Oklahoma! Is Just Around The Corner

It has been quite a busy and cultural couple of days for me.

On Thursday, the local Worthing Lions were sponsoring a performance of Oklahoma! at the Pier Theatre in the town, a production performed by the local amateur operatic Society.

Now, because I have worked for a professional opera company, Opera North, as their education officer, I have been in the habit of avoiding amateur performances like the plague. In other words, I am a cultural snob.

I suppose this is a consequence of having for five years having had the opportunity to see as much opera of the highest standard as I could have wished. When rehearsals were completed, a typical season would consist of at least three shows, performed in repertoire, so that in the course of a week there would be two performances of two different operas, and a third performance of some lesser-known or less popular work, that would not merit more than two performances in any one week.

You could say that it was my professional duty to see the work of the company for which I worked. Of course, I never had to pay a penny for my tickets, and I would always get good seats, often in the stalls next to visiting members of other companies or singers popping along to see the work of a professional colleague, or sometimes agents checking out the work of someone on their books already, or potentially so.

It is easy to take this kind of thing for granted when it is so readily available.

But my visit to Oklahoma! by the local Worthing players was a pleasant surprise indeed, it was performed with gusto, and the voices were surprisingly good. Perhaps I should not be so surprised, as in so many small towns around the UK, it is the amateur companies that provide a substantial quantity of the cultural opportunities available to local residents.

That tickets were made available to me courtesy of the local Lions organization is thanks to the fact that as a disabled person I was one of the target audience for this charitable sponsorship on their part. As it happens, it was a wonderful experience, and literally just minutes away from where I live.

My carer Linda came with me, and the person that provided me with a complimentary pair of tickets made a third available so that Linda’s partner Ray could also attend.

And so it was an evening out for all of us, and all I had to do was avoid breaking into song throughout the evening, which would have spoilt the event for everyone.

And it is of course so full of tunes and songs to which one cannot deny that one knows the words.

I took the trouble of viewing my own copy of the Hollywood film version recorded from the television, which I suppose makes me someone unafraid to admit that I like musicals.

In some respects, there is nothing finer than a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, and there are so many to choose from.

And so in future I shall be less snobbish about what I go and see in my local community, and who knows, next time I might even pay for a ticket. It will be worth it.