"The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd"

a nice evening out...

I WOULDN’T call myself a hoarder, but I must admit that I do have a dirty secret. It’s a very heavy, slippery little pile of theatre programmes and tickets that I have amassed over the years. I just can’t go and see a play without buying a programme, and I can’t throw them away, so there we are. Something else to dust.

A trip to the theatre, especially a West End theatre where ticket prices are prohibitively expensive, is a treat. It’s also a bit of a risk: if you are not easily pleased you might find that all you get from it is a numb backside. Personally I have always found that even if a play turns out to be disappointing in some way there is always something to hold my attention, like beautiful costumes or scenery.

I try not to buy tickets to a production purely to see an actor I like. If I don’t think I will enjoy the play I usually pass, since anything can happen on the night, and if an understudy has to step in, no matter how well they perform, you are bound to be disappointed. I once went to see a production of Sheridan’s The Rivals, where two TV stars were playing the leads. The theatre notified us a couple of weeks before that one of them had withdrawn, and when we arrived for the performance the second had also dropped out. The cast we saw were fine, but had I bought tickets purely to see two famous actors I would have been very annoyed, and The Rivals is a very long play!

In 2005 my other half and I were wandering around the ancient city of York when we noticed that a production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest was playing at the Theatre Royal. We bought two tickets and that evening we had our first theatre experience together - the first of many - and I thought it might be fun to look back at some of them.

1 Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh, Theatre Clwyd, North Wales, 2007

The director Mike Leigh is famous for his use of improvisational techniques. The 1977 TV version of Abigail’s Party starring Alison Steadman as Beverly was definitive, so this presentation in a 2007 tour could have gone either way. Happily, the actors did a fine job. The main thing I remember was that the actor who played Tony was so uncannily like the actor in the 1977 version that despite being pretty sure that it was impossible, I was compelled to check whether it was the same man.

The play explores the social aspirations of a married couple who hold a soirée to which they invite three of their neighbours. It’s funny, embarrassing and has a giant twist at the end that is guaranteed to shock.