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…

50 shows 4 my 50th birthday

13th October 2021, I set myself a goal, the year I was 50 I would see 50 shows! It could be a musical, theatre, concert, stand-up comedy, circus… it would all be good. So I had time untill 12/10/22 to reach my goal. Some people give a party for their 50th, I prefered to spoil myself with what I like best, all kind of live performances.

During the first half year, it seemed I wouldn’t reach my goal. Theatres in Belgium and The Netherlands had to close down again due to the pandemic, and lots of shows were postponed. Some as far as 2023. Trips to London became difficult due travelling in a storm, or during a train strike, but both these times I managed to get there somehow. And I got sick myself a few times, one time I had to travel back from London due to a bad infection and one time I got Covid.

But the second half of that year I managed to see a lot of shows, and things started to go lovely and smooth. Even ‘stage dooring’ came back to life after the pandamic.

Did I manage to see 50 shows? Yes, I did! I even managed to see 55!

To put it in numbers, I have seen:

55 shows in total, 8 in Belgium, 1 in The Netherlands and 46 in London.

34 musicals, 12 plays, 7 concerts, 1 stand-up comedy show and 1 interactive experience.

I did see some show multiple times, I’ve see & Juliet and Dear Evan Hansen 6 times each. I’ve been to back to the future 3 times. And I visited both Cinderella and Oklahoma twice.

I’ve seen 6 of my favorite actors (and some of them multiple times): Carrie Hope Fletcher, Eddie Redmayne, Bill Pullman, Marisha Wallace, Sam Tutty, and Willemijn Verkaik.

I’ve seen 3 shows I really didn’t like: The Seagull, Moulin Rouge and Dirty Dancing.

I absolutely fell in love with one musical, Dear Evan Hansen.

I’ve see two shows that were exceptionally good, like almost out of this world good: Cabaret and Mad House. Those two end up on my ‘the best of the best list’ and they join Amadeus and Cyrano, so that makes 4 of the best of the best shows I have ever seen, and two of them I saw during this last year. That alone makes this year a total succes for me!

So here’s the total list of shows I’ve seen:

Cinderella, & Juliet, Leopoldstadt, The last 5 years, The Mousetrap, Back to the future, Frozen, Les Miserables, Dear Evan Hansen, Luka Bloom, Moulin Rouge, Cabaret, Doctor Who Time Fracture, Henry V, The ocean at the end of the lane, Dirty Dancing, Come from away, Dadi Freyr, Cock, Bonnie & Clyde, Get up stand up, Oklahoma, Sarah Millican, Cristina Branco, Post Modern Jukebox, Soulsister, The glass menagerie, Harry Potter and the cursed child, Mamma Mia, The Seagull, Hamilton, Six, Heathers, Sister Act, The trials, Abba Voyage, Mad House, 2:22 a ghost story, The lion the with and the wardrobe, Pirates of the carribean concert, and Josephine B

It has been an amazing year! I know I am very fortunate to be able to see them all. After lockdown, I still had a difficult time when theatres reopend in London, but I wasn’t allowed to travel there. Things we took for granted were taken form us. Life has become uncertain and we have to learn to live with these uncertainties. It now seems it is even more special to meet like-minded people in a theatre or at stage door, and to be able to talk face to face to people about our mutual interests. It’s so much fun to meet people and find them the day afterwards on facebook, or vice-versa, sitting next to someone who recognises me from a facebook group.

What have I learned form going to the theatre that much. Well, a few things.

I really love it to see my favorite shows multiple times, and it is very interesting to see other actors in some roles, and different interpretations, or interactions within the same role. It also made it very clear to me that I do have ‘favorite actors’ and the feeling of being dissapointed when they aren’t ‘on’ for that performance left me with mixed feelings. I really want to give understudies a chance, and some are amazing performers. But when a certain performer blew me away, I really want to see that performance again. And I become very ‘faithful’ with my following of their carreer and wanting to see everything they are in.

Even if I have seen a lot of performances, they still remain special for me. I will never take theatre for granted. It is a magical space where for a few hours it becomes a world of it’s own. Storytelling is so important for us, some stories as escapism, so stories as therapy, some stories to reflect about life, some stories to shock us and face reality,… Every performance is unique, every audience is unique. I will always feel grateful to have been a part of it.

And it fills my heart with joy that we can, once again, meet actors at stage door. It just gives it a little bit of extra sparkle. Just to be totally clear, actors don’t ‘have’ to do stage door, it’s not part of their job. So I really, really appreciate the time they give when they do. I cherish my signed theatre programs!

The thing I also learned is that I love West-End theatre… like, I already knew for for quite some time, but this year it became clear, once again, that Belgium isn’t a country with a high quality of musical theatre. I do my best to try sometimes, but it just leaves me feeling very frustrated. I’d rather watch shows in the Netherlands, where the quality of their ‘Come from Away’ was as good as in London, even translated in Dutch.

So, have I ‘recovered’ from the shock of turning 50? Yes, I have. I hope I can see lots more amazing plays and musicals in the second half of my life, I know theatre is a love in my life who will remain with me till the end. I can’t wait for all that’s to come! With every new announcement of a show I get excited, I know I can’t see them all, and that I live too far away to see them all, but I love the diversity of shows to come! Thank you threatre Gods ;-)