Moll Flanders - Mercury Theatre - Colchester

[showgirl]

"The world premiere of Nick Perry’s unfaithful adaptation features a cast of actor-musicians in a mashup of 18th century bawdiness and 21st century humour."

A little late in a way as the Colchester run ended yesterday, when I saw this, but it was so good that I really hope it has a longer life.  The production received some very positive reviews and was extremely entertaining but what mystifies me most is why there are never any posts on this board about the Mercury Theatre?  It has both a main house and a studio (where I also saw the current play yesterday); has a varied programme and is within travelling distance of London and, presumably, other towns in the area, so do we actually have no members who visit this venue or are people just reluctant to start threads?  If it wasn't such a slog from where I live, I'd go more often and I certainly plan to return.

[Polly1]

The Mercury is my closest theatre and I like it a lot as a theatre but it rarely has anything on which attracts me. I'm not a big musicals fan but I did see and enjoy Pieces of String earlier this year (& thought I had commented on here somewhere). Last year's panto was excellent. Virtually no plays in the main house, an occasional decent offering in the Studio (Tamburlaine by the Asian company and the David Greig play about Utoya spring to mind).

At the moment it is not on the circuit for touring productions but it is being closed next spring for a major refurbishment which will, I believe, increase seating capacity enough to meet the requirements of (some) tours.

I'm afraid that I just prefer (& am lucky enough to be able) to spend the extra time and money getting into London to see things of much higher quality.

[showgirl]

Apologies, Polly1, for I'm sure I'd have read your Pieces Of String post at the time and am sorry I missed that production. It's a shame to hear that the Mercury programming isn't generally appealing; I suppose for me there's always that sense of craving something out of reach, but when I used to be a regular, 30+ years ago, I saw some great work. I hope that once the refurbishment has been completed (though they still have a huge amount of money to raise), the theatre is able to attract better productions and larger audiences.

Amazingly for me, on my Saturday visit I recognised and spoke to one of the ushers I knew from my visits in the mid-80's, so some of the staff are certainly very loyal.