Book Review: TWENTY THEATRES TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE, Amber Massie-Blomfield

From a Victorian toilet to haunted venues, Amber Massie-Blomfield takes her readers on a journey around the country visiting picturesque theatres in her descriptive and entertaining Twenty Theatres to See Before You Die.

A love letter to the arts, the book is the result of two years of travelling for the former executive director of Camden People's Theatre, who fit her trips around her schedule out of pure passion for theatre.

She details balconies and doors, the reverberation of the different rooms, and the colour of the walls, picturing the history of these places with so much love and joy that, if the chosen buildings were able to blush, they would. Massie-Blomfield starts her adventure mixing past and present in Cornwall, at The Minack Theatre in Porthchurno, and ends it with her own stomping grounds at Camden People's Theatre.

In her travels, she visits only a small part of the wonders that hide in the United Kingdom, but reaches landmarks such as Liverpool Everyman and National Theatre Wales, and shows the world smaller gems like Tom Thumb Theatre in Margate and Mull Theatre on the Isle of Mull.

Going far beyond recounting the naked historical information about these sites, she spritzes her story with anecdotes and emotive facts, hyping up simple details with her evocative and colourful prose. The book ignites dreams of going on a cross-country trek in search of tiny and unexpected theatres, but also contains a deeper reflection on how the craft shapes people as well as infrastructures.

With Twenty Theatres to See Before You Die, Massie-Blomfield perfectly shows that the heart of theatre is still pulsating far from the glitzy buildings of the West End. People make art but it's art that makes people, and theatres are the first witness of this creation.

Twenty Theatres to See Before You Die is published by Penned in the Margins and is out now.

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