Dominic West: West End Theatre Audiences Are Probably Not Enjoying Themselves

Dominic West has spoken of his support for regional theatre and said that London theatres are full of tourists who do not want to be there.

Speaking to The Times, West said “And you get a lot of tourists in London and people are not necessarily there because they want to be there … it is because it is part of the tourist trail.”

He said that tickets prices in the capital were going “crazy … which is a bad thing”. He added: “That means only a certain small group of people will be going to the theatre and probably not enjoying it much.

“I have always enjoyed the non-London audience. In Sheffield, certainly, there is a real amazing feel from the local support you get and from a real hunger for a good play and for a good night at the theatre. Which of course there is everywhere else but I think it is more tangible outside London.”

He said his TV work has kept him away from the theatre. “I have not done any theatre for five or six years. Before that I did a play at least every three of four years,” he said.

As previously reported, West is to star as Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's A View From The Bridge at Theatre Royal Bath's Ustinov Studio next year.

He said, “Sitting around on strike I thought, ‘Let’s go back to first principles and try and get things made. Really what I love and what I have always loved and why I became an actor. I just love doing plays. I am not in it for the glory or the pay. That [Ustinov] is not the place to do it. I am in it I suppose just to reconnect with my passion.”

A View from the Bridge is at Ustinov Studio from February 16 to March 9

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