Why I love theatre...

I haven’t been blogging for a while now, I’m so sorry, but I’ve decided to pick back up where I left off…

And maybe it’s about time to talk about my ‘theatre addiction’.

What is about about theatre that makes it so special? What is it about theatre that makes it fuel my energy level? What is the difference with going to see a movie? What kind of theatre do I like, and why?

It might be interesting to share these thoughts.

I think of my self as a theatre-collector, I try to hunt down those special performances that just stick with you for a lifetime… Because, after all, some plays and shows one has seen, one hardly remember them after a few years. And there are other, when you think about them years after, you can still see them before your eyes, feel how you felt, how the show made you feel, and it does feel like magic.

First of all, nothing beats live theatre, not one performance is the same, sometimes differences in the cast, and always a different audience. It is a unique experience that particular audience shares, just one time. They audience comes together, shares the same experience and they part, going back home. I say sharing the same experience, but the person sitting next to you, might feel totally different about a show than you do. One time I was sitting next to a lady at the Les Miserables staged concert, and we both cried a lot! Except, while she was crying, I was OK, and vice versa, when I was bawling my eyes out, she seemed to be fine! Isn’t that just marvellous? And we both ended up having a great, and a very personal experience.

As I reminisce, looking back to more than 30 years of visisting the West End, my favorite shows are all plays. I love musical theatre, but looking back my favorites are all plays. I think great acting just does something for me. It just triggers something inside me, no other way to say it.

So, let me talk a bit about those favorites of mine.

The first is ‘Amadeus’ the 1998 Old Vic production with David Suchet as Salieri and Michael Sheen as Mozart. I still remember getting a half price ticket at the Leicester Square booth (now TKTS) and sitting stalls second row, and very central seats. Most of all I remember David Suchets performance, it was mesmerising, the way he switched from an old Saliere to the flashback, was out of this world. But the whole production, so so so perfect, the craziness and playfulness of Sheens Amadeus, the whole cast, the set design… everything was 100% perfection.

The next was 2019, and I’m talking about ‘Cyrano’ , the Jamie Lloyd directed play with James McAvoy as Cyrano. I didn’t know that I would like such a modern, ‘bare’ production, no real set, but a bare stage, no costumes, no ‘nose’ for Cyrano. Beforehand I liked the classic plays like Amadeus was, with all the sets and costumes and wigs. How on earth could one imagine James McAvoy as ‘ugly’. The answer is of course, with great acting! It was so fresh, so different, such a clever script, and most of all, it was sexy. It felt at times, just words echoing through the theatre with that amazing Scottish accent, words that just melted your insides…

The third one is a recent one, and it’s Andrew Scotts ‘Vanya’ (09/2023) Vanya is a Chekhov play, and I was a bit hesitant beforehand if I would like it, as I had a terrible and extremely dull experience with ‘The Seagull’. Modern formats of a play don’t always work. But I’ve always liked Andrew Scott as an artist, and he has been on my bucket list of ‘must sees’ for a while now. Andrew played all 9 characters in this play. So I knew beforehand it would be a totally new way to perform ‘Uncle Vanya’. He just portrays one character crying and totally upset, and switches playful to the next. I just loves how he, as an actor, just delves out of his own emotions, and plays around with them. It was incredible to watch... just a masterpiece. I was sitting in the second row stalls, and when he was crying, I just wanted to reach out and comfort him, I don’t think any play has had the same effect on me.

If drama is like playing the piano, and to be able to play all the range of emotions,like the black and the white keys of the piano... than Andrew Scott is Mozart! Just playful, making it look so easy and natural…

All 3 of these plays gave me an emotional reaction, Amadeus just ‘awe’, Cyrano ‘sexiness’ and ‘Vanya’ empathy…

I think that’s my ‘key’ for liking a performance.

I like to compare it to a ball of energy inside me, just in my chest, a ball of raw energy. The ball reacts to what happens on stage. Sometimes I can feel it grow and becoming a huge ball of sadness that makes me cry. Sometimes it just pulls me forward, to what happens on stage, and I barely realise there are other people sitting behind me. It can make me happy, it can make me sad, it just makes me ‘feel’.

I think the theatre is a safe space to feel… In a world where we aren’t allowed to feel most of the time, where society orders up to ‘keep on going’, theatre is a place to just be, to just feel, to be allowed to be human. In that way, theatre can be a kind of therapy.

I’ll keep on collecting plays and musicals as very special memories. Keep them in my head as my special ‘friends’, and remember them, always…