So, still not much Spring in the air and the water-courses have been full.  But lambs are starting to pop out and Spring weather is apparently going to finally arrive next week.  Such a relief!

Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) and I went to the Theatre Royal in Bath last week to see Mary Stuart starring Juliette Stephenson and Lia Williams.  The last time I went to the theatre was years ago when I saw War Horse in London.  I really can’t recall when, before that, I saw a play.  In retrospect, it’s surprising that I didn’t do more theatre-going while I was in London – one of the theatre capitals of the world.  I love cinema, which is perhaps the closest art form, and I love live music which provides similar intimacy.  So why not go to more theatre?

Part of the reason is that a large part of good acting is in facial expression.  My eyesight is just not good enough to be able to discern the subtlety of such expression from the distances I expect to find myself away from the stage and so I feel I will miss out.  That was true in Bath earlier this week but, in truth, the performance was very enjoyable anyway.

The other reason for not going to many shows in London was my perception of the expense of the ticket relative to my knowledge of the theatre and, therefore, my chances of enjoying the experience.  However, the costs of going to the theatre are lower outside of London and we knew the play LSW and I saw in Bath would be good because we’d seen the reviews and it had already had a successful run in London.  In any case, I have been thinking more about the relative cost of the entertainments I choose.

The tickets for Theatre Royal cost £33 each.  That is quite a lot of money in absolute terms and, given that the theatre has a capacity of 900 and was packed, that creates a decent revenue stream for the theatre.  But then we were seeing a couple of near-top actresses, and a cast of 20 or so, all directed and acting in front of a backdrop and lighting that all needs to be maintained and manned.  This production is a success but not all are and so maybe Mary Stuart has to cover losses on other plays.  Also, the play was a pretty compelling three hours long – so that’s around £11 per hour of (dramatic, absorbing and memorable) entertainment.

A week before, I had travelled up to London to see Forest Green Rovers (FGR) Football Club lose against our relegation rivals Barnet.  The ticket cost £23 which is above average for English Football League 2.  For that, over 90 minutes, I saw a poor game of football with a bad result for us.  I can’t say I enjoyed the experience and it cost of over £15 per hour.  Of course, had FGR played well and won, I would have been overjoyed and very pleased to have seen the game.  But FGR’s away form is such that I could have expected disappointment.

Small scale live music gigs are very good relative value.  Many I have attended in recent years have cost less than £10 and, with support bands, provide around two hours of entertainment at £5-8 per hour.  The latest band I saw was a (supposedly) up and coming band called Goat Girl.  For the cost of a CD (£11), I got in to see them live in the intimate surroundings of Rough Trade East record store in Shoreditch, London.  It was a lively hour, I liked much of the music and it was very good value (given I have the CD memento).

Of course, the quality of music venue (the comfy seats available at Theatre Royal Bath are not an option in the small venues I tend to go to!) and the quality of the music is variable.  Generally though, I will have listened to the band on Spotify or CD in advance and have enough knowledge to aim at events I enjoy.  The good value of live music has, for me, been pretty consistent over several years.

The other thing I did on my football and music trip to London was go to a couple of art galleries.  Both shows, at the Hayward Gallery and the Barbican, entertained me for about 90 minutes.  By far the most interesting was the excellent exhibition of Andreas Gursky photographs at the Hayward.  It provided a fascinating insight into the work of someone I had never heard of before at a rate of about £10 per hour.  Thinking back to other exhibitions I have seen recently, that rate of entertainment cost per hour seems about the norm for me.  I like free art shows but having to pay focuses my attention of what I am seeing.

I might consider further the relative value of other entertainments such as restaurants, cinema, watching catch-up TV, gardening and walking (which is certainly cheapest!)  Clearly cost per hour is not the only factor.  However, from the past week I conclude that:

• Theatre (out of London at least) is better value than I previously thought – I really enjoyed it
• Music events are high value entertainment provided I keep my knowledge of what I am going to see current
• Art exhibitions are good entertainment value despite the high absolute cost of tickets; indeed, I suspect the fact there is a high cost drives me to concentrate more on what I am seeing and get more out of it
• following Forest Green Rovers away from home is bad value unless we win (just twice in the last 9 months!).

Nonetheless, the pain of the football fan is to carry on ploughing the same furrow regardless of results so I’ll be handing over my cash at Cheltenham on Saturday and hoping for value for money and, rather desperately, three points for FGR.