Me: Hello?
Clive: Hi Linda! How are you?
[Brief chat to catch up, since we hadn't seen each other in a few weeks)
Clive: ...anyway, I was wondering what you're doing tonight.
Me: Nothing really. Just going to sit around. Why?
Clive: Well, I was wondering if you want to go see the first half of Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray at Sadlers Wells with Donald tonight? I'm supposed to go but the choristers are coming back to school today and Andrew [note: the Headmaster at St Paul's Cathedral School] is making a speech about his retirement to the parents, so I really have to be there.
Me: [trying to process the information about Andrew while also considering his offer] Umm, sure? I'd love to go.
Clive: Great! Donald's got the tickets. The show starts at 7:30 - I'll come meet you both at the interval and, if you'd like to stay for the second half, you're welcome to and I'll wait outside until the show's over, or we can swap places if you like.
Me: Sure, that sounds great!
Clive: See you at the interval! Bye!
Me: Bye!
I hung up the phone and glanced at my watch - 6:35pm. Crap. That left me with about 40 minutes to get to Sadlers Wells (North London) from where I was in Paddington (West London). I threw on a dress and cardigan, grabbed my keys, and headed out the door.
Luck was definitely on my side with the trains :). I got to Paddington station just as the Eastbound Circle line train pulled in, and the Southbound Northern line train was also just pulling in where I transferred at King's Cross station. Finally rushed breathlessly up to the theatre at 7:15pm and found Donald waiting beside the door. Despite Clive telling me that he had left messages for Donald about what was happening, he had no idea what was going on and only assumed from the text I had sent him on the walk to Paddington station that Clive wasn't coming. I explained the situation to him and then we went inside to take our seats.
The show was interesting - though I don't really like modern dance, I didn't mind it too much in this show. For those of you who don't know, Matthew Bourne is probably the most famous living British choreographer around today. He has a reputation for being very avant garde and always including gay themes in his works. His newest work is based on Oscar Wilde's "The Portrait of Dorian Gray", but he's modernised it so that Dorian is a model. I'm not sure the portrait actually existed (at least, there was no physical portrait that reflected the psychopathic realities of Dorian's character) which made the whole thing a tad confusing; in fact, I think I would have been confused had I not read the book ages ago. Ah well. In any case, that night was opening night and the entire run is actually sold out, so I was really pleased to get a chance to see it. Having said that, I probably wouldn't go again if I had the chance! lol.
Anyway, Clive did come and meet us at interval and insisted that I stay on to watch the rest of the show. I was more than happy to let him take my place - it didn't seem fair that he had to miss the entire show when it was his ticket and he had managed to come for the interval. There was also no way he could come to a later show because the entire thing is, as I said, sold out! He wouldn't hear of me leaving, however, and said that the least he could do since he had dragged me all the way out there was make sure I saw the entire show. He also wouldn't let me pay him for the ticket.
Clive decided to wait in the lobby for us until the show was over, watching on a monitor set up to one side of the room. We left him a ticket (so he could say that he came out of the theatre because it was too hot if he was asked why he was out there) and a programme, and said we'd see him afterwards.
After the show, we all went out for noodles at a Chinese restaurant in Waterloo. It was lovely to sit and talk and catch-up - it's always difficult to get together with Clive as he's always busy at school, so I think it was the first proper chat we'd had in awhile.
All in all, it was an unexpected fun night of dance, food, and good company! And best of all? It was all free :).
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