Well, yesterday was unexpectedly epic!
I managed to get a last minute ticket to see Betrayal one final time, so I gave myself an early birthday treat.
The play was just as great the third time, and being able to watch from another angle (being sat in a completely different area of the stalls) was really interesting as you spot things you miss on other viewings. Afterwards, I made my way outside to join the queue for stage door - after having been barged, and elbowed out of the way by several extremely rude travelling fans who couldn’t even be bothered to applaud the cast and felt it was perfectly acceptable to push half-way down the row they’d been sat at, while people were still sat.
Despite getting out sooner than either of the other times (simply because my last minute seat was at the end of a row) the line was MUCH bigger than I’d ever stood in. I was joined by my lovely companion @tomkurbikston and our expectations were once again absolutely zero, especially as security (who honestly continue to do an AMAZING job) cut the line and moved our portion way past the entrance to the theatre. But we had nothing else to do, so we had a really good laugh as we waited, talking to other fans in the sunshine. Very, very, very slowly we started to move forward but were still not even remotely close to getting around the corner onto the street where Stage Door is.
Eventually, Charlie came around and was as lovely and sweet as always. He was only able to do autographs and as I’d already had my programme signed by him, I didn’t pester him for another.
Not long after that Zawe came around the corner. This time I asked her to sign my copy of Character Breakdown. She was so sweet and beyond flattered that I had her book. We chatted about the evil incarnate Wash & Go shampoo (if you’ve read the book, you’ll understand!) and the north of England - as you do. I’m pretty sure I offered her a bed if she was ever in my neck of the woods at one point, because I continue to have verbal diarrhea around people, but as she came back from signing the rest of the queue she again thanked me for supporting the book.
We pretty much assumed that we’d missed any chance of even seeing Tom, much less seeing him at Stage Door by this point. I mean, we still hadn’t even reached the corner and it had been almost an hour. But we carried on chatting to our new friends as we waited. We had no idea what was going on around the corner, or if Tom was even still there.
And then suddenly we were being hustled around the corner by our favourite security guard, and Tom was STILL there! He was further up the barrier than usual. The situation seemed to come as much of a surprise to the security guard that we were chatting to as it did to us, as he’d been out for over an hour by this point. He even basically said that Tom does what he wants! I don’t know if he’s aware how pertinent that is, but it made us laugh.
And then Tom was there... Really, really close. I was all fingers and thumbs as I asked him to sign my programme and thanked him for his performance. The icing on the cake was finally being able to give him a customised Funko Pop that i’d made of a painted Dr. Robert Laing earlier this year. I think I spluttered something about loving his performance as another squash loving Robert (but God only knows what actually came out of my mouth!)
Still, Tom was so gracious as he thanked me, and my lovely companion even got to take our photo together, right before I practically collapsed, overheating from the sun and intense blushing.
So basically, yesterday was the perfect farewell to Betrayal. And a pretty epic early birthday present!
( S, I’m still so sorry btw, you know why. I’ll make it up to you <3 )