GO WEST, to the South of the Thames and see National Anthems! By Steve Rudd

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The West End of London city centre is a magical place, packed with cinemas and theatres.

There are always some amazing shows to be seen in such theatres, whether they are full-blown musicals or pure drama-driven plays, and I guess the most frustrating thing about taking a trip to the West End to see a show or two is actually deciding which show or shows to go and see, given such an incredible choice. For years now I've desperately wanted to see The Phantom of The Opera stage production and so I headed to Her Majesty's Theatre down Haymarket to try and secure a ticket, but all the cheap balcony seats were already taken.

It's not that I'm a cheapskate and won't pay any more than £20 a ticket for a show because I'm tight... it's simply that I don't earn all that much money (even though I do work damn hard), and obviously the less you pay for tickets then the more shows you can see.

Anyhow, the views offered by the cheapest seats are often no worse than those offered by some of the most expensive, as I ecstatically discovered when I went to catch Hollywood superstar Kevin Spacey in National Anthems. National Anthems is a play (and couldn't be any less like a musical if it tried) and being staged at the historic Old Vic Theatre on The Cut (yes, that is a road name) - which is just down the road from the vast Waterloo train station to the south of the River Thames, and thus located some distance away from the main West End concentration of entertainment.

Kevin Spacey has been directly involved with The Old Vic for a while now, and he is also set to star in The Philadelphia Story after the current run of National Anthems finishes on the 23rd of April. Many of the greatest actors ever have performed here, with Spacey quite literally following in the footsteps of the likes of Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton and Sir John Gielgud.

National Anthems also stars Mary Stuart Masterson, a Hollywood actress who is perhaps best known for her screen roles in movies such as the charming Fried Green Tomatoes at The Whistlestop Café comedy-drama and the romance-soaked Bed of Roses. American actor Steven Weber completes the cast of three, who all genuinely do turn in awe-inspiringly brilliant performances. The story itself is really rather simple, with Spacey playing a fireman who comes round to his neighbours' house to introduce himself. The stage is consumed by a mock house, and the audience sees the two-hour-long play develop - from its hilarious start through to its devastating and quite shocking climax - right up close in the living room.

Spacey's neighbours are played, then, by Mary Stuart Masterson and Steven Weber, who are a couple of money-obsessed snobs who have worked - allegedly - damn hard to afford this plush house in the suburbs of Detroit.

Initially, all that Spacey's character (called Ben) aims to do is acquaint himself with his neighbours and to make them feel welcome in their new neighbourhood. But as he gets to know them better, as the play progresses, it becomes apparent that he somewhat resents some of their more materialistic attitudes and thus a great sense of tension materialises between them all until Spacey's Ben effectively has a nervous breakdown and begins to routinely trash his neighbours' house to prove a point.

National Anthems is packed with ferociously funny moments, but it ultimately becomes a wickedly dark play that benefits hugely from Spacey's powerhouse performance that is packed with so much raw emotion it'll make you weep, and subsequently stare on dumbfounded as the house lights begin to dim. You might think highly of Spacey's acting talents on the big screen, but when you see him act before a live audience you should rightfully be thoroughly mesmerised. Watching a play of this calibre makes you realise just how hard it must be to act in such a situation compared to in the movies... especially when movie-shoots only call for one scene to be shot at a time.

Continued ...next page,

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