The last time I’ve gone to a theatre was on the 22^nd Feb 2020. I was in Dublin at that time and I’ve been to a show named “Blood Brothers” at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre. I remember I was at the balcony and pretty far from the stage and I forgot my glasses. I cannot say that I understood every single thing about the story still the feeling of being in a theatre saloon itself was amazing.

Then… Covid hit everything, forget about theatres sometimes we had distance limitations (<2km circle) , sometimes we had curfews (after a certain time in the evening or weekends). Meanwhile I’ve moved from Ireland to Turkey temporarily and then to the UK – which definitely deserves another blog 😊 As I started to settle down in London and things are picking up, on Thursday evening I wondered if the theatres are opened. I wasn’t very hopeful though. And I was shocked with so many options available, it’s obvious that I’m not following the news 😀 I was even more surprised to find available slots for the next day ! Yeeeyyyy

I decided to take it easy and decided to go to the play “Public Domain” @Vaudeville Theatre which was about the social media! Having watched the “Social Dilemma” and “The Great Hack” movies, I was interested to see how some known facts can be reflected in a 2 performers play. Actually it was a musical, not a theatre which made this play more interesting.

Getting ready for a theatre after more than a year… What are the things I used to do? What are the things that I need to do now due to Covid? Don’t forget the glasses, sanitiser, mask, print the ticket as instructed (I normally don’t), the oyster card, purse (or the metal box as my friends say), book (if I arrive early) and that’s it. I was ready. The entrance was not crowded and the employees in charge were very helpful. After a temperature check and a check in with the NHS Covid 19 app, finally I entered the building. I understood better how much I missed the theatres when I saw the red seats and looking for mine, when I felt its cosiness, the exciting waiting for the start and the humming of the spectators… 🎭

And the showed started in a funny way, with a machine voice reminding about the rules not to take pic, turn off the phone etc in a funnier way also warning us that we might want to delete all our social media accounts 😀 The performers were amazing! There were many things that were emphasizing how social media changes the way how we live (as expected), many funny things about Mark Z. interviews etc but also weird discussions happened at the court in the US accusing Facebook of illegally tracking the activities of internet users like congress people asking questions and not really listening the answers of Mark Z, or law-domain specific questions that I didn’t feel he should be able to answer. At the end, you take whatever you want to 😊

It was a Friday night that I’ve been longing for long! And I’m so grateful that the vaccination program here in the UK is going very well and we started to go back to what we used to do even in a different level. 🙏🙏 Hopefully I’ll manage to get to my theatre routines back again.

alladola, 28th May 2021, London