Pity V.I.P.'s

About one month ago my friends and I found out that James McAvoy was going to be playing the character Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. We have been saying we must get to the show at some point ever since. James MaCavoy is a brilliant actor and there are opportunities to buy discounted tickets, so we thought it was a good plan. One of the ways to get £10 tickets is to show up at the theatre door by 10 am for same day tickets. £10 for tickets that cost up to £84, there’s gotta be a catch right? Well, here it is: there are only 10 of these tickets available for each show; so, naturally, one must show up rather early for a chance at one of them.

I don’t have any classes on Fridays; so getting up early on a Friday morning to sit outside in the cold for two hours was not exactly my idea of a good time. However, we decided that getting to the theatre by 8 would be our best bet. Luckily we were all there together so we chatted and made much-needed coffee runs. When 10 am finally rolled around we were all freezing and getting antsy to go inside. A man opened the door to let us in and I immediately knew he did not have good news for us. I was right. “I know you have all been standing out here for quite some time in the cold, but I am very sorry to say that there was supposed to be a note on the door informing you that tonight is press night, so we do not have same day tickets available for this evening's show.” We were all shocked and quite annoyed by this news. We had gotten up early to stand shivering for two hours, and loose the feeling in our toes for nothing? The man was very apologetic and I could tell he felt bad because the issue was out of his hands. He invited us into the theatre to warm up and said he would see what he could do.

Warming up inside, we could see he was trying to figure something out with the manageron the phone. It was finally concluded that we were going to be given the option of buying same day tickets for a later date. He and the other people working behind the counter talked for a while and after a few more phone calls, he came out a last time and said he was able to sell 6 tickets for that night’s performance. We were ecstatic! There were 6 of us and we were first in line so we could go to that performance together! We were given receipts for the tickets and told that we could pick them up at the box office from 6 until the start of the show.

After our previous experience with show starting time difficulties, we decided to triple check the start time of the show. 7:30 the board at the box office as well as the internet told us. We had it all planned out; get to the theatre a bit after 7 and we would have enough time get the tickets and find our seats but not too much time to wait. We had a lovely dinner at a little Italian place we fell in love with our first week here, before heading to Leicester Square. We were meeting Jen at the theatre and when we got about 2 blocks from it Madeline got a call from her. “What? The show started at 7?” We heard her say. That’s not possible, we thought, we checked many times. Upon arriving at the theatre we were very upset to find out that because it was press night the show had in fact started at 7. We were not allowed in until the second act, because entering the theatre would ruin the atmosphere for the press. After everything we’d been through the people at the box office felt bad, especially once they realized they had not told us the early start time.

At that point we had two options: we could stick around and see the second half or have our tickets refunded. Neither of these was ideal because the tickets were only £10. At that point a woman, who we found out is the publicist, stepped forward and said she felt very badly and although couldn’t do anything about getting us in until after intermission, she could give us V.I.P. passes to the after party but if we decided to see the second half! We decided to go with that option. We had about an hour and a half to wait until the second act so we went to a coffee shop for a bit and then decided we should be in the theatre just in case so we hung out at the bar. Finally people started pouring from the theatre and we were like fish swimming up stream trying to find our seats. The second half of the show was amazingly done, the acting phenomenal, blood and all. I hope to get back for the whole thing in fact.

After the show we made the three-minute walk to the hotel where the party was and had our picture taken as we entered! We put our coats in the coatroom and were offered Champaign as we walked into the party room. I felt it was not the right time for pictures so I didn’t take any but the room was beautiful, and had very warm atmosphere with red and gold accents. The appetizers and wine were just scrumptious! I tried haggis for the first time before knowing what it is and I don’t think I’m going to eat it again any time soon. It wasn’t bad, quite good actually, but it’s ground up sheep’s stomach, and the thought of eating stomach is just, well…

There were many famous people there including James McAvoy, Allen Leech and Laura Carmichael (Branson and Edith respectively from Downton Abbey). There were definitely others that I didn’t see or didn’t know. Although we were not dressed for this kind of party, we had a ball and in the end only paid £10 for the entire evening! A once in a lifetime experience, I’m sure, that I am very glad we took. I coined the title Pity V.I.P.'s because that's essentially what we were, but V.I.P.'s none the less!

Have a wonderfully marvellous day, cheers! ~Laura