Hey gang. Welcome.
Some of you probably know what’s going on here but, for those who don’t, let me briefly explain. My mother and I love a good trip to the theatre, and we both have a lot of opinions. A LOT of opinions (I can see you nodding cousin Lucy). And well, Mum came up with this idea that we start a blog where we review shows we’ve seen and will see. So that’s what we’re doing. Welcome!
‘Ellie’, I hear you cry, ‘there’s a global pandemic on, you know they’ve closed all the theatres right’, yes reader I know. So, Mum and I are rethinking.
Times are tough and a lot of us are far from our family, friends and loved ones as we social distance and isolate. Panic breeds panic but we’re hoping that joy, laughter and compassion will breed itself too! So, what the hell are we going to do with no theatre to watch?! We will have a think, but I can assure you it will be cute and hopefully bring a smile to all your socially distant, untouched faces!
Right, some introductions! Firstly, here we are:
Cute right! Mum (Anita, 50-something) is a Professor of Hospitality Management, I (Ellie, 24) am an actor by degree but, a barista by muggle life (or just fully unemployed right now haha ha cry).
The first stage show I was taken to see was The Lion King, I sat right up in the gods and didn’t see a lot but got a keyring, you know the one. However, the first show I properly remember was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. I went with mum, it was my birthday, we went to an Italian restaurant beforehand and H from Steps was Joseph. I vividly remember the scene in the jail cell (Close Every Door To Me). H from Steps was topless, I remember more than that, it’s just that this bit was very important to 9 year old Ellie. We’ve seen a fair amount together since then. We’ve also sung the entire Joseph soundtrack together in the car on the way back from Nottingham (we also sang Les Mis, we were brilliant).
Mum loves the theatre, always has I think (maybe we’ll ask her for a blog post). And I love telling her about things I want to see and getting her to pay for the tickets (she has a proper adult job and I don’t so its fine). I’m joking of course, I love theatre. My parents threw me into youth theatre at the age of 7 and I haven’t really stopped since then. I trained in acting at Guildford School of Acting and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, graduated BA Hons in 2018 (should I link my Spotlight page, is that too much?), and have been kicking it in the big wide scary acting world since then.
We have similar tastes in theatre, both love a musical. We’ve actually both seen Come From Away 3 times (and would both go another 3 times too – keep your eyes peeled for that review). We obviously have differing opinions on some things; give me some obscure grief centred black box quirky physical theatre madness I will lap it up, mum will frown and say ‘uh huh’ once it’s over. But eh, what better for a reviewing service than some differing opinions battling it out!
So, the plan. We were thinking that whenever we go to the theatre we’d type you up a nice little review of what we thought, however, as this is currently impossible, the plan is changing. I’m thinking - we do a nice little interview of mum, find out how she got into theatre, we do some reviews of stuff we saw before all this, if we can remember what we thought… Also, the world of streaming is at our fingertips so we might do a couple films (if Mum can stay awake, she’ll kill me for that, hi mum!) or a TV show/series. Might throw theatre out the window completely occasionally and show you our isolation craft projects. Who knows! We’ll keep you on your toes. But yeah, if you want to join us for this crazy ride then feel free!
Alright, that’s it for now. Thanks very much. See you next time! Remember to wash your hands and don’t touch your faces.
Ellie and Anita x
(We’re doing this purely for the free tickets that will come with our resounding success as theatre critics of course).
NB: If you happen to be a casting director then follow me on Twitter @eves_eleanor (my Spotlight is linked there 😉)
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