Great Nights Out On the Cheap
Alternative London amusements
It’s Wednesday night. I could be anywhere, doing anything. I chose MimeFest. How did I get here?
It all started in 2019 when our friends took us to see Bitter Wheat, a play about Harvey Weinstein, starring John Malkovich.
I was excited to see Malkovich live, but what we got was an unfeeling, dead fish performance — like Weinstein himself — and a huge bill.
Before the long slog through Bitter Wheat, we ate at J. Sheekey, a good but pricy fish restaurant in Leicester Square. Assuming seeing Malkovich on stage was also expensive (our friends booked the tickets), I offered to pay for dinner, thinking that would make us even.
Wrong. The tickets were £400.
“That’s the total, and we owe half?” I asked.
Nope. That’s half the total. The tickets were £200 apiece.
I was miffed, but promised to pay. The next day I wrote to our friends to apologize for making a fuss. They graciously said the tickets were their treat. That’s when I had an idea.
I would repay my theater debt by taking them to as many shows as possible. The idea was to find affordable fun in London. I was sure it existed and it turns out I was right.
