Theatre

I've been a keen theatre-goer ever since my good friend Tony took me to see the National Theatre's production of Peter Shaffer's Equus in the West End back in 1976. Although not the first play I'd seen performed live (that distinction goes to a low-budget production of Hamlet at Leicester's Phoenix Thretre), that thrillingly powerful production opened my eyes to what live theatre had to offer and remains one of my most vivid memories out of the hundreds of plays I've seen since then.

As well as the commercial theatre in London's West End, I've also been a frequent patron of the capital's two big subsidised theatre companies: the National Theatre (down on the South Bank) and the Royal Shakespeare Company (whose London home used to be at the Barbican in the City), especially the former.

Closer to home, while in Harlow our local theatre (the Harlow Playhouse) provided a wealth of memorable theatrical experiences over more than twenty years! Although their main auditorium seats fewer than the smallest of the three at the National (the wonderfully flexible Cottesloe), they manage to host some innovative and rewarding performances ranging from Greek tragedy to radical new works.

On the whole the playwrights with whose work I'm familiar are the famous names of British (and to a lesser extent American) theatre, from Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare, via Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, to David Hare and Alan Bennett. The most significant exceptions to this anglo-centric focus would be Molière and Chekhov, though I also have a particular love of the work of Dario Fo.