Obstructed Views
The audience member to my left was a column, if I recall correctly. I was in the balcony and fairly close. It was Mary Stuart. I recall being wowed by a black dress with big gold polka dots, and perhaps some water onstage? The program was an entire chapter of a history book. I wished I had gotten there earlier to read it all. I probably would have understood a little more of the plot. Someone had told me that a UK audience tends to be familiar with the plot ahead of time - so the production does not cater to my British history naivete. The column did give me a little more cover as I leafed through the program when I felt lost.
I was 20. In London for a week with tickets to 4 shows. I think that a $10 or $15 ticket in Philadelphia, where I was in college, was very rare. Did I even get free seats to student shows? Maybe one for myself, but I do remember paying for my sister’s tickets. So, I can just imagine the goofy glee in my voice as I said, “£10 tickets!” repeatedly.
Those tickets may have been for obstructed seats, but it looks like the Artistic Director who was new that year, Nicholas Hytner, pursued funding to make most tickets that affordable. The National’s website made that news, not his big hit show, Jerry Springer the Musical, the first fact under his bio:
…the theatre secured the Travelex sponsorship that would underwrite cheap tickets and encourage younger and less affluent theatre-goers to attend: throughout the Travelex £10 Season two-thirds of tickets in the Olivier would be pegged at £10.
Right now, I am off to see the student matinee of Wife of Willesden at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA (a quick 10 minute bike ride - I will be cutting it close!). It is by Zadie Smith, whose essays I do love (Greenwich Village resident and NYU professor); an adaptation of the Wife of Bath from Chaucer and other sources. I hope to send my partner and 12 year-old to it this weekend. I paid for $30 seats - off to the side down front, but not officially obstructed view. If it is more or less appropriate for this particular 12 year-old, the only tickets left will be $25 student tickets which are onstage…! and a few obstructed view folding chairs in the aisles. or $140 seats in smack dab middle.
£10 in 2003 was about $15 then, and about $24 now. (I hope that is right.) Even five years ago, $25 for a ticket more than once a month seemed like a professional expense, but not something I could justify for my own entertainment. Especially if I added a babysitter.
But I guess as a giddy 20 year-old, it thrilled me. I will channel her now and report back. In the meantime, Zadie Smith can take you through the neighborhood where she located this Wife of Bath.