Visiting London? Enjoy the theatre! What to see, where to go, what to expect.

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."

A line from Shakespeare's "The Tempest".

Today we are looking at London's theatre scene

and what can be gained from all that is on

offer in probably the world centre of theatre.

Sorry, New York.

Okay, so in this lesson you're going to get a pretty comprehensive guide of what's out

there, and also a bit of a guide for phrases

you could use when you actually go to the

theatre.

So why would you want to go to the theatre in the first place?

Well, if you're visiting London, it's probably one of the best things you can do.

As I said, it's got this fantastic reputation,

deserved reputation for great theatre.

It's an opportunity for you to listen to

English spoken at a pace for native listeners

of English, okay?

If you are a native speaker already, yep, you can be amused by comedy, you can learn

new things about yourself and the world around you by watching a tragedy, yep.

You can feel the raw emotion of a moving piece of opera.

You can laugh with the comics, yep, because

London has it all in terms of live entertainment.

There are musicals like "The Lion King", like

"Mary Poppins", all of them, they're there.

Like running for years on end, "The Lion King" has been going on for over 10 years.

Plays, anything from a small room above a pub to the Olivier Theatre in the National

Theatre on the South Bank, a fantastic amphitheatre-shaped auditorium.

You've got world-class opera, you've got late-night cabaret.

What is cabaret?

Well, it's an entertainment show where you're

going to get different acts, dancers, singers,

jugglers, fire breathers.

You'll also see in the streets of Covent Garden

live performers, stilt walkers, clowns, etc.

And Jade touches on that in a video where she's walking around Covent Garden.

There are comedies, you can find Shakespearean

plays, you can find immersive theatre, which

is outside of a normal theatre.

Maybe you go to a secret warehouse address and all the action is going on around you

as you are immersed in the middle of the action,

and you'll be led to different rooms of the

building.

London, welcome to London.

So, the big theatres.

We have the National Theatre on the South Bank of the Thames.

It's been there for about 50 years.

There are four separate theatres within the National Theatre.

The most famous of those is the Olivier Theatre because Laurence Olivier...

It's named Olivier Theatre because Laurence

Olivier helped to set up the National Theatre

in its current location.

He was one of the greatest actors of the 20th century.

And the Olivier Theatre is a huge theatre and it's a wonderful place to go and watch

a play.

Now, the National Theatre periodically, from

time to time, has, I think it's Monday night,

the £10 season, so not all of the tickets there are really expensive.

And you can find a huge range of plays that are on there.

Not all will be to your or my liking, okay?

But some of the stuff there is excellent.

And it's also a fantastic spot to go to in London.

It's my favourite spot because you get the views of the river, you can see the city.

If you're looking towards the river, the theatre's

behind you, you'll look up, you'll see the

river up there, over the bridge, you're straight

into the West End, and then you'll see the

river stretching upstream and, you know, Vauxhall

and the rest of South London to your left.

So it's a lovely place to sort of go for a

walk on an evening before the show, you know,

soak up the atmosphere.

You'll see buskers outside, there'll be...

There's a skate park quite near there where

you have really good skaters, one of the best

places in London.

The Old Vic is quite near there, near Waterloo train station.

So the Old Vic was where the National Theatre

used to be, and they have a big theatre there.

I've seen one or two shows there that have been very good.

They sometimes get visiting production, so a

theatre company will come and put on a play

there.

And then across the road is the Young Vic,

has a capacity for about 500 people, and there

they look to put on new work, so new pieces of writing about the world around us.

The Royal Court is in Sloane Square, one of the smartest areas of London.

Nice place to visit, and it's very easy to get to the Royal Court.

You literally come out of Sloane Square underground station.

It's on the district line, that's the green and the yellow one, circles the yellow one.

You come out and it's literally next door to the underground station, very central.

The Royal Court built its reputation on being...

putting on quite provocative plays in, like,

the 1960s, so John Osborne's "Don't Look Back

in...", sorry, "Look Back in Anger" was probably

a play there that made it famous because it

showed, like, this... he was a bit of a thug.

