One of the many benefits of becoming a Friend is the chance to join our Theatre Group for visits to productions in the West End, South Bank and local theatres.

About the Theatre Group

We arrange theatre visits across London and have seen dozens of performances featuring a wide range of modern and classic playwrights in recent years. About once a month throughout the year, a small group - usually between 14-20 of us - meets up to see a play. It might be in the West End or at one of the many wonderful local theatres we are blessed with in London.

Most often we choose a midweek matinee: a mix of comedy, drama and the occasional musical.

After the play - and this is the bit that our people really value - the group moves to somewhere nearby that we can enjoy a drink together and have a lively discussion about what we’ve just seen.

All the admin around each trip is done for you - reviewing and selecting good shows, securing tickets (often at group rates), travel and joining instructions. What’s more, a small percentage of the cost of each ticket you purchase goes towards Age Exchange’s activities.

From January all theatre tickets will be available to buy online. 

Trinity Laban concerts

As a Friend our popular Friday lunchtime concerts are free to attend or £5 for guests. These monthly concerts are given by students from the nearby Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Lunchtime Concert

12pm, Friday 26 April in the Bakehouse Theatre
Free to Friends or £5 for guests

Our concerts from Trinity Laban students are in the Bakehouse on the last Friday each month during the academic year. This month will be a cello concert.

Read the programme

Nye

2.15pm, Wednesday 8 May at the National Theatre (Olivier)
Tickets £53

21st Century Welsh acting legend Michael Sheen plays his openly acknowledged idol, 20th Century Welsh hero Nye Bevan, in this surreal journey through Bevan’s fight to establish Britain’s welfare state. Written by Tim Price and directed by outgoing NT boss, Rufus Norris, the play is set 12 years after the foundation of the NHS. Bevan, now himself in hospital dying of stomach cancer, revisits key memories; of being beaten at school for his lisp, of working down the pit at 13, of using a period of unemployment to get elected to local councils - all the way to his angry tussles with Churchill in the Commons. Sharon Small stars as Bevan’s equally fiery Scots MP wife Jennie Lee, minister under Harold Wilson and later Baroness Lee, as she explains the sacrifices she made to support her husband.

We have introduced a new online booking system this year

Buy your tickets now

To join our waiting list please email aefriends.theatre@gmail.com

The Hills of California

2pm, Wednesday 5 June at the Harold Pinter Theatre
Tickets £55

Following their multi-award-winning triumph The Ferryman, Jez Butterworth, writer of Jerusalem, resumes his partnership with Sam Mendes, director of The Lehman Trilogy, to bring you The Hills of California.

Jez Butterworth’s first play in seven years has a lot to live up to, given his previous, Jerusalem, is reckoned by some to be the best of the 21st Century so far. In the sweltering summer of 1976, a fractious group of sisters get called back to the family home, a Blackpool guest house called Seaview (it doesn’t have one), because their mother Veronica is dying of cancer. The fighting begins from the off, initially over whether to end Veronica’s suffering by killing her, but quickly also takes in who’s to blame - including their mother - for the failure of their childhood dream of becoming a famous vocal harmony group like the Andrews Sisters, and achieving success in America. Butterworth’s partner Laura Donnelly stars as the young Veronica and then later as Joan, the one sister who did make it to California.

We have introduced a new online booking system this year

Buy your tickets now

To join our waiting list please email aefriends.theatre@gmail.com