Theatre, like all the best addictions, is a habit for life.
Theatre, like all the best addictions, is a habit for life. The sad facts of class and social immobility mean that that you’re far more likely to become a regular theatregoer as an adult if you were taken to the theatre often as a child, but it’s not because theatre is merely a social pursuit favoured by the upper-middle class, or even that theatre need be economically exclusive compared to other entertainments. (I challenge any reader to find a theatre in London where every seat is more expensive than a Premier League football ticket.) Thanks to the National Theatre’s partnership with Travelex, more than half the seats at the National this year cost a mere £12. (Compare that with Arsenal, where the cheapest adult seats cost £34.)
No, the real reason that childhood experience of theatre matters is that it teaches children that theatre exists in the first place, and that it’s more of a total escape than even the best bedtime story.
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