All hail the National Theatre

Went to see The Revenger's Tragedy with Furious Piglet at the National last night and I have to say, it kicked about 7 shades of arse. It was fantastic! Moody, sexy, imaginative, and I didn't look at my watch once, which for me, is something of an achievement.



It's part of the NT's Travelex Season, where all the seats are £10, which is such a great deal. My sister and I are currently debating which West End show we're going to take our mum to for her birthday, and we can't get any seats for less than £30 each - and they're the crap seats at that. One of my favourite rants is how British Theatre (specifically in London) has become so elitist - whereas it used to be a cheap form of entertainment for the great unwashed, it is now an overpriced attraction for tourists and the well-off: for a family of four to go and see, say, The Lion King at the Lyceum and to have dinner somewhere afterwards would probably cost around the £200 mark (and that's a generous estimate, I'm not including souvenir programmes, drinks in the interval, maltesers to keep the little darlings quiet when they start getting restless...). And non-musical theatre is no better: producers are so desperate to get bums on seats that they'll stick a celeb in the cast and bump up the ticket prices... Daniel Radcliffe in Equus? Shite. Ticket Price? £35. Seat right at the back of the upper circle with a partially obscured view? Yes. The Globe's got the right idea with it's £5 standing tickets....kind of. If I'm going to see Hamlet there's no way I can stand for 4 hours, and if I want to sit down it costs me a hell of a lot more than a fiver.

So what's the answer? Answers on a postcard, someone, and quickly, because we've got a new generation of kids who have never been to theatre because it's cheaper to go to Blockbusters. And that's a shame, because they'll never get to see the kind of brilliance I was watching last night.