A Flea in her Ear at the Old Vic

I bought tickets for A Flea in her Ear at the Old Vic as a Christmas present for my Mum and Dad, as well as tickets for me and my husband.  So yesterday we all headed off to enjoy an afternoon of fast-paced French farce.

As I've got older I have started to appreciate the joys of a Saturday matinée performances.  Late morning train into London, delicious leisurely lunch and a glass of white wine at Auberge near Waterloo station, walk down to the Old Vic, enjoy French farce, home by 6pm (and managing to avoid any football crowds).  Perfect.

Sadly, Tom Hollander was 'indisposed' and not performing.  A real shame as he was one of my main reasons for booking tickets, but I don't think his absence detracted from the play one bit.  The understudy Greg Baldock was fantastic, although for me the real stars of the show were Freddie Fox as Camille and John Marquez as Carlos Homenides de Histangua - both parts played beautifully for laughs, but without becoming purely comical.  Of course, having said this I can also see that Tom Hollander would be superb in the role of Victor Emmanuel, and I am sure his performance is an absolute treat for those lucky enough to see him.  I had never heard of the play (or playwright, Georges Faydeau) before but reading the programme I see that it was big influence on Fawlty Towers and this is glaringly obvious when you see the play.

The other great joy in going to the theatre is buying a programme and drooling over what to see next.  I now have a growing list of things I want to go and see over the next few months.  I have already booked tickets with my best friend to go and see In A Forest Dark and Deep (influenced purely by the fact that is stars Matthew Fox of Lost fame), but now have three other events to add to my list.

Of course, there's The Wizard of Oz opening in February at the Palladium, then there's Richard III at the Old Vic in June (with Kevin Spacey in the lead role and Sam Mendes directing this is a MUST SEE) and also Season's Greetings (the Alan Ayckbourn play) is still running at the National Theatre.  I must admit, my brother in law had mentioned this to me ages ago (as I am a big fan of Mark Gatiss) and I utterly failed to do anything about booking tickets.  Thankfully it's on until mid March, so there's still time!