Been to the Theatre!

I have had my first experience in seeing a London play. A friend of a friend had a free ticket to the theatre this past week so I got to see my first show in the city.

Besides all the big venues showing plays like The Lion King, Hairspray, etc, there are also tons of small play houses that show reasonably inexpensive shows (my ticket was $30.00). I was treated to a small 100 person theatre (they like to spell their "er" as "re") showing the Chalk Garden.

It is a story of a 16 year old girl who was raised by her grandmother. The show starts with the grandmother trying to find a governess to deal with the girl as she has chased everyone else off. The story evolves as a mysterious woman takes the job and the girl's mother comes back into the picture and wants to take her away from her grandmother.

First impression of London theatre...wow, there are really old people on stage. I know it sounds horrible, but it was my first impression. I don't know when I have seen a play in the states that had main characters over 75 years old. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the elderly. I read in an article later that the main lead is 76 years old. And sure enough, she was the best part of the play.

Second impression....British English is hard to understand! I think I missed at least a third of the play due to accents, fast talking, and words I had never heard before. I think it would be good for me to get a tv so I can understand the language better! While I live in London, I very rarely hear the English accent since there are so many different ethnicities in the city.

Overall, it was great and I will definitely seek out other small play houses. They also have a number of places that sell half price tickets for some of the bigger shows so hopefully I will get to see some of the main productions in town. I will keep you posted.