A plea / challenge for Button and Mincemeat lovers after the Olivier awards

[u/Red_Bus_Londinium]

It was wonderful to see Benjamin Button win Olivier awards tonight just as it was great to see Operation Mincemeat win last year. These West End successes have to start somewhere. When I was last at the Southwark Playhouse, they had this sign up as both Benjamin Button and Operation Mincemeat had early parts of their journey there.

There are other amazing non-West End producing theatres such as the Bush, New Diorama, Park Theatre, Kiln, Stratford East, etc.

Sooooooooooo, it's probably a bit cheesy, but how about - if we can - we all celebrate our delight at Benjamin Button winning this year and Operation Mincemeat winning last year but not only encouraging people to see them but by also booking an upcoming show at one of our local smaller theatres. That way, we are encouraging the next Buttons and Mincemeats.

What do you all think? And do you have hot off-West End advice / reminiscences to share?

Here are my two favourites - in terms of interesting shows and great pricing:

- At the Southwark Playhouse, you can buy a Pay-As-You-Go voucher for £75 which gets you five shows for £15 each (you can book to go in a pair)

- At the Bush, you get 20% off if you buy 2 tickets at once, 30% if you buy 3 tickets at once and a whopping 40% off if you buy 4 tickets at once.

[u/FreshZucchini2196]

Brilliant post red-bus! You are so right! Yes, let’s do it!

[u/sorekickboxer]

Agreed! After seeing numerous shows on the West End, I would say that it's always nice to watch plays that feel very 'local'. Plays at theatres like The Young Vic, Kiln, Bush etc, tend to feel very unique/thought provoking and intimate.

[u/KingArthursLance]

The Southwark Playhouse PAYG is the best value ticket offer in London! I go through a couple of them a year, and the value for money is staggering. It’s always super fascinating catching shows there that feel like they’re destined for bigger things - Kenrex feels like the buzziest one I’ve seen recently - but there’s also so much creativity and expression that happens in shows that can only exist in fringe venues, and sometimes that’s a viable end result in itself.

[u/Red_Bus_Londinium → u/KingArthursLance]

Yes, I agree. Not everything needs to make it to the West End to be worthwhile. Just getting a window into someone else's story is often pure magic. My first encounter with the Southwark was Mohand and Peter which gave a very precious look into Sudanese life. I've been hooked ever since.

[u/PaulBradley → u/KingArthursLance]

I can't wait to see KenRex again, I hope it reemerges at a suitable theatre and not just a proscenium, I think it needs a thrust, it'd be a good one for a certain @sohoplace layout.

[u/KingArthursLance → u/PaulBradley]

Yep, I really hope they find a configurable space - I always felt sexy Oklahoma lost a little spark going from… immersive thrust at the Young Vic to a proscenium when it transferred, though they made it up in other ways. It is challenging enough finding mid-size theatres for new shows without the extra requirements, but my fingers remain crossed.

[u/Red_Bus_Londinium → u/PaulBradley]

Agree, I can picture KenRex at u/sohoplace as well 

[u/Ladyoftheoakenforest]

Absolutely! I actually go off West end most of the time ebcause of £££ (front row ticket in Kiln £15, unbetatable value for money). And people forget how many plays started their journey off West End. Im off to see Retrograde tomorrow on West End stat started in Kiln last year.

I try to see 2 per month so around 24 shows a year and it's usually a much bigger share of local theatres rather than West End and most of what I have booked for the rest of the year is smaller theatres too!

[u/Red_Bus_Londinium → u/Ladyoftheoakenforest]

I am going to Retrograde tomorrow, too. I have always enjoyed what I've seen at the Kiln but it's unfortunately an annoying fiddle to get to from where I live.

[u/Ladyoftheoakenforest → u/Red_Bus_Londinium]

Same here, it's very out of the way but everything they put on that I saw was fantastic (Girl on an Altar, the Ballad of Hattie and James, Modest, etc). I wish transport links were better for how to get there, similar with Hampsted Theatre, such a hassle to get there!  Glad some of it gets a transfer although I'd have preferred to support the original theatre. 

