Going to the Theatre alone

[Aquarius1234]

Is going to the Theatre alone sad and lonely?
I like plays in London but it seems more of an effort these days finding someone to join me.
But it's also boring having no one to chat with after..

I recommend the TIX app for buying tickets to London shows and the seat plan website to research the best seats.

Who is pitying you and how do you respond?
I've never been pitied and just discuss the shows with my theatre friends or family next time I see them just like you do with any other event you experience. You don't take your friends on holiday with you but you still talk about it later.

It's like when people pity me for being single after moaning about their partner for 10 minutes. Why on earth would I want a partner when I have a child and house and can do exactly as I please?

Yabu to say it's sad and lonely.

Lonely would be choosing not to do somethingb because you didn't have someone to go with.

I love theatre, comedy, musicals etc. I've spent a lot of my time this month at the Edinburgh Fringe, and the vast majority of it, I've spent on my own. I've had a bloody brilliant month!

It would have been a lot sadder to sit at home and wish I was there...

I do it regularly!

I go to the theatre and the cinema alone.

In a way, any self-consciousness is because you're wondering if the people around you at the venue are thinking it's odd that you're alone. But so what if they do? They'll have forgotten almost before they reached the end of the thought.

Go and have a great time.

Better to go alone than not at all. Far less sad to have nothing to discuss when you meet others.

It's not pity, they're just jealous that you have the confidence to go alone :)

Like others, I've had some great last-minute front row tickets at the National Theatre etc for £15-30. Usually end up chatting to another woman next to me who also got a bargain. Sometimes we share snacks. It's great.

Also do this sometimes. - go to the theatre when in London for work.

Plus a year or so ago I used to take DD to a regular rehearsal that was far enough away from home that it wasn’t worth going back in between. The only thing there was to do nearby was to go to a big shopping centre, which includes a leisure park. Rather than go shopping I’d buy a ticket for whatever was on at the cinema. Saw quite a few things I wouldn’t have seen otherwise and much more fun than random shopping.

Yes, I have done it a few times. I love the theatre and sometimes, you can't find anyone who is free or wants to see it so I bite the bullet and go alone. Some times it's absolutely fine and other times I wish I had someone but I am still glad I went as the regret would be worse.

I do it quite a lot. I also go with friends. They're both different experiences, but equally enjoyable. Off tomorrow in fact - I've grabbed a single ticket in the second row, while if there had been two of us, we'd have been close to the back! I usually treat myself to a glass of wine first and read a programme or look at reviews online during the interval.

I actually think its worse when anyone assumes you have gone alone/on your own?
Before you tell them with a friend.
The whole ''on your own'' sounds judging, could just be me though.
It would be older family members saying that.

At the end of your life, do you want to be thinking about all the great experiences you missed out on, because of supposedly judgy family members?

I do this, if no one else wants to go/likes my choices. I wouldn't miss something, just because I had to go alone. I usually get a cheap seat.

I don't like being boxed in, whats wrong with sometimes going alone and sometimes with a friend or sometimes with family?
I think often in society you can easily assume someone does stuff solo when they might have the odd friend.

I’m nearly sixty and do this stuff alone, as does my DD who is 27. So I don’t think it’s necessarily an age thing.

Maybe you have family members who lack confidence? Just keep on enjoying your trips.

Ideally I prefer afternoon rather than evening. Travelling late catching last trains in a rush is never fun.

If people are pitying you it says more about them than you. Why lie and endorse their unpleasantness?

I quite often go to the theatre alone. Just about all my friends and my bloke only like musical theatre whereas I prefer serious drama so I go by myself. I really like NT cinema streams too and go to those alone.

Yes its about personal preference, lots of people just can't be bothered to make the effort. Its easy not to bother when its just you.

So you don't mind going alone, but are upset because family members think you don't have any friends? Is that it?

Are these comments only coming from older family members? Perhaps members that would never have the confidence to go alone as that was not their societal norm when money was spent on husband and children but never on what the mother liked or wanted to do?

My grandmother would find it entirely alien to do such things alone, my mum is proud of me for doing it but would never do it herself and it holds her back.

Yes I prefer serious drama. Or dark comedy drama.

I love going alone! I do about once a month when there is a play I want to see that others don't, or if I fancy a last minute trip.

Go and enjoy!

By the way National Theatre at Home streaming is great £99 for the year.

Yes weirdly my Nan used to ask if I had gone to the theatre/cinema alone in my twenties when actually I always went with a friend or partner at the time. Think she thought I didn't have many friends.. just cos I didn't shout about it.