Jimmy, I think the main character's called,

slightly sort of aggressive guy, and anyway,

you should read the play, it's a good play.

So the Royal Court still puts on a lot of new writing.

I had a friend who runs London's Vietnamese

Theatre Company, I can't remember what they're

called, but she had some work on there recently,

so they're really looking to get new writers

and perform them.

They've got a big theatre downstairs and a small one upstairs, great place to visit.

Donmar Warehouse is right in the center of the West End, near Covent Garden, and you

can see some excellent plays there.

The Almeida is slightly further north in London,

in sort of Islington, but it's not huge, but

the quality of work there is often excellent.

With all of these theatres, these are, like,

my recommended theatres, so what I would do

is, if you're interested in going, is look up

the date that you're looking to see something

on and see what each of these theatres has, and then choose accordingly.

So, Almeida's up in Islington, on the Northern

and Victoria Line, on the Underground, and

then we have Trafalgar Studios, which is near Trafalgar Square.

These two are probably quite similar, the stages are different, but, yeah, this has

some excellent work on as well.

Then, slightly smaller theatres, so up in quite a trendy area, popular area of North

London, Hackney, Dalston, we have the Arcola

Theatre, so you might see something quite

sort of experimental or political there, and

then down in sleepy South West London, in

Richmond, we have the Orange Tree Theatre.

Richmond is a lovely place to go in London, you've got, if you're there in the summer,

or even in the winter, you know, you've got Richmond Park very near there, which is a

huge great area of natural parkland, and there

are stags and deer there, which is bizarre

given that it's in London, but there they are, just like in Scotland, and the Orange

Tree is, you know, you could have a very

nice evening out at the Orange Tree and have

a little meal next to the theatre, very civilised.

Back into central London, we have the Bush Theatre, which is in Shepherd's Bush, again

they will have some sort of quite new and experimental writing there.

There are some big West End theatres that

are always producing the latest musicals and

musicals that have been on for some time, so rather than searching by the theatre, I

would search by whatever musical it is that you most want to see, but what I'd say is

that that's quite a standard thing for tourists

to do, to just go and see the big musicals,

try and be a bit more adventurous and go to one of these theatres, or be even more

adventurous and go to one of the pub theatres

I'm going to tell you about in a few moments

time.

We've got opera and ballet, so in Covent Garden

is the Royal Opera House, which is a world

class opera house, and it alternates the Royal

Opera Company with the Royal Ballet, so it'll

be like one night, one night, I don't know

if it's every other night, but certainly they

share that building.

And just around the corner, largely at the Coliseum Theatre, is the English National

Opera.

I'm very fond of them because I've worked for

them before on a show called Doctor Atomic,

so I wasn't singing, I'm not an opera singer,

but I did used to work as an actor and it

was fantastic being on stage that close to

people with such fantastically powerful voices.

It was a real, real privilege and really exciting

to bicycle into the West End and go and work,

like, you know, that was a very happy time.

Okay, if you're in London in the summer, then you can see some open air theatre.

So we have the Regent's Park open air, and

it's near a park, a very nice park, Regent's

Park, and you can sit and enjoy a glass of wine and watch the show.

Very nice evening out, or you can go to

Shakespeare's, well it's not really Shakespeare's

Globe, it's the Rebuilt Globe.

So back in 1599, William Shakespeare, as part

of the Chamberlain's Men, built this Globe,

Theatre Globe, because it's round on the south bank of the Thames.

Unfortunately, the theatre burnt down, I think

it was in 1614, and it wasn't until 1997 that

it was rebuilt.

But now it's thriving again, and every year from about April to September, you can go

along and see a Shakespeare play.

It will last about three hours.

If you want to save a bit of money, you can stand up.

So you've got the stage, and in front of the

stage, the people that stand there, they used

to be called the groundlings in Shakespeare's

day, because they're standing on the ground.

It cost £10, I think, to go and watch one of the plays.

