It’s tough trying to flog a show when your budget is small and your potential audience is being shouted at constantly from all angles by other people wanting to sell them things. Reciprocal marketing is a classic free roll of the dice. The logic runs smooth: “your audience likes your theatre, maybe they’d like to hear about our theatre and similarly maybe our audience would like to hear about your theatre – you show yours ours now and we’ll show ours yours later”.

It’s important that cultural organisations help each other and that theatre companies stick together so we are both morally obliged and happy to tell you that the Hippodrome have got Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing opening on Monday. Now, you are reading the Stan’s Cafe blog, the interesting question is what are the chances that you will like Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing? I don’t know. I’m not even sure if I would like it.

In the past I would have assumed not – I’d have imagined that it would be too straight for my tastes (ironic given the play is about revealing to the world you are not straight). However, since the past I have come to recognize that I like most things so long as they are ‘good’ and I’ve heard many people say Beautiful Thing is ‘good’.

Also since my narrow minded past has departed I’ve learned to develop and affection for Coronation St. and spotted a few years ago on the credits ‘that man that wrote that play that I’ve never seen but that lots of people say is ‘good”. I’m sure I have liked episodes of Coronation Street that Jonathan Harvey wrote so maybe I would like Beautiful Thing.

If you are a big fan of ‘The Soaps’ and warming to the idea of a trip to the Hippodrome the following news is important to you. The cast is a mash up of big names from EastEnders, Hollyoaks, Coronation Street and Skins (which technically isn’t a soap but is a TV series – just showing off my popular culture knowledge here) – maybe those four fictional worlds colliding will fry your brain – or thrill your dopamine receptors.

That’s our half of the the reciprocal marketing push delivered on behalf of The Hippodrome, thank you for reading. If you also follow the Hippodrome on the social media expect to be reading all about A Translation of Shadows at some point. In fact we’ve missed a trick – “Why don’t you limber up for a visit to see Beautiful Think with us by catching Jack Trow perform Benshi to Yasujiro Ozu’s 1933 classic silent film Woman of Tokyo, in Stan’s Cafe’s MAKING SHADOWS as part of Flatpack on Friday 27th March.