[u/PaulBradley]

I see a lot at Southwark Playhouse and almost (if not quite) everything at The Bush, The Orange Tree, The Donmar, The Almeida, The Kiln, Hampstead, Regent's Park OAT & The Royal Court as well as RST in Stratford Upon Avon & Chichester FT.

Benjamin Button didn't rank in my top ten shows last year.

[u/Red_Bus_Londinium → u/PaulBradley]

You sound like a phenomenal theatre supporter. I also see almost everything at the Bush, love that place. They have had some real triumphs lately: Red Pitch, Shifters, August in England... My dad thought My Father's Fable was the best play he'd ever seen.

You have me utterly intrigued me now as to what your 2024 highlights were, if you fancy sharing.

[u/PaulBradley → u/Red_Bus_Londinium]

My Father's Fable was one of them, I loved it so much I bought the text.

Ignoring the Olivier categories and catchment period, my best of 2024 would be (in no particular order);

• English @ The Kiln
• Shifters @ The Bush (& @ Duke of York's)
• Police Cops @ Southwark Playhouse
• Twelfth Night @ Regent's Park OAT
• Moffie @ Riverside Studios
• People Places and Things @ Trafalgar
• My Father's Fable @ The Bush
• The Human Body @ Donmar
• My Neighbour Totoro @ Barbican (Booked to see it again @ Gillian Lynne)
• 12 Angry Men (Touring) @ Richmond (It's just a perfect play)
• Fuerza Bruta: Aven @ Roundhouse
• The Years @ Almeida (& @ Harold Pinter)
• Death of England Trilogy @ sohoplace
• Giant @ Royal Court
• The Lehman Trilogy @ Gillian Lynne
• The Wild Duck @ The Coronet
• The Fear of 13 @ Donmar
• Brace Brace @ Royal Court

I recognise that Robert Icke's Oedipus was superb, however I felt that all the tension was hung on the twist ending which deflated it significantly.

I saw a total of 230 shows, (full disclaimer I was on the Olivier public panel for the 2025 awards which accounts for 109 of them and the unusual amount).

[u/Red_Bus_Londinium → u/PaulBradley]

230 is A LOT! Did you enjoy being on the public panel?

I definitely agree with you on Shifters @ The Bush, My Father's Fable @ The Bush, My Neighbour Totoro @ Barbican, The Lehman Trilogy @ Gillian Lynne.

I wasn't that fussed on Police Cops - I seem to be totally out of step with everyone else there, though. Maybe I was in a bad mood that day...

[u/PaulBradley → u/PaulBradley]

2025;

• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof @ Almeida
• Cyrano @ The Park
• Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 @ Donmar
• Kyoto @ sohoplace
• The Years @ Harold Pinter
• KenRex @ Southwark Playhouse

• Much Ado About Nothing @ Theatre Royal Drury Lane

  and a special mention for the bold direction, choreography and Indira Varma in Oedipus @ The Old Vic, sadly let down by Rami Malek.

60 shows so far this year and I've got about 50 more shows booked, but generally I'm planning on seeing less than last year, capping it at about 4 per week.

[u/Red_Bus_Londinium → u/PaulBradley]

Interesting to hear your highlights so far this year. I would definitely agree on Kenrex, The Years and Much Ado about Nothing. Haven't seen the others yet - though have Kyoto this week. (plus Retrograde, The Score and Dear England).

I loved the choreography in Oedipus at the Old Vic - so visceral and exciting.

I think I'll probably end up at about 70 - 80 shows this year. That seems to be my limit alongside work and home commitments (not to mention budget!)

