by Manu L

Created on: March 03, 2007   Last Updated: April 09, 2012

It's not all about the West end! If you want a great theatrical experience in London that isn't the pre-packaged musicals that come straight from Broadway (hardly a change of scenery for American tourists), then you might want to consider the other exciting London venues.

I'll start with my very favorite, the first theatre I visited as a student in London:
The BAC, also known as the Battersea Arts Centre. It's on Lavendar Hill, and you can get there by train stopping at Clapham Junction station, or by tube stopping either at Clapham Common or Stockwell. The tickets are between 5 and 10 pounds (10 to 20 dollars). Many physical theatre companies have started out there and come again for every new show. The strong point of the BAC is definitely its poetical slant on physical theatre, bordering between mime, dance, and straight acting. The atmosphere is also very friendly, and there are some great festivals throughout the year.

If you prefer more straightforward plays and enjoy the 'theatreland' area of London (Covent garden, Soho and that area), then you could stop at the Donmar warehouse, situated right off of the Covent Garden tube station, on Earlham street. This is a small, unusual theatre that used to be a banana warehouse(it could also be urban legend, but I quite like the idea).
The plays shown here encompass a very broad range of styles, from Greek tragedy—I saw a great version of 'Hecuba' there in 2004—to contemporary political theatre—the play 'Frost/Nixon' was a great critical success—to musicals! The tickets range between 15 and 30 pounds. Since it's quite a small theatre, I don't think that there are seats that are absolutely terrible to have, but then it depends on how comfortable you want to be.

Of course, it would be a disgrace not to mention the famous Royal Court, on Sloane square, the temple of British new writing. Tickets range from 10 to 25 pounds. It's 10 pounds every Mondays, and they offer generous student concessions (as a rule, non west-end theatres are really good about student concessions). Virtually all quality new writing has been tested out at the Royal Court, either downstairs in the big theatre, or upstairs in the smaller one.

For the big National theatre complex, I'll be brief: 3 theatres, the huge Olivier, the medium Lyttleton and the small Cottesloe. The National offers a wide variety of shows, and they most often are high quality, always worth the visit. If you're not too sure what you want

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>