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June 16, 2009
I dreamed a dream
It was my daughter's birthday, and we went to see 'Les Miserables' in London's West End - it was our sixth visit to the show, and it just gets better and better. Wonderful!
Unlike the travel. It was during the two-day tube strike, and my bus travelled the pitted roads like a snail with cramp. Oh, the problems! Being in a hurry, I got out and walked in the end. Eternity was fast running out. Once in the theatre, we discovered the couple in front of us had endured a four and a half hour journey from Bristol;and made it with five minutes to spare, as the orchestra finished tuning.
At half time, I got chatting with the couple from New Zealand on my left. They were looking a bit surprised by it all.
'Have you seen it before?' I asked.
'Well, we saw an amateur production in New Zealand,' said the woman. 'But it was nothing like this. In the show we saw, she was fat and middle aged - really, a very large woman. Liked her pies, if you know what I mean.'
It turned out she was referring to Cosette, the young and lithe love interest in the story.
'She didn't look anything like the Cossette in this show. So we spent the whole production wondering how the writer imagined this relationship could possibly work. Young good looking man; enormous middle aged woman.'
And of course, the writer had never imagined that. Its just that in amateur productions, in countries with small populations, casting choices are limited, especially if the director's wife has first pick of the parts. She'd probably wanted to play the part of Cosette all her life; but sadly fulfilled her dream 25 years too late, by which time it was a nightmare.
On the way home, we travelled via the northern line, one of only two lines operating. So did the rest of London, and it was ridiculously and utterly packed, crammed and unpleasant. Though surprisingly, I exchanged more smiles on that hellish journey than I have done in the previous five years on the tube.
Momentarily reminded that we were powerless human beings, in control of nothing, there was plenty of reason to smile.
Posted by Mr Bojangles at June 16, 2009 01:13 PM
Comments
"Young good looking men" and "enormous middle aged women" can have a lot of fun, and do so quite frequently......
Posted by: amanda miles at June 17, 2009 02:11 PM