Thespians

To mark my last night living with the Billinghams, we enjoyed a sophisticated night at the theatre, which was a nice change from the vast amount of bumming around I've been doing lately. Vic does a spot of acting in her spare time (she has an agent and everything), doing everything from extra work to TV ads, and she got a part in a play a month or so ago, rehearsing pretty much every night. We let her get a few real performances in last week before buying tickets to the Saturday night showing; by happy coincidence, it also happens that The Garrick Theatre in Guildford is directly opposite award-winning burger bar Alfred's Kitchen, so it would have been rude to go all that way without sampling their goods!

On Saturday evening, we drove out of the city to Guildford in convoy and made a B-line for Alfred's Kitchen as Vic went to the theatre to prepare for the performance. Here, her fan club congregated; John, Prachie, Catriona, two ladies from John's office and their husbands, myself and Ross. I had probably the best bacon cheeseburger of my life; for such a drab looking place (basically a hole in the wall) on the roadside to have been raved about by Masterchef Australia's Matt Preston, I had no doubt that it would be amazing. With full bellies, we made our way over to the theatre for a free glass of port, which brought back hazy memories of the Port-to-Port challenge with Bath Snowsports on uni ski trips (basically finishing off a bottle of the stuff in between Dover and Calais), before the bell rang, prompting us to head to our seats. The theatre was tiny, only holding about 100 people, and beautifully old-fashioned.

Here's the play's synopsis:

“Pardon Me, Prime Minister” is a farce in its truest form, with the action taking place in the PM's office at 10 Downing Street. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor are preparing a severely puritanical budget, taxing gambling, nightclubs and even Bingo halls out of existence. On the afternoon before its presentation, however, shocks are in store for the both of them. The fact that a total stranger is intent on removing most of her clothes in the PM’s office and that her dress ends up on his wife, who is determined to extract as much blood as possible from anybody she meets, is bad enough, but when two other ladies appear in a somewhat less than fully clothed state, the PM’s suitability at such a delicate time is brought into question. The ensuing mess needs to be handled with tact and diplomacy; who better than the Prime Minister's ever-attentive Personal Private Secretary? Unfortunately, he has a personal private crisis of his own.”

The programme also featured a small autobiography by each cast member; all the usual serious stuff about acting schools, which plays people have been in and what-not, until we got to Vic’s, which stated that, as an ex-member of the British Secret Service, 10 Downing Street was no stranger to her. One of John’s colleagues actually asked if it was true… somehow, I can’t see ditsy Vic with an earpeace and a handgun. For all her oddities, Vic had divulged to me that she was pretty nervous about performing in front of people she knew. She played the PM's wife, and I could tell from the advertising alone that this play was just her cup of tea, considering she's a little nutty, and couldn't wait to see her in action.

The play was brilliant. Despite a couple of dodgy British accents from the Australian actors, it was just like watching Yes, Prime Minister, and the huge cohort of English people in the crowd meant that all the political jokes were well-received. The guy who played the PM was a huge, sweaty bloke; all I could think of as Vic had to kiss him on the cheek was her telling me a few nights back about the slimy, wet face she's left with afterwards. Gross. There was quite a bit of semi-nudity which, it goes without saying, pleased Ross and John, but the noises the old man sitting behind us made were a little creepy. The interval gave us an opportunity to grab a beer and by the time the curtain fell I was feeling contently sleepy. We swung by the bottle shop on the way home and sipped ciders by the lake like juvies, before retiring to bed. A most pleasing evening!