Day 97 – Theatre at home

Nothing will beat going to the theatre and seeing a live performance, but the National Theatre’s live recordings are a close substitute. The National Theatre in London have been live-streaming a variety of productions to cinemas for years now – I remember going to see Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein production in 2012. It’s a fantastic way to make high-profile theatre production accessible to a greater audience, and I’m so happy that they’ve started sharing their live recordings on YouTube.

The company will live-stream a different play every Thursday, with the video being available for 7 days afterwards. This week’s play is a comedy, One Man, Two Guvnors with James Corden leading the cast, and last night I decided to go to the theatre, at home, to see it.

I could have sat and watched the play in my pyjamas, whilst absent-mindedly scrolling through Instagram (nobody’s perfect), but I decided to make it as though I was actually going out to the theatre and took it as an excuse to dress up, red lipstick and all.

James flicked the lights on and off when I was ready to start, and raised the curtain.

The play was a lot of fun: set in the 60s, the main character Henshall (Corden) gets into some comic predicaments working for two bosses, all because the poor lad just wants a sandwich. There’s a confusing love triangle, mistaken identities, and surprising audience participation that had me gasping in shock at some points. It was so entertaining, and I had great fun watching it, but it did make me miss sitting there and enjoying it with other people.

Even though I was sat alone, it was a great excuse to put my best dress on, a bit of make-up, and enjoy a cocktail on a Monday night. I was in luck, as the ice cream man even came round during the interval! I’ll be sure to have my seat reserved for next week’s performance.