Visits to Theatreland

Oscar Wilde once said: "I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another human being the sense of what it is to be a human being." I couldn't agree more. I love the way a play allows us to experience another person's life in a much more intimate way than a film or TV program. You can really lose yourself in someone else's life for those two hours while you're sitting in a gorgeous, old theatre house, watching a character's life unfold before you. And nine times out of ten, you'll learn a life lesson or two along the way.

I've been taking full advantage of London's amazing theatre scene these past few months, taking in a show whenever I can. There are so many incredible theatres in London, and they actually call the theatre district "Theatreland," which I think is just too cute! What's so amazing to me about living in a city like London is that any day, any time, you have your pick of incredible shows to see. Unlike Seattle where we have to wait for the shows to come to us, here in London, they're ready and waiting for us to just show up. This is definitely one of the things I'll miss the most about London when I go home.

In April, I went to see "The Audience" with my dear friend Anna from work. I had been dying to see it because Helen Mirren was playing the queen, and she was so amazing as the queen in film "The Queen."

The queen holds an audience (ie: meeting) with the prime minister each week, and "The Audience" tells the imagined stories of many different meetings with many different prime ministers over the last 60 years. The story line jumps back and forth in time as we catch glimpses of these special meetings and see the way the queen (and the prime ministers) have evolved over time. Although I didn't know much about many of the prime ministers featured aside from Churchill and Thatcher, I really enjoyed the show and was able to follow along. I've always liked the queen and found "The Audience" to be a very touching look into what life must be like for her. Although she of course has many privileges, she's also had to give up many of her own dreams to serve her country for the past 60 years. Through so many changes in this country, she's always been there, been the one constant presence for the people of Britain. The play highlights this but in a subtle and sweet way.

A week later, I also went to see a play called "The 39 Steps," which I literally knew nothing about but saw cheap tickets for it on Groupon and thought I'd go for it. It was a hoot! There were just four actors playing 130 different roles, so you can imagine things get a bit zany at times. The story is based on Hitchcock's film and is essentially a wild murder-mystery. Even though it was a tad bit too slapstick for my usual tastes, I thought "The 39 Steps" was overall really fun to watch. I also enjoyed it's short running time. At 100 minutes, it was just long enough for the mad plot to unfold, but not long enough for my short attention span to leave me. And my ticket ended up being in the second row! What a deal!

It was a gorgeous night at Piccadilly Circus where the
theatre is located.

I got really lucky about a week later when Anna called me to see if I wanted to see "Hymn and Cocktail Sticks," a double autobiographical play by beloved British writer Alan Bennett. Shamefully, I didn't know much about Bennett before attending this performance but have since fallen in love with his work. Anna actually got the tickets for free at the last minute because her friend's mother was actually one of the leading actresses (unfortunately, she wasn't playing the main role the night we saw the play but had a slightly more minor role for our performance). But we got the tickets for free, and they were gorgeous seats! Such a neat treat!

The first act is its own separate play from the second, longer act. I enjoyed the first play "Hymn," about Bennett's early relationship with his father, a violin-playing butcher who at his son's request tries to teach him to play the violin, but I absolutely loved the second play "Cocktail Sticks." This one focused on the complicated and ever-evolving relationship between Bennett and his small town parents. The play struck such a cord with me on so many levels, and I was incredibly moved by Bennett's honesty and simplicity of words to express such complicated emotions and experiences. I was so moved by his words that I literally wept for the entire last 20 minutes of the play. Luckily I didn't embarrass Anna too much!  :)

Then just this week I was fortunate again to catch another show. This time, I got a very cheap ticket to see "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," which is based on the book by the same title. I read the book years ago and really loved it, so when I saw the advert for this play version, I really wanted to see it. Plus I heard the show won more Oliver Awards than any other play...ever...so I knew it was one I needed to catch.

The "Curious Incident" tells the story of Christopher, a 15-year-old autistic boy who sets out to solve the crime of who killed a neighborhood dog. The story is really about his relationship with his parents, although it's more about their changing relationship with him. The play, like the book, offers great insight into what life might be like for a severely autistic child like Christopher. I really appreciated the play's unique use of movement, light and sound to put the audience inside Christopher's head, especially at times of confusion and stress. I also appreciated how the theatre was decorated with small touches like these drawings: Christopher's equations and doodles that were painted on the walls.

Christopher loves numbers and math, and the theatre design illustrated that so well. They even designated some of the prime number seats as special seats because Christopher loves prime numbers:

The seat next to mine was a prime number seat. All the other seats were red,
but a handful of these prime number seats had a white covering. This is
a terrible photo because I had to sneak it when the usher wasn't looking!
No photography allowed inside the theatre.

I mentioned earlier how my ticket was super cheap (£16!). Well, that cheap ticket didn't buy me a very good seat as I was in the upper balcony in the very last row! Whenever the actors went near the front of the stage, I couldn't even see them. But you get what you pay for, so I didn't worry about it. And I still loved the play even with my crazy seat!  

There's my view! The stage was set up to look like graph paper, and props were used very simply. Instead of
lots of elaborate sets and costumes, they creatively used body movement, lighting and sound to create Christopher's
world for us. It was incredible! 

Sometimes when you go to the theatre, you find a bit of yourself on the stage (like how I felt in "Cocktail Sticks"). Other times, the characters and situations are so different from your own life that you can't relate at all. But what the theatre allows you to do is emphasize and understand life from these different perspectives, and this is exactly how I'd sum up my experience with "Curious Incident." I love so many things about London, but this is why a visit to Theatreland is definitely near the top of my list!