Our Day Out

So it's been a while since I've actually done any theatre. I decided to turn down the Park Theatre's production of "Lady Anna" although having been very kindly offered it. A play at the Royal Court didn't work out, and my summer window for fitting something theatrical in is getting shorter. However what has not been denied to me are theatre visits. Having a partner who is in theatre in the higher echelons of management means we get to go often, and many trips are a joy. The best trip of all is to see a mate in a show which one actually enjoys and can make a day of.

Such an opportunity presented itself this week when I went down to Bath to see the gorgeous Anita Dobson in "She Stoops to Conquer" at the Theatre Royal. The trip also provided an opportunity for me to introduce Alan Bates finalist Ryan Hayes to Anita who will be his mentor for this year as part of our new mentorship scheme "You and Me".

I'm a punctual boy, preferring to get to the airport a good two hours before departure, and to get to train stations at least 30 minutes before time, so Ryan's decision to arrive so late he had to plead to be let on the train and find me with the tickets set my heart racing for all the wrong reasons. One of the joys of the scheme is that it gives those of us doing the mentoring a chance to get inside the life of being a young actor in 2015. It makes us think how we might have coped. Ryan has just gradated from RADA and has his first professional job under his belt - a high profile indie film of "Macbeth". Now he's coping with what many of this years graduates are currently dealing with. Getting a place to live sorted and finding a job to pay a living wage between acting jobs. It's hard but it has to be done. That was the reason for his late arrival at the station, but having got there, he proved delightful company for a day out.

Bath Theatre Royal is a beautiful theatre. Having played it myself about twenty years ago, it was great to see it again. I appeared in "She Stoops" nearer forty years ago as part of my first real rep season at York Theatre Royal. I was a fellow in the tavern and a servant. Alongside me as another tavern fellow and servant was an actor called Gary Oldman. I wonder what happened to him?

Those were the smallest parts that Mr Oldman and I had in that season and as a result it is not a play I remember fondly. What a surprise to find it once again and see it work as a funny light souffle of a romp on an afternoon in Bath. Even with an audience made up mainly by a block booking from the dead, the play worked it's magic. A great performance form a young man I directed eight years ago in the National Youth Theatre, and who was now making his debut as a pro. Harry Michell actually made Tony Lumpkin very funny. Some good performances in difficult roles, and of course the divine Miss Dobson. Always a joy to watch somebody who understands comedy, and who can actually do it.

 Anita was thrilled to meet Ryan and they spent an hour in her dressing room chatting away, which will no doubt be the first of several meetings during the year of mentorship. Even the delayed trains first great Western bringing us back into London over 50 minutes late couldn't taint the sunshine of our theatre trip.

 Trips like this aren't cheap,  and we've had lots of people plus Juliet Stevenson telling us just how expensive London Theatre tickets are now, and yet the business increases year on year which means that people do want to see the shows.   The fact is that there's loads of brilliant theatre around, whether it's in the large commercial playhouses of the West End and can only be seen as a birthday treat, or the subsidised repertory theatres of the regions - I recently saw Alan Bates award winner Adam Buchanan in a beautiful production of "Pride and Prejudice" at the Crucible Sheffield - Theatre provides a special evening. Many of this year's graduates may have their eyes set on what they see to be the financial rewards of television and film,  but Theatre is where it is at from an  actor's perspective.  Standing up there and delivering it live, every night, in front of a different audience every time.  That's what we trained for.