Well, what a brilliant night out ... witty, 100% engaging, a
really good, old-fashioned play by Somerset Maugham. And you could hear every word! (Nothing wrong with my hearing but I'm often challenged when trying to decode mumblemumblegabble on TV. "Got it!" I'll cry after rewinding three times, like trying to solve an obstinate corner of the crossword.)
All the more gratifying that our tickets only cost £1 in the Love Your Local Theatre lottery promotion - which, sadly, has just ended. The theatre was packed with a grey-headed audience ... oh, not often I can look around and think I'm one of the younger ones! We did spend some time wondering why Jane Asher gets to look as she does at 77 ... and we, er, sadly don't despite being respectively quite a bit/a fraction younger.(Cheekbones would have given us a head start.)
I had to laugh when I came across this interview with the theatre's new (young) director:
Tom Littler, the artistic director of the Orange Tree Theatre in leafy Richmond is reminding us not to underestimate his audience. Yes, they may be older, and sometimes wealthier, than the average theatregoer, but they’ve lived full lives.
“Richmond is a very interesting area because many of those people are very liberal, children of the 1960s, have been to parties the likes of which the young people on stage might not even have dreamed of,” he smiles.
“So I always think: ‘Let’s be very careful not to judge anybody, just because their hair is white.’”
But isn't that just my luck ... old enough for creaky knees but a decade too young to have partied on
Eel Pie Island.