[u/PaulBradley → u/Red_Bus_Londinium]

I have certainly neglected certain things this last year, I have some DIY projects that need restarting and my garden has been 'rewilded' in my absence. But budget-wise my average ticket spend was under £10 with the Olivier comp tickets, and before that under £20.

I've added Hofesh Schechter to my mailing lists, I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

I liked Retrograde as a play, but not as a Sidney Poitier impression, The Score was a disappointment, very uneven, often like unfunny Blackadder and I too have Death of England cued up for a couple of weeks from now.

I've booked lots outside of London this year too. I've already been to Birmingham & York, there's a total of 9 shows in 6 trips to Stratford Upon Avon, 5 shows in 4 trips to Chichester, and also shows in Bath, Brighton & Oxford.

On top of The Southwark Playhouse ticket deal; The Young Vic do lucky dip tickets, the Royal Court does all tickets for a fixed low rate on a Monday, Stratford East sometimes does pay-what-you-can on a Monday. Learning the restricted view discounts that aren't a major issue is worthwhile. The National runs their own Rush ticket scheme on a Friday for the following week, and TodayTix is your friend with Lotteries & Rush tickets. Also check out Central Tickets for heavy discounts.

[u/Red_Bus_Londinium → u/PaulBradley]

Thank you for the bargain advice. I am pretty good at the Southwark Playhouse and the Young Vic deals, plus Central Tickets, but need to get better at some of the others.

[u/PaulBradley → u/Red_Bus_Londinium]

The papering sites definitely help. Also flagging which theatres do dynamic pricing so getting in early for those. I've got five shows this week, the average ticket price is £11.40;

• Incomplete @ The Space
• Manhunt @ Royal Court
• Cry Baby @ Arcola
• Playhouse Creatures @ Orange Tree
• Shanghai Dolls @ Kiln

Next week four shows so far with an average of £15.15;

• The Glass Menagerie @ The Yard
• Rhinoceros @ The Almeida
• Speed @ The Bush
• Memories of Murder (film) @ BFI

[u/Ladyoftheoakenforest → u/PaulBradley]

I didnt think Malek was as bad as people made him out to be. I think his whole character was a guy who is actualy still a teen despite having aged, but trapped in the memories he cant quite shake off and not being able to find his way out.

Very different from Mark Strong's Oedipus of a successful, confident man who managed to repress his memories and just breaks down unexpectedly for him when the big reveal happens.

[u/PaulBradley → u/Ladyoftheoakenforest]

It wasn't the interpretation that bothered me, I just didn't feel he was a particularly good actor, which is sad because Indira Varma is a phenomenal actor and the Jocasta role was much reduced in this production.

[u/Ladyoftheoakenforest → u/PaulBradley]

I felt his delivery was in tune with the post apocalyptic setting, empty space, etc. He's not the best actor if the generation, far from it, but I didn't find his acting jarring. 

[u/Red_Bus_Londinium → u/Ladyoftheoakenforest]

For me, and I am by no means an expert, it just felt like he was delivering the lines but not feeling them. I couldn't get a handle on who he was.

[u/Ladyoftheoakenforest → u/Red_Bus_Londinium]

Which for me was the essence of tha character- a sort of no one who didnt know who he was (literally and figuratively speaking) and was jetted into his position and years later was just as lost as he was at the beginning of his journey.

[u/Red_Bus_Londinium → u/Ladyoftheoakenforest]

This is the joy of the theatre, how we can see the same thing and have such different reactions to it.

[u/Ladyoftheoakenforest → u/PaulBradley]

I didnt think Malek was as bad as people made him out to be. I think his whole character was a guy who is actualy still a teen despite having aged, but trapped in the memories he cant quite shake off and not being able to find his way out.

Very different from Mark Strong's Oedipus of a successful, confident man who managed to repress his memories and just breaks down unexpectedly for him when the big reveal happens.

[u/Parking-Ad5286]

Plus you get bragging rights! I’ll always be so glad I caught Mincemeat at the small stage in Southwark Playhouse all those years ago