Posts Tagged ‘open air theatre’

The Play’s the Thing

Not sure why, but over the last few years we’ve got out of the habit of going to the theatre. So we’ve decided to do something about that. We have four trips to the theatre booked over the next few weeks.

It all started off on Saturday when we went see Two Thousand Years at the National Theatre. We’re big fans of Mike Leigh’s films and the chance to see his work on stage was too good to miss.

Then next Saturday we’re off to the Open Air Theatre to see The Boyfriend. We love the Open Air Theatre. It’s such a civilised way to see a play. We love it so much that we’re going back about ten days later to see A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream – which is pretty much the Open Air Theatre’s signature play. And then in early September we’re going to see Rock ‘N’ Roll to celebrate my birthday. Tom Stoppard is one of my favourite playwrights. I used to go and see all of his plays, but I don’t think I’ve seen one since I saw Arcadia over ten years ago.

So I’m back into theatre-going with a bang. What’s the point of living in one of the theatre capitals of the world if you don’t take advantage of it. If people don’t go and support good theatre productions, then producers will just give us more and more crap musicals.

How Not To Go To The Theatre

I made a massive screw-up this week.

My step-daughter is doing her GCSEs next year. One of the plays she will be studying is Romeo & Juliet. As it’s currently playing at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park and the Open Air Theatre is one of the best places to see any kind of theatre we decided that we’d take her along to see it there.

So I was put in charge of buying three tickets, which I did via their web site on Monday. I book tickets for last night. Saturday, 17th. Except I didn’t.

When we got there, I went to the box office to pick up the tickets. I gave the chap my name and showed him my credit card. “Did you book on the internet?” he asked. Then he showed me the booking he had found on their database. It was for the previous night – Friday 16th.

“Please tell me that you still have tickets for tonight”, I pleaded – dreading going to tell my family that we wouldn’t be seeing any theatre. They were sold out, but he did have a group of three returns. They were better than our original seats.

“I’ll have to sell them to you”, he explained, “As it wasn’t our fault.” I agreed. He as they started to complete the transaction he had a change of heart. “Tell you what”, he said, “paying full price twice really sucks. I’ll give you these for our cheapest price.” So he sold us three £17 tickets for £8.50 each. It’s really nice to know that there are people like that still about.

Shame about the play tho’. Romeo & Juliet isn’t one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. And this production really wasn’t very good.