real buzz in the house as the lights go down, there's a new show most weeks and big, if not the biggest, names on the cast list. The bars are crowded, but the interval drinks are lined up for you, and, come lights up, I was home in ten minutes for a glass of my own wine. I saw Cabaret and reviewed it here. 

Living in London has its compensations, and the South Bank Complex is one of them. The exterior of The National Theatre is marginally less ugly than it used to be, now there are laser projections on its grey concrete, but it's once you step inside the brutalist buildings that the wow factor kicks in. Foyers and bars are more spacious than ten West End theatres put together, and with super-efficient free cloakrooms for coats and bags (security reasons you see), it's terribly civilised. Seats are as roomy as cinema multiplex audiences have become used to, with plenty of rake for unobstructed views even if a rugby team fill the row in front. Productions are guaranteed to be impressive, but don't find yourself watching two hours of an avant-garde, experimental production translated from the original nineteenth century Rumanian unless that's your bag. That's a little unfair, as The National Theatre has lots of very accessible stuff alongside the Daily Mail-baiting postmodernist material. I saw Mother Courage and reviewed it here.

Finally, London is full of hidden gems like The Kings Head Theatre, Islington. Venues like this give chances to first-time playwrights, to writers wanting to try new approaches and to actors and directors wanting to step outside their comfort zones. In much smaller spaces than the likes of the venues reviewed above, it's a more intimate and relaxed experience. The audience carry pints out of the pub through to simple bench seating in the back-room theatre (actually, it's Islington, so there were no pints, but plenty of glasses of Sauvignon Blanc). You don't get the special effects we associate with event theatre, but the acting is just as committed and the production values of set design, lighting etc are as high as any Cameron Mackintosh venue. With audiences local, most are home before midnight, even if you sink one for the road before leaving. I saw Timing and reviewed it here.

So there you have it - rich fare from London's theatrical menu. Like dining out, you wouldn't want to do it seven days a week, but you don't want TV dinners every night either, do you?

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.