Get thee to a play!

The lights go down. A hushed anticipation fills the room. The stage is illuminated and a person (or few people) take their places. For the next couple of hours you are no longer in our beloved, tiny town. You aren’t worrying about the umpteen million deadlines you have approaching. You aren’t thinking about how awkward it was seeing your tutor in Tesco, and you are definitely not agonizing over what a drunken moron you were the other night. You instead have been transported (however fleetingly) into someone else’s world. You lose yourself in other characters. You laugh, you cry, you feel any number of things. For a brief period of time, you are engrossed by real live people creating a whole breathing world in front of you. Unlike films, which are wonderful in and of themselves, theatre is an intrinsically personal experience. What I mean to say is that connections to characters come easier when witnessed in person, and that escapism is much more exciting and almost more attainable when created in the same space.

St Andrews has an extraordinary amount of theatrical talent. We have brilliant student playwrights, actors, singers, dancers, directors, producers, technical crews, costume designers, makeup artists, comedians, musicians, and the list goes on. Audiences are great too. Without them, there is no show. The theatre community of St Andrews needs you.

So, this is a plea. A plea for you to step towards the amazing, student run, productions St Andrews has to offer. Too often, it seems that those already involved and the friends of those already involved are the only witnesses. While this is wonderful, it would be great to see people come to see shows just for the sake of seeing a good show. Whether or not you consider yourself a “theatre person” is irrelevant. The five-pound-max ticket price is really very reasonable, especially considering what you often end up receiving.

Theatre can be a fantastic thing to go and see when looking for something to do in St Andrews. It can be a great friends’ night activity, escape from work, or even a date (insert matchmaking university joke here). Below is a list of shows going up this semester. Pick one, two, or all of them! Put it in your diary. Flag it on your phone. Get excited! Because a night at the theatre is something special and, somehow, even more so when put on by your fellow students.