Theatre binge

A few years ago, I started going to the theatre a fair bit. It was part encouraged by discovering how to work the entry pass system - the first time I investigated the website, I found it too hard to decipher. The entry pass system sold cheap tickets to the theatre to those under 26, I started rounding up a few friends and soon we were booking for all sorts of things. Danny Boyle's Frankenstein, Grief and The Last of the Haussmans - all at The National plus front row tickets for The Old Vic where we saw Kevin Spacey as Richard III. Incredible.

I'm no longer under 26, but I've kept abreast of theatre goings on and regularly score affordable tickets to great plays. As you generally have to book the tickets a few months in advance, I often find myself with 3 shows in 2 weeks - this happened a few weeks back when I saw The Book of Mormon musical (alas no cheap tickets for this one), A Season in the Congo and Othello at The National. 

The Book of Mormon was extremely sharp, so effortlessly sharp that you didn't notice how expertly written the show was. It was very funny and I'd recommend but I couldn't help but think £75 for a ticket meant it was hard for it to compete against best play I've seen all year (Chimerica), tickets for which were £16. However, I do think you often put more weight on plays that deal with serious issues - not that Book of Mormon doesn't mention these, but it's done in a South Park way and not that Chimerica isn't funny, it is whilst blowing your mind about the world's power and money. 

Next up was Chiwetel Ejiofor in A Season in the Congo who plays Patrice Lumumba. Backstory fro The Telegraph: The play deals with the civil war that erupted out of Congo’s first stuttering weeks of independence from Belgium in 1960. Lumumba, who had risen from eloquent beer salesman to the country’s first prime minister of the new regime, attempted to introduce socialist ideas to Congo, but his efforts ended in military conflict and his own murder. In January 1961 he was shot by his Congolese enemies, or possibly by the Belgians supporting them, and later dismembered and dissolved in acid. The CIA and the British have been rumoured to have been involved in his assassination.

The play was directed by Joe Wright (who everyone loves and tends to work with Keira Knightley, ok, maybe just twice), I did think the stage direction was great - the use of puppets, and toy soldiers cascading onto the audience to mark the paratroopers entering the country. I thought Chiwetel was great too. 

To round up my theatre binge, was Othello played by Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear as Iago. It was set in modern times but used Shakespeare's language obviously. I'd never seen Othello before, and thought it was a really good production. 

Chimerica still stands though.