If it's hot, wear a cap, yep, bring a bottle

of water so you don't pass out with the heat.

If it's raining, you know, wear an anorak, because you'll be standing in the rain for

three hours.

The actors have a roof over them, so they're

okay, but you need to look after yourself.

So yeah, the Globe Theatre, and it was rebuilt

based on the evidence that the archaeologists

and the architects had to be a replica of the

theatre that Shakespeare would have worked

in.

So from a historical perspective, it's quite

an interesting place to go, and they have

exhibitions there.

So there's a few things to explore other than just the plays.

Okay, so that is the big picture of the big theatres and the medium-scale theatres.

Now, if you are feeling...

Got a nice word for you, "intrepid".

That means if you are feeling adventurous, then you might head for one of London's pub

theatres.

A pub theatre, how does that work?

Well, you'll have the normal pub, but maybe down in the basement, or in a back room, or

up in the attic, there will be some kind of theatre.

They'll be smaller, typically they will seat

about 50 people, and I've just picked out

a couple, depending on which part of London you're in.

So in the west side of London, we've got the

Barron's Court Theatre, which is in sort of

West Kensington, not far from Earl's Court, and the Barron's Court Theatre is beneath

an excellent pub.

Go down into the basement, and it's like being

in a cave, and I've performed many shows there.

And some of the things there are great, so choose well.

It's...

All the shows there, people have hired the space, and they'll say, "Right, we want to

book it for one night, two weeks, three weeks."

So nothing's produced by the theatre, it's all individuals or theatre companies.

The Finborough has an excellent reputation for theatre, and that's also quite close,

it's just next to Earl's Court.

It's above a pub, you might find something good on there.

In north London, you've got the King's Head,

which is in Islington, nice area of town,

and the Old Red Lion, that is above a pub.

I've performed there and had an audition

there, but they both have a good reputation.

In south London, it's not like very far down

in south London, it's in Battersea, just south

of the river, near Battersea Park.

Again, it's quite a nice area of London.

I used to live very near there.

Theatre 503 is above a pub, and this has a

reputation for good new writing, so good place

to go.

Again, seats about 50, 60.

East side of town, I don't know that well, but I suppose the Arcola in Hackney could

be considered east London.

Dalston it is.

You've got the Menier Chocolate Factory, which is sort of a little bit east way.

I've never been there, I don't know what it's like.

So, buying tickets.

I would go directly to the theatre, and because

you're looking to improve your English, pick

up the telephone, rather than buying it online,

so that you're having a conversation with

the sales assistant on the telephone.

If you are looking for fringe, so what does fringe mean?

This is my fringe, it's the edge of your hair.

The fringe means the smaller scale theatre, the off-west end.

West end is the centre, we're looking at the off-west end now.

How do you find this theatre?

You go to the website in the description below,

and then you'll get a guide for the current

theatre in London.

If you're on the telephone, keep it really simple.

Hi, I'd like to get two tickets for the name

of the show, for the date, 22nd of November,

please.

Do you have any tickets available?

Fantastic.

Yes, please.

Yeah, no, we'd like to book them.

Or for tonight, do you have any tickets left?

Do you have any tickets left?

Okay, we're now going to look at some advice

for when you actually go to the theatre, and

some phrases to appreciate what you have been seeing.

Okay, so you've got your ticket, you're all ready, you know where the theatre is, you

know how you're going to get there, off you go.

Now, I would suggest getting to the theatre 15 minutes early, roughly, 10-15 minutes.

And so that you can enjoy the space that you are in.

Most, a lot of the sort of bigger, older theatres

are very beautiful inside, and you can take

in the architecture, and also soak up the atmosphere.

Might be worth buying a programme, that way you can read the biographies of the actors,

the directors, the designers.

And you can read more about the show.

Now, if you're going to be watching a Shakespeare

show, I would strongly recommend that you

read a synopsis of the play before you go.

And that applies to native speakers as well.

