Just as a proper lunch in a restaurant is always a bit more exciting than dinner, there is something a little bit naughty about being at the theatre in the afternoons. In the summer months, you stumble out of the darkness into the light as if awaking from a dream, and at this time of the year you come out to find night has fallen and the world’s lights have been switched on. The pleasure is boosted by the feeling that you have skived off and dipped out of the real world for a few brief hours.
I love matinees – perhaps a sign of my increasing age, but I have plenty of younger friends who are devotees, too. In a world of flexible working and portfolio jobs, matinees are no longer just for the retired or rich and idle, but for all theatre lovers – just as they were in Shakespeare’s time when all performances were in the afternoon.
It’s no longer the case that matinees are always dominated by older people, either; a young friend of mine who frequently goes alone swears that they are far friendlier than evening performances, when people often arrive hurried and stressed after work.
For some theatres they can be the busiest performances of the week. The Theatre Royal Stratford East’s terrific revival of Joan Littlewood’s Oh What a Lovely War, which is setting out on a well-deserved national tour, was packed out when I caught up with it at a matinee this week.
I particularly like the Soho theatre and Theatre 503’s late-afternoon Sunday matinees, and while the Globe’s midnight matinees are well past my bedtime, I applaud that kind of flexible thinking.
I sometimes think that for an industry run by creative people, theatres are not all that creative when it comes to thinking about performance times, which still seem stuck in the rut of the 7.30pm or 8pm start time.
What’s not to like about a show in the early or late afternoon? Matinees are sometimes cheaper, frequently easier to secure a ticket for when a show is popular, and the transport options are often easier, too. It’s still common, particularly in regional theatres, to see audiences sneaking out before the end of the evening show – not because they want to leave, but because they know the last bus will not wait. After a matinee, there’s often time to stop for a cup of tea or a drink to discuss the play, something that seldom happens if a show finishes at 10.30pm and you’ve still got to make the long journey home.
There used to be a feeling that matinee performances were often under-powered performances with actors sleepwalking through their roles in order to save themselves for the evening performance. I’m not sure that was ever true, and I very much doubt it’s the case today. I’ve seen plenty of matinee performances where both the actors and the audience are fresher and more alert than they would probably be in the evening. I reckon I see more audience members asleep at evening performances than at matinees. So let’s hear it for the matinees, once a threatened but increasingly suited to 21st-century theatregoing.
