Theatre Report
We were invited to the theatre the other day. Four of us were to meet at Val's house in Barnet and walk from there. Walk? She lives nowhere near a theatre we thought. However it was an AmDram (Amateur Dramatic) production in a local theatre so maybe walking was indeed possible. Check out that groovy website!
We arrived and had a pre-match drink and then set off on a 3 minute walk with about 10 minutes to go. We crossed the road and then Val declared she was unsure of the way. So we got into our cars and followed Val. She drove 50 yards from her home and thenstopped and asked for directions. Surely a new world record?
We drove on, took the first right and parked. We got oput of the cars, took the next right and walked a couple of hundred yards. We were now, we reckoned, nearer to the house than the cars.
We enetered the little 60 seater hall, bought a program and settled down. There were red hot bar heaters all around the walls making it very stifling. The wrinklies in front of us put their tired legs up on the low stage and we placed an order for the break - tea or coffee. We read the well produced but slim program, the highlight of which was the thanks given to the people who had leant the 3 piece suite for the stage. It was awful. I would prefer to remain anonymous I think.
The play was excellent and I thought the actors could have been professionals. It's an old Ray Cooney farce and it was very funny. As usual, they had tried to modernise it by introducing mobile phones etc. but the stereotyping of the police was right out of the sixties or earlier.
Towards the end of the play one of the lead characters appears wearing only her underwear. Her knickers could only be described as "slightly flappy" as there was good bush of dark hair on show. This, of course, quickly became the talking point after the show, possibly when one of us felt brave enough to introduce to polite company. "Did you see that bush?" I think was the opening gambit. Which quickly spread on to how the play should have been performed in Bushey and by Mary Hinge.
The post match beers were good and we went home. We told our babysitter where we had been and she asked what we thought of the play and we said we loved it. My favourite character had this wonderfully rubbery expressive face - which was lucky as it goes. It was our babysitter's husband...