Live theatre – Great!

Well, I thought it sounded good on the tiny blurb I happened to spy a few weeks ago, but I never expected the impact of The Pillowman. It was simply astonishing and I can’t believe I might have missed it. I don’t often go to the theatre – certainly not on my own, but if this is the standard of theatre at the Brighton Little Theatre, then I’m going to be going there a lot more often. Shocking, hard-hitting, it was wonderful that the director gave us this tale of child abuse and murder, brutality and insanity without ‘softening’ the blow. In fact, quite a few people found it too much to handle and there were several empty seats after the interval. Me? I was enthralled from start to finish. My mind ‘wanders’ easily these days, so something has to be extremely gripping to keep my attention and this play didn’t lose me for one second. The acting was astonishingly good. I don’t know how the main character kept up that level of emotion for so many nights running. I was exhausted just watching him! But …
while I’m on the subject of actors, I very often find it difficult watching my ‘friends’ on stage. It was testament to the acting here that my ‘friends’ almost immediately disappeared and became these characters instead. Congratulations to them.
There really is nothing like live theatre that can transport you to other worlds. In this instance, the world was not one I wish to visit on a daily basis, but one that I’m so, so glad I had the privilege of visiting.
Then again, was it the best theatre I’ve ever seen? Erm …………………. Well, there was War Horse, of course …