Bridewell Theatre, Fleet Street - Lunch time Shakespeare

When I was recently wandering around the lovely St Bride's Church at the top end of Fleet Street (it is famous for being the site of the first printing press in London and is generally regarded as the journalist's church)to catch a moment of peace during my busy day, I noticed that the Bridewell Theatre - which is just around the cornor - was advertising lunch time theatre in its "The Bard at Bridewell" season.

So today I returned to the theatre - which is the site of an old Victorian swimming pool - with my lunch in a paper bag and £5 for my ticket to spend 45 minutes from my busy day watching a somewhat condensed version of The Tempest.

I'm not sure what I was expecting but I was astonished to watch a totally enthralling, cast of thousands (well, at least 20) highly professional and very entertaining production from C Company/Baseless Fabric. The Tempest in a nutshell. With some truly excellent actors and acting. Special mentions must go to Duncan Barrett as Ariel, James Griffith-Jones as Trinculo and Philip Mansfield as Stephano - all tours de force. I was so stunned that I forgot to eat my lunch. I returned to my office feeling refreshed and inspired - and hungry!

Now what a truly fab idea. £5 for a high quality and high speed cultural interlude in your working day. I am so cross that I missed the previous production of As You Like It. The Tempest is running til 11th April and then there is the Merchant of Venice from 3rd to 20th June and then Romeo and Juliet from 15th July to 1st August.

More details at www.bridewelltheatre.org - I just hope that it doesn't get so popular that I can't squeeze in at future productions.

:angel: :smug: :thumbsup: