Theatre Trip: Walden

WALDEN

Harold Pinter Theatre

Date: 3 March (Thursday), 3:00pm

Seats: Stalls, Row D19

(Seen with Jess!)

Well, it has been a a minute! In fact, I worked out it has been 63 weeks and one day since my last theatre show in March 2020 (The Red Shoes). It feels like longer though. For a while I ‘broke up’ with theatre because it just made me so sad to listen to shows knowing I couldn’t see any. But now we’re back!

I have about a half dozen shows currently booked, which span the next 6 months or so. Some very exciting ones - Tim Minchin on tour, Sutton Foster in Anything Goes, Joseph, and of course (finally) Hamilton, which was refunded then rebooked then rescheduled and now is finally on the books for December. But this was a last minute booking, just a couple of weeks out - Jess was over to watch the Eurovision broadcast when we booked in!

The COVID protocols were very good. We checked in to the theatre using the app when we arrived, sanitised out hands on entry, had our temperatures checked on entry as well, and of course we kept our masks on the whole time we were inside (unless we were eating or drinking). So we felt very safe. When we were waiting in line out the front, we got given new tickets! Jess had booked the Balcony for £12 a seat, but it must have been a quiet day because we were given tickets that moved us up to the stalls, on the edge of row D! A much better view, for sure.

I didn’t know much about the play going in. We had booked it because Gemma Arterton was is in, but it turned out to be a really deep and thoughtful piece. It is about twin sisters who work/worked for NASA, one as an architect and one as a botanist. The one who was the architect had moved out into the country and invited her sister to come and visit after returning from a moon mission. It exposed the history between the sisters, their past traumas, and the reasons behind their lives. I’m not explaining it well, but it was really emotional and everything unravelled in a really interesting way. Add in the fiancé and the fact he’s an advocate for saving the Earth instead of leaving it for other planets and it made it even more complicated. We both left feeling really reflective and wanting to think more about it.

Like I mentioned, Gemma Arterton was the main actor in this play. Her character spent the whole time on the edge of a breakdown and she did an amazing job of being on edge. There were also a lot of tears and a lot of tension which was acted out really really well! I just wish that the stage door would have been open as I would have loved to tell Gemma and the other two actors how fantastic they were!

While it was a deep way to restart my theatre going experiences, I was so glad to be back in a theatre. Given I’m testing twice a week for work, I’ve had my first vaccination, and the safety protocols at the theatre, I felt perfectly safe and look forward to going back to more shows - I just need more theatres to reopen!