Those birds off the telly box

I recently bagged a ticket to watch The Children's Hour at the Comedy Theatre and it was excellent.

What's not to like? Kiera Knightley, gorgeous. Elisabeth Moss (or Peggy from Mad Men as she's known to most), incredible actress.

The greatest shock of the play was probably Kiera's performance outshining Elisabeth's, the other shock was Kiera not being anywhere near as gaunt as she appears in some of her roles.

Kiera is thought by some to be a bit of a wooden actress but her performance in the Children's Hour a yarn about two New England teachers and how a lie can have devastating effects is anything but wooden. It has the air of a Grecian tragedy, you know something awful is going to happen but you keep willing it not too.

There are unfortunately not many surprises in the script but the performances are so gripping it doesn't really matter. I often don't empathise with characters in plays, their personalities are frequently too one dimensional or their actions too vacuous. The stellar performances in The Children's Hour meant I had no such problems. 

The theatre industry has been buoyed by ticket sales of  £512 million in 2010 and with megastars on the stage and some brilliant productions on the horizon it's not difficult to see why.

The Children's Hours star cast means tickets are hard to come by so try a matinee showing for a cultural day out.