Theatre trips and concerts
One of the many benefits of becoming a Friend is the chance to join our Theatre Group for visits to productions in the West End, South Bank and local theatres.
About the Theatre Group
We arrange theatre visits across London and have seen dozens of performances featuring a wide range of modern and classic playwrights in recent years. About once a month throughout the year, a small group - usually between 14-20 of us - meets up to see a play. It might be in the West End or at one of the many wonderful local theatres we are blessed with in London.
Most often we choose a midweek matinee: a mix of comedy, drama and the occasional musical.
After the play - and this is the bit that our people really value - the group moves to somewhere nearby that we can enjoy a drink together and have a lively discussion about what we’ve just seen.
All the admin around each trip is done for you - reviewing and selecting good shows, securing tickets (often at group rates), travel and joining instructions. What’s more, a small percentage of the cost of each ticket you purchase goes towards Age Exchange’s activities.
All theatre tickets are now sold online.
To join our waiting list please email aefriends.theatre@gmail.com
Trinity Laban concerts
12pm on Friday 29 November
Bakehouse Theatre
As a Friend our popular Friday lunchtime concerts are free to attend or £5 for guests. These monthly concerts are given by students from the nearby Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance on the last Friday each month during the academic year.
Maksym Artemenko began playing the piano at an early age and he has also taken part in festivals such as the Kharkiv Assemblies and the Chamber Music
Academy YSOU in Germany. Additionally, he has gained valuable insights through masterclasses with renowned piano professors and pianists, including Ji Liu, Dr. Min Kwon, Martino Tirimo, William Fong, Andriy Baryshevsky and Tatiana Verkina. Since July 2022, Maksym has continued his studies with Professor Mikhail Kazakevich at Trinity Laban.
Napoleon: Un Petit Pantomime
3pm on Tuesday 17 December
Jermyn Street Theatre
Tickets £33
Jermyn Street, one of our favourite small theatres, urges us to marechal our forces and round up les rosbifs for some historic hilarity. 'Join the most dictatorial of petits hommes as he dons disguises among the bourgeoisie to war with Wellington. Will the grandiose general overcome his fear of cats to become Emperor? Will the dodgy Duke find a name for his new beef pie?' Fans of bad puns face the additional challenge of crossing the language barrier in this Christmas frolic. This production is by the Charles Court Opera which staged the award-winning Odyssey: A Heroic Pantomime which theatre group members enjoyed last year. This boutique panto promises to bring a smile to the faces of Les Misérables.
Numbers are limited. Email aefriends.theatre@gmail.com to be added to the waiting list.
The Little Foxes
2.30pm on Wednesday 22 January
Young Vic Theatre
Tickets £59
After a lifetime spent watching her brothers grow rich, Regina Hubbard has had enough of standing around. When a businessman offers the prospect of untold wealth and power, a sequence of events unfolds that sets brother against brother, father against son and Regina against the whole pack of them. Last performed on the central London stage at the Donmar Warehouse in 2001 and dismissed by some as ‘melodrama’, leading theatre critic Michael Billington described the play as ‘infinitely more than Southern hokum’ but rather a study in solitude and the corrupting power of greed. The Young Vic’s revival of a play written by Lillian Hellman in 1939 but set in 1900 stars Anne-Marie Duff (Bad Sisters, Nowhere Boy) as Regina and is directed by Olivier Award-winning Lyndsey Turner (The Witches, The Crucible).
Numbers are limited. Email aefriends.theatre@gmail.com to be added to the waiting list.
Outlying Islands
3pm on Tuesday 18 February
Jermyn Street Theatre
Tickets £29
August 1939. On the eve of war two young scientists are sent by the government to study bird life on a remote Scottish island. Tension builds between the two men as they compete for the affections of Ellen, niece of Kirk, the stern leaseholder of the island. Pressure ratchets up as the government’s real reason for sending them to the island emerges. Inspired by a covert operation during World War two, David Greig’s play explores society on the edge of immense change. Twenty years on from the play’s Olivier Award-winning premiere, one of the theatre group’s favourite small theatres is staging this unsettling and thought-provoking drama.
Numbers are limited. Email aefriends.theatre@gmail.com to be added to the waiting list.
