An Evening With: Talks and One-Person Shows

An Evening With is the simplest format in the programme and, for a lot of people, the most memorable. One person, a stage, and a couple of hours to tell you something properly. No set to speak of, no cast, no plot. Just someone who has done something interesting, talking about it to a room small enough that it feels like a conversation rather than a lecture.

What actually happens at one of these?

The shape varies, but it is usually one of three things. Sometimes it is a straight talk: the guest speaks, often with photographs or film, and takes questions at the end. Sometimes it is an in-conversation, where an interviewer draws the evening out of them, which tends to produce the better stories because nothing is scripted. And sometimes it is a one-person show, written and performed as a piece of theatre, where the performer is playing a version of themselves or someone else entirely.

Most include an audience question session, and in a room this size that is genuinely worth staying for. You do not need a microphone runner and you do not need to shout. People ask real questions and get real answers, which is a different experience from watching the same guest on a panel show.

Who appears?

The range is wide on purpose. Broadcasters, journalists, sports figures, musicians talking about their work rather than performing it, authors, historians, explorers, people who have spent a career at something unusual, and performers presenting an autobiographical show. Some names will be familiar from television or radio. Others will be people you have never heard of whose evening turns out to be the best thing you saw all year, which is rather the point of a varied programme.

If an evening is more comedian than raconteur, you will often find it in our Comedy listings instead; the line between the two is genuinely blurry and we list each show wherever it best fits.

Why the format suits this theatre

A one-person show lives or dies on whether the audience feels spoken to. In a big auditorium a speaker is a small figure a long way off, addressing a crowd. Here, they are a person in the room. Eye contact works. A pause works. An aside works. Guests notice it and say so, and it is the reason this format has become a regular part of what we do.

It is also a practical fit. These evenings need very little technically, which keeps them affordable to stage and keeps ticket prices reasonable. That matters to us: the theatre vision commits us to being local and economical, and an evening with an interesting guest is one of the least expensive ways to put something genuinely good on a stage in a small town.

Is it suitable for children or a group?

It depends entirely on the guest. A talk about wildlife photography or a sporting career can be excellent for an interested twelve-year-old. A frank memoir about a difficult life is not. Each event page carries any age guidance along with the running time, and we are specific about it rather than leaving you to guess.

These evenings suit groups well. Societies, book groups, clubs and workplace outings all book them, and because the format is conversational it gives people something to talk about afterwards in the bar, which is open before the show and at the interval where there is one.

Booking, concessions and finding us

Every event has its own page on this site with dates, prices and a seating plan, and booking is done there. Where a guest is touring with an outside promoter, the ticket terms are set by that promoter, so concessions may or may not apply; the event page is definitive. Where we promote the evening ourselves, the usual concessions are available for students in full-time education, children of fifteen and under, over sixties, and registered disabled patrons with carers, subject to proof and one per person per transaction. All tickets include a DEMBE Theatre Restoration Fee, which is reinvested in the building.

We are at Penny Royal Court, Station Road, Tring, HP23 5QY, with free parking, a bus stop on Station Road directly outside and Tring station a short walk away, about thirty-five minutes from London Euston. Wheelchair spaces are available; please contact us before booking if you need one or have another access requirement.

Coming up, and already been

The list below shows the evenings currently on sale, followed by those that have already happened. We keep past events listed so there is a record of who has been here and what they talked about.