Spend your leisure money on independent, free-thinking, discomfiting, rough-edged theatre, please

I was lucky enough to review two very different productions in Bath this week- Toby Stephens in Equus and Gabrielle Finnegan’s latest short play, Ebb & Flow. 

https://www.bristol247.com/culture/theatre/review-equus-theatre-royal-bath-taut-beautiful-and-psychologically-complex-a-stunning-production/

And 

https://www.bristol247.com/culture/theatre/review-ebb-and-flow-the-rondo-bath-a-tender-lyrical-beautiful-hour/

Wildly different works, decades apart, but both exploiting theatre’s strengths. 

And the week before, without reviewing, the ever-jesterly Mark Thomas (https://markthomasinfo.co.uk) and master storyteller Robert Lloyd Parry (https://www.nunkie.co.uk/schedule) – both at the tiny indie Rondo Theatre in Bath. 

I’ve not written a play or screenplay in five years- I can’t afford to do it unpaid and theatres/funders can’t afford to pay me/us either. I’m starting to draft something- but every hour on it is an hour taken from my one-woman professional consultancy (https://www.lyric-strategy.com) or solo-teen-rearing. 

Call to action? Invest in independent, free-thinking, discomfiting, rough-edged theatre work whenever you can. The “return on investment” is slow but big. It’ll help make the world you want to see.