Here’s a confession: in 2013 I was rubbish at going to the theatre. In fact, I only saw Royal Shakespeare Company productions (but in all fairness, I saw many of them). But as an actress it is important to be consistently going to the theatre even if you’re unemployed, plus it’s tax deductible. One of Sam’s greatest pleasures in life is going to the theatre so professional reasons combined with pleasure prompted us to make more concentrated theatre-going efforts in 2014. And so far, so good.
In the past week we’ve had a made rush of theatre in every type of venue possible around London. From a million pound West End production to small fringe play, we got the spectrum covered.
The Book of Mormon- It’s on at the Prince of Wales Theatre, and it’s fairly difficult to get tickets to. We were trying to get day seats to another show and didn’t get them. So Sam entered us on a whim and surprise! This would be a classic example of a big budget show in a huge venue. And it was incredible! I don’t remember when I’ve laughed so much.
Of course bits of the production are going to be offensive. It’s by the creators of South Park after all. But I left the theatre feeling warm and happy. And for any Mormon readers out there, yes it does poke fun of mormonism. But it pokes fun at 100s of other things as well, and none of the Mormon characters are bad people; they are all genuinely nice.
Jumpers for Goalposts- was on at the Bush Theatre and just recently closed. It’s a new work and to sum it up, I’d say it was a nice play. A bit too easily cuddly at times but I’d rather go to the theatre and have that kind of experience than one of pure shock factor. There was some amazing acting from the young man who played the main character, Danny. I adored his performance.
The Bush Theatre is an example of a very well respected, smaller scale theatre that devotes their time to producing and premiering new plays.
Keepsake- Is currently on at the Old Red Lion, and if you are in London it is on till the 25th of January. Sam and I were going to go see this show regardless of our quest to be better theatre goers because it was produced, directed, designed and acted in by our group of friends. Therefore I am biased and not going to go much further into this production.
However, the Old Red Lion Theatre Pub is a very apt example of a good fringe theatre venue. (The American equivalent would be an off-off Broadway theatre.)
