Watched an Off-West End Show

Daily email deals have given me some of the most interesting London experiences I could ask for. And when a deal to see Goodnight, Mother, an off-West End play, popped up for £6, I thought why the hell not?

I met Tina in trendy Angel, we had a lovely dinner, and headed to the Old Red Lion theatre. Which, as it turns out, is the upstairs of a pub. Interesting, we thought. We had a glass of wine in the pub and waited until the doors opened to the mini theatre, and headed on up.

I have always loved theatre. Musicals and plays of all descriptions have caught my fancy since I was a child, listening to the Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera soundtracks my dad played in the car. Some of my fondest memories growing up are of family outings to whatever shows came to Toronto. My mother says when I was two, she was nervous to take me to see The Wizard of Oz, but I stood for the entire show, in her words, “mesmerized.”

Naturally, being in London has been like being at an all-you-can-see theatre buffet. There’s been Chicago, Wicked, Oliver, Wizard of Oz, Shrek, Hamlet, Blood Brothers, 39 Steps, Priscilla, One Man Two Guvnors, Richard III, Billy Elliott, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Thriller, and two rounds of Les Miserables. But off-West End theatre was perhaps the most memorable.

I had no idea what Goodnight, Mother was about, but Tina and I were looking for something to do and £6 seemed cheaper than the average evening out. We didn’t know what to expect when we walked up the pub’s stairs and had to cross a small, dimly lit set to get to the bench seating. The place was full to its about 40 person capacity, and the room was so small and intimate, we could read the labels on the fake old school American food in the “kitchen.” And then the play started and we soon learned it was about a woman who, fed up with her life, is preparing to kill herself against her mother’s will.

In this exceptionally small room, that to me looked like a section of a film set, we sat and watched and got drawn in. For “amateur” acting, this production grabbed me and drew me in against my own will. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was certainly not this. When the lights came on, Tina and I turned to each other and each saw that the other was sobbing, too. I don’t mean oh-that-was-so-moving-teary-eyed, I mean quivering lips, mascara running sobs. And because the tiny theatre was so intimate, the two-woman cast looked over the audience and could see our faces clearly and acknowledged our tears.

As a theatre-lover, I find myself quite moved often and in different ways by each show I see, but this incredibly small off-West End play didn’t just move us, it left us both completely destroyed. I don’t know if that’s a testament to how good off-West End theatre is or warning against small and depressing shows. But it was definitely a different experience.

*Note: there are no photos for this event. We were too distraught to think about cameras