A wonderful charity called Dream-A-Way http://dream-a-way.org has given us a grant to pay for hotels and theatre tickets etc which is just amazing.
Dream-A-Way is a charity based in Exeter that was set up especially to provide grants and funding to people with physical and learning difficulties across Devon, Cornwall and The Scilly Isles.
Martin and I are complete theatre nuts!
We both trained at theatre schools in London and we worked professionally......It's actually how we met.......and then since moving away from London we have been involved locally in amateur theatre. We have always tried to keep up with shows in London though but it's become increasingly difficult partly because of our circumstances but also because you need to take out a mortgage to pay London theatre ticket prices these days!
When we applied to Dream-A-Way we thought we may be able to see a couple of shows and pay for a night, maybe two, in a hotel but thanks to their amazing generosity, spending a bit of time sourcing cheap accommodation and getting some great disability rates on the theatre tickets we have got the most exciting week ahead of us! We will be away for four nights and seeing four shows......yes, FOUR West End shows! We can't believe it!! 😃
In fact if you include the National Theatre Live show that we are seeing at the cinema, this week, we will actually be seeing five shows! We are seeing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time at the cinema on Tuesday thanks to there being an encore showing of it.
Actually the National Theatre Live scheme is a brilliant way to get great West End productions out to wider audiences. After all, not everyone can get to London or afford the theatre ticket prices, so to have the opportunity to see a show, whether it's live or an encore showing, means that these shows are being seen by many many more people. We have, so far, seen The Audience and War Horse in this way and we will certainly be looking out for other productions in the future!
Check out what's coming up at http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk
And on to the shows that we are seeing this week.
Firstly it will be The Book of Mormon at The Prince of Wales Theatre http://bookofmormonlondon.com/home.php
followed by Dirty Rotton Scoundrels at the Savoy Theatre
The next evening we are seeing a play called Ghost Stories at the Arts Theatre http://www.ghoststoriestheshow.co.uk
Then finally we shall be seeing a show that is very close to our hearts. We have performed it twice as fundraising concerts and Martin was in a production of it when he was at college in London, which is when he was first introduced to it but neither of us have ever seen a production of it, so when Martin happened to find out it was on while we are up there we HAD to book tickets for it! The show is called Closer Than Ever and is on at the Jermyn Street Theatre http://www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/whatson.html#closerthanever
It is actually very sad because the price of tickets to go to a show nowadays is so expensive. I remember when Martin and I used to work in theatres in London, there was a lot of bad feeling because tickets were reaching the £40 mark.......that was nearly twenty years ago though! These days they are pretty much double that amount, so for a family of four you are looking at anything from around £280.......just for one show!
Most theatres have a special access telephone number that is a dedicated line to deal with customers who have disabilities. We have used this for all the shows we're seeing and the total bill for our tickets to see four shows in the West End is £235. This means that on average, it's costing £58.75 per show for both of us which is under £30 each.........that's more like it!! 😉
To say that we are really looking forward to going to London would be a bit of an understatement! Although having said that I am a little nervous!
I'm so glad that we don't live in London any more and I feel that even more since becoming disabled........This trip will really test that too! We are driving up to and around London as we have registered our car for an exemption on the congestion charge! We have also bought a special accessibility map that shows all the car parks and Theatres and toilets etc, this will be really helpful as I am taking my wheelchair because we know I won't manage without it!
And so we are off!! 😉😄
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Wonderful to hear that you got to the theatre and saw some great shows. Does anyone know what has happened to Herrad? Access Denied Blogger...?
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