I was at the National for the second Sunday running yesterday, this time to see War Horse again on its welcome return season, and the place was once again packed. Yet again, too, the final day for this year’s Watch this Space season in Theatre Square outside the theatre attracted massive crowds for a free outdoor aerial spectacle from the Netherlands - someone from the National told me that they reckoned around 2,000 people gathered to watch it (Unfortunately I missed it, as I was sitting on a bench with a friend in the sun further down the river, drinking a latte from a little mobile kiosk since my friend had tried the National before I got there but discovered that the coffee machine was broken. So I guess that one of the weaknesses of a seven-day operation has already been exposed!)
But though I have to say that I certainly welcome the introduction of the new schedule here, so that the National participates fully in the life of the river alongside the rest of its neighbours, like BFI Southbank next door and the Royal Festival Hall that have long operated on a seven-day schedule, I realised when I collected my tickets at the box office that it’s not quite so simple for the staff: manning one of the Olivier box office desks was the National’s indefatigable (and usually tireless) box office manager Michael Straughan.
On the first week of the National’s Sunday opening I saw the theatre’s two Nicks - Hytner and Starr - as well as head of press Lucinda Morrison and marketing manager Sarah Hunt around; yesterday I only ran into Sarah (though I’m told Nick Hytner was actually there, too). Of course we can’t expect everyone to be here every day, and one of the prices of working in the service industries is that you sometimes have to work when others aren’t so that they can enjoy what it is you are helping to service, but staff at the National now have no choice - they have to get with this particular programme and make themselves available for work on any day of the week (though, as Nick Hytner recently told a press conference, there was a vote of four to one in favour of implementing it).
And as much as I love going to the theatre - it’s what I do for a living, after all, although the bigger part of the job is the solitary writing that then follows, rather than the (hopefully) pleasurable part of seeing shows - I know that I’m also going to have to be careful: at this rate I’m not going to get a day off myself, either. I’ve often admitted to a kind of theatrical addiction - I actually saw two shows on Saturday as well, but that’s partly because last week so was frantic with double openings on several nights that it was the only way to catch up. And I’m also heading to the US this Wednesday for a week and a half, so I had to try to get ahead a bit as well.
But actually there comes a point when you have to say: enough, already! It might not be altogether healthy to find oneself at the theatre at every single possible opportunity, especially now that Sundays are being added into the mix. So I’m pleased to say that I actually heeded my own advice here and took last Friday evening off - and after heading out for fish ‘n’ chips at the splendid Masters Fish and Chips on Waterloo Road, just a stone’s throw from the Old Vic, stayed at home with The Sopranos. I’m only on the first series - so I’ve got tons to catch up on.
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