You may recall my occasional mention of the monumental efforts we so often have to make, here on the fringes of Exmoor, to enjoy a smidgen of culture: round trips of 50 or a 100 miles or more to tap into all that a large town or city has to offer. Living in London, as I did for the first half century of my life, it was all there on my doorstep and I was spoilt for choice. Added to which, in the 1980s I was working for a blue chip company that was a major sponsor of the arts and I just happened to be a member of the sponsorship team . . .
The National Theatre was a short walk alongside the Thames from our head office and I was truly in drama heaven when the company decided to sponsor the newly opened NT Studio because, yes, there were tickets - to all NT productions. As I was the only member of the sponsorship team who lived in central London (so didn't have to fret about missing the last train home), I ended up with the lion's share and saw as many productions as I could, including Pravda, Mrs Warren's Profession, Wild Honey, Yonadab, The Cherry Orchard, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Dalliance, The Mother, Coriolanus, and Anthony and Cleopatra, with actors such as Ian McKellen, Anthony Hopkins, Irene Worth, and Judy Dench.
Up in the attic is a trunk full of programmes, not just from that time, but for every single theatre performance I've been to since 1961, when I was 13 and saw Stop the World I Want to Get Off , starring Anthony Newley, at the Queen's Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue (for those of you who like historical detail).
So, yes, much as I appreciate the beauty and peace of the spot I now call home, a small piece of my heart remains in London, although I rarely visit these days. However, if I can't get to see London productions, it seems that some, at least, will come (almost) to me, thanks to the advent of NT Live. This brings live NT performances to cinema screens not just in the UK but, as I discovered last week, to screens around the world.
Which explains how my dear friend, the Only Other Blonde in the Village and I, managed to see a live performance of Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer in the unlikely setting of Taunton Odeon last Thursday. Like me, the Only Other Blonde, loves the theatre - we are both old enough to have seen Olivier in Othello and The Entertainer at the Old Vic - so we wondered how watching a screened live performance would compare with actually being there.
We're happy to report that It compares very well indeed, not least because you can see the actors in close-up, which means that you don't miss a gesture or an expression. Then there are the bonuses: Emma Freud's interview with director, Jamie Lloyd, and panning shots of the NT audience, for example, all of which help to create a hint of that unique anticipatory atmosphere at the NT just before a play starts. Discovering that we were part of a global audience of many thousands was, we had to admit, rather thrilling.
Our anticipation, as it turned out, was well founded. It is a superb ensemble production*, of the kind at which the NT excels, although that in no way detracts from some excellent individual perfomances, including David Fynn as Tony Lumpkin
Sophie Thompson as Mrs Hardcastle
and, for Corrie fans everywhere, the wonderful Katherine Kelly as Kate Hardcastle
who, in a clear case of art imitating art, is required to spend part of the play masquerading as a barmaid.
Our West Country audience loved it, laughed long and loud, and joined in the applause at every opportunity - and no-one munched popcorn. That must be a first for the Taunton Odeon, which sells popcorn on an industrial scale.
So, yes, we will definitely be going again and please can the NT send as many productions as possible our way? And, for once, I'm going to give the sponsor, Aviva, a bit of a plug because this truly was an inspired and apposite use of a major company's sponsorship budget. Unlike my bank's, which is used largely to sponsor motor racing . . .
If you live in the UK, mainland Europe, the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia or New Zealand and love theatre, check here to see if NT productions are shown at a cinema near you. There are also Encore screenings, so if you missed a production the first time round, you might be able to catch it at a later date. I'll be back in Taunton in June to see an Encore screening of Frankenstein, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller and, this autumn, there's the prospect of a new play starring Julie Walters, Helen McCrory and Rory Bremner. I'm trying not to weep about what I've missed to date.
NT Live is, like the best of ideas, impressively simple and it means that many thousands of people who are unable to go to the National Theatre in London, for whatever reason, can still enjoy what it offers - at an affordable price. Our concessionary tickets were just £14 each.
On the downside, we think that if it is going to host screenings from the UK's most prestigious theatre, Taunton Odeon really does need to up its game in terms of customer service. There was confusion at the ticket office, whose staff could find no record of my online order or payment. Not the first time this has happened. And why does the Costa franchise not serve decaff coffee, only mega-strength blow your socks off stuff? (Really, not everyone wants to be awake after midnight, buzzing from a caffeine overdose.) As for the young man who checked our tickets, 'Enjoy the film' wasn't quite what we were expecting to hear (did he really not know?), prior to an NT performance. And, please, could he remember to hand out the castlists, which were - as later became apparent - stacked in front of him and not expect members of the audience to have to troop back from their seats to ask him for copies? Small things, maybe, but together they make a significant difference to the overall enjoyment of an evening . . . at the theatre. Because that was the thing, inside the auditorium, it was easy to imagine that this was exactly where we were. Front of house, it was most definitely Taunton Odeon.
However, let us end on a high note. I give you - the cast:
I've just learned that She Stoops to Conquer was NT Live's most successful screening to date, so congratulations - and many thanks - to everyone involved in bringing it to us. And special thanks to Sara Israel of NT Live for her help with the photos, all of which are by Johan Persson.
(*Michael Billington's Guardian review here.)