So that, you know, if you know what the storyline

is, then you're going to understand much more

of the subtleties of Shakespeare's language.

Otherwise, you'll be left thinking, "Hmm, what is going on?"

Okay, so reading the synopsis beforehand.

The synopsis is the, like, summary of what happens in the show.

Okay, so we get to the theatre, we've got these tickets.

They'll probably be, if it's a small theatre,

there'll just probably be one person there,

and they'll probably say to you, "Oh, sit anywhere you like."

So you go in, that's why if you're early, you can choose where you sit.

You don't want to be late going into a theatre, because it's a bit embarrassing.

So you say to the person, "Where are we sitting?"

They go, "Okay, it's down there."

If it's a big theatre, it will probably be like A, B, C, D, E, F, and then the numbers

will go round.

So if you need to get past someone who's sort of sat there like that,

you might say, "So sorry, can I just squeeze past?

So sorry, can I just squeeze past?

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Yep, I think we're sitting here."

Great, happy days.

Aha, phone off.

You do not want your phone ringing in the middle of a theatre show.

The actors will not be very impressed.

Okay, so we've turned our phone off.

We watched the show.

Okay, yep, yep, lovely.

And then they clap, and it's the interval.

It's the break.

Ah, hmm, bit thirsty.

Ah, there's a really long queue at the bar.

The ice creams cost 400 pounds.

No, they don't cost quite that much.

So that's why I've written here.

It's a bit cheeky, okay?

But you could just put your own drink into your bag,

and maybe a little bag of crisps or something.

But that's not really supporting the theatre.

So if you do want to support the theatre, you can pre-order.

Pre- the prefix meaning before.

So that's why you get there 15 minutes early.

You say, "Ooh, I'd like a drink," in the interval.

And you go to the bar, and you pay for your drink, and they put it out.

So when it comes to the interval, "Ah-ha, look how clever we are.

We've pre-ordered our drinks."

And then we sit there with our drinks going, "Ha-ha, what did you think?"

"Wow, I thought it was amazing.

What did you think?"

"I thought it was fantastic.

I thought it was really interesting.

I thought it was quite, quite shocking, actually,

if it was one of these modern, weird plays."

I'm not saying that all modern plays are weird,

but some of them certainly can be.

Keep the conversation going, yeah?

You've paid good money to go and watch the theatre.

You want to have a really interesting conversation about what you've seen.

Have an opinion.

What did you think of such and such a character?

What did you think of the music?

What did you think of the lighting?

What did you think of the costumes, yeah?

Keep the conversation going.

Um, okay, good.

Then there'll be the second half, and then you can walk away,

having seen something really interesting,

thought about something totally different,

and depending on where you are in London,

you'll see the great sort of view of the city at night.

Now, I've been talking about the entertainment that is on offer in London.

Of course, there is fantastic arts and live theatre, etc,

to be found in all the regional capitals around the UK.

And one particular example of that is the pantomime.

Now, the pantomime is pure comedy, yep?

You get some great big old man dressed up as a woman.

You get pirates.

You get silly songs, silly dances, silly jokes.

Um, you throw things at people.

It's meant to be silly, yeah?

It happens around Christmas, before and after,

and it's light entertainment, okay?

You often get, like, TV stars coming and being a main part,

and it involves some audience interaction.

You have to do something.

Oh, no, what?

You have to say things like, "He or she's behind you."

So, character facing the audience, audience here looking at the character.

Audience know something is about to happen to the character,

so they shout, "He's behind you."

Actor goes, "Hmm, can't see anything."

Audience goes, "He's behind you."

Hmm, happens three times.

And then there's lots of, kind of, things like, "Oh, no, he's not."

And the audience will be like, "Oh, yes, he or she is."

Okay, so it's very jokey, a lot of fun,

and definitely worth checking out the really small scale pantomimes,

because they are less polished, yeah, a little bit more authentic.

So, that pretty much is all we've got time for today.

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And it bids me to bid you farewell,

because parting is such sweet sorrow

that I should bid adieu till it be morrow.