Last week, