House Full
I’d found a left-over theatre voucher in a drawer so decided to treat myself to a 3pm matinee at the Old Vic. I still had the programme from ‘Living Together’ a few weeks back. Sadly, the House Full sign was up, and all the box office could offer was a ‘standing ticket’ for £10.
‘Not what you’d expect on a Wednesday afternoon’, I whinged to the woman standing behind me in the ‘returns’ queue.
‘You’d never know there was a credit crunch on’, she agreed. She was older than me and wore a woolly hat, but apart from that we were twins: short and round with northern accents. We were well down the queue.
‘It’s the schools, too’, put in a pink-faced man on my other side. Back against the wall and buttoned into a navy overcoat, he looked like the youth who visits his gran in the Catherine Tate show.
The woman frowned. ‘When I was at school, we went to see Shakespeare, not to comedies’ She’d travelled from Chertsey, so no wonder she was cross.
‘Student groups are more likely to have returns, though’.
‘Yes, but I went to see ‘The Doll’s House’ the other week’, I said, ‘and teenagers in the row in front were a right nuisance texting one another, with the teacher telling them off.’
Then we chatted about plays and theatres and prices until a woman in a fur hat came up and offered the young man a spare ticket. ‘Oh, no, you don’t have to pay!’
Soon after, an usher in black, waving a walkie-talkie, made his way along the queue and said there were standing places with restricted views for £7.50.
‘What’s the point of that?’ said my companion.
I decided to walk to Piccadilly because I'd read that ‘The Day the Earth Stood still’ was being screened at the Cineworld at 4pm. The late afternoon sun turned office blocks to gold as I crossed Hungerford Bridge at dusk, and a five-strong band, including accordion and trumpet, played ‘Kalinka’
‘That film only starts next week’ said the girl at the cinema, so I watched ‘Zack and Mirri make a Porno’ instead, which was silly and very rude but had me and an audience of a dozen laughing out loud. It had an attractively grungy look.
When I walked through a very crowded Leicester Square afterwards I heard screaming and saw a screen had been put up to show the front of the Vue cinema. Girls were hanging over barriers, waiting for the stars of a film called ‘Twilight’ to appear.
So altogether it was a good afternoon, even though I didn’t get to the play.
About the Aykbourn Trilogy at the Old Vic
http://theater-ticket.conciergedesk.co.uk/articles/?p=737
About the film:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1007028/
I’d found a left-over theatre voucher in a drawer so decided to treat myself to a 3pm matinee at the Old Vic. I still had the programme from ‘Living Together’ a few weeks back. Sadly, the House Full sign was up, and all the box office could offer was a ‘standing ticket’ for £10.
‘Not what you’d expect on a Wednesday afternoon’, I whinged to the woman standing behind me in the ‘returns’ queue.
‘You’d never know there was a credit crunch on’, she agreed. She was older than me and wore a woolly hat, but apart from that we were twins: short and round with northern accents. We were well down the queue.
‘It’s the schools, too’, put in a pink-faced man on my other side. Back against the wall and buttoned into a navy overcoat, he looked like the youth who visits his gran in the Catherine Tate show.
The woman frowned. ‘When I was at school, we went to see Shakespeare, not to comedies’ She’d travelled from Chertsey, so no wonder she was cross.
‘Student groups are more likely to have returns, though’.
‘Yes, but I went to see ‘The Doll’s House’ the other week’, I said, ‘and teenagers in the row in front were a right nuisance texting one another, with the teacher telling them off.’
Then we chatted about plays and theatres and prices until a woman in a fur hat came up and offered the young man a spare ticket. ‘Oh, no, you don’t have to pay!’
Soon after, an usher in black, waving a walkie-talkie, made his way along the queue and said there were standing places with restricted views for £7.50.
‘What’s the point of that?’ said my companion.
I decided to walk to Piccadilly because I'd read that ‘The Day the Earth Stood still’ was being screened at the Cineworld at 4pm. The late afternoon sun turned office blocks to gold as I crossed Hungerford Bridge at dusk, and a five-strong band, including accordion and trumpet, played ‘Kalinka’
‘That film only starts next week’ said the girl at the cinema, so I watched ‘Zack and Mirri make a Porno’ instead, which was silly and very rude but had me and an audience of a dozen laughing out loud. It had an attractively grungy look.
When I walked through a very crowded Leicester Square afterwards I heard screaming and saw a screen had been put up to show the front of the Vue cinema. Girls were hanging over barriers, waiting for the stars of a film called ‘Twilight’ to appear.
So altogether it was a good afternoon, even though I didn’t get to the play.
About the Aykbourn Trilogy at the Old Vic
http://theater-ticket.conciergedesk.co.uk/articles/?p=737
About the film:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1007028/
3 comments:
I'd be interested in what you make of The Day the Earth Stood Still, Sheila; I love the original but I'm not holding breath for the remake. (The original, in case you didn't know, was based on this short story: http://thenostalgialeague.com/olmag/bates.html )
Nik
Thanks, Nik, for this info. I really like sci-fi and I think I read a decent crit of the film. Choice was partly dictated by what was on around that time. As it goes, I think I was confusing it with another film called 'The Day the Earth Caught Fire' I hope in any case I'll see it.
Sheila
You read a decent crit - well that's heartening; I just dread them ruining it! I shall keep a look out for any further reviews...
Nik
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