Never mind the popcorn for this taste of culture

These days there’s not very much that’s even affordable.

A trip to the cinema for a family of four will set you back about enough to feed that family for a week, and an evening at the theatre – although undoubtedly much better value for money – is also beyond the budget of many.

Long gone are the days when you could take the kids swimming and get change from a tenner, and pretty much any site of historic and/or educational interest will charge you the earth to get in.

When you’re on a budget these things are the first that have to go.

I did briefly consider going to the cinema for the first time in a while last weekend – before the sun decided to gloriously shine – but it turned out that the 12A film my son wanted to see was only on after bedtime or over dinner time.

An odd choice of timing as it was the latest blockbuster that all the youngsters want to watch, while showing at a sensible hour for them was a 15 certificate film they weren’t allowed to watch.

So we gave up on that idea and went to the park.

But this weekend we already have our plans in place – and it won’t cost a penny.

The Foot in the Door theatre company is bringing The Taming of the Shrew to Salisbury and performing it free of charge in the Cathedral Close.

The company was founded by students at the University of Winchester in 2007 to give students and graduates the chance to perform outside of the university environment.

It’s a lovely idea, and by going along you’ll not only be enjoying an afternoon of entertainment but also doing your bit to support these young people in their efforts.

There’ll be no pestering for a giant bucket of popcorn and teeth-melting drinks that cost a million pounds (ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration – but I did try to check and, funnily enough, the Odeon doesn’t seem to list its food prices online).

And you can sit outside in the sunshine (fingers crossed) on your picnic rug and enjoy the beautiful setting as well as the words of the Bard.

It’s a great opportunity for the people of Salisbury to take the family along and introduce them to one of Shakespeare’s plays in the year of his 450th birthday.

And if little ones aren’t as ready for a bit of culture as you thought they were, you can always surreptitiously wander off and pretend you were just passing, which you really wouldn’t want to do if you’d paid nearly £40 (without the popcorn) to sit in the dark for two hours.

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