Brienne of Tarth, Shakespeare, and the Best Theater in London

I wrote this in 2018 during the two years I lived in London. Some details — shows, prices, what’s on — will have changed, but my love for the Bridge Theatre hasn’t.

The London theater scene is extraordinary. I expected a lot of options when I moved there but the sheer scale and diversity was overwhelming — you could literally see a different show every day of the year without repeating yourself.

It was on the London Underground that I first noticed Gwendoline Christie. If you don’t recognize the name, Gwendoline plays Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones. But the tube advertisement was for a theater production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and in it she was wearing a strapless gown — it took me a few seconds to figure out why she looked so familiar.

I love Game of Thrones and I love Shakespeare so of course I had to get tickets.

A friend introduced me to TodayTix — an app for discount London theater tickets. Worth downloading before any London trip. We wound up paying mostly full price for this particular show because we were being picky about seats, but I’ve used TodayTix on other occasions and had good success with it. Note: TodayTix works in several other cities — including Chicago, LA, New York, San Francisco, DC, and Boston in the US, and several cities in Australia.

The show was at the Bridge Theatre — at the time brand new, having opened in October 2017 as the first wholly new theatre of scale added to London’s commercial theatre sector in 80 years. It has since become one of London’s most celebrated venues, known for its flexible staging and bold productions. Unlike the grand old theaters of the West End it was built more for function than form — but the function is phenomenal. On warm summer days that’s also a blessing as the older theaters can get hot and stuffy in a way the Bridge simply doesn’t.

For this production, about 400 people stood on the main floor completely immersed in the show, with stagehands directing them as the play evolved and the sets changed around them — furniture appearing through the floor, suspended up to the ceiling quietly and fluidly as scenes progressed. I didn’t want to stand for two-plus hours so we got seats, but it looked extraordinary to be down there in the middle of it all.

The fairies were aerial artists, climbing around the set and suspending themselves from cloth hanging from the ceiling — it gave the show a cirque du soleil quality that fit the material perfectly. Gwendoline Christie played both Titania and Hippolyta and was good. But Puck stole the show completely.

Puck was played by David Moorst, who spent three months at a circus school specifically to prepare for the role. His acting was spot on, his acrobatics were impressive, but what made him extraordinary was his timing and his instinct for audience interaction — remember, the audience was literally standing around him during the show. I became a fan immediately.

I’m pleased to report that when the Bridge revived the production in 2025, David Moorst came back as Puck. Some things are just right.

If you’re visiting London, the Bridge Theatre is worth a dedicated evening. Check what’s currently on and book ahead — the good shows sell out fast. And download TodayTix before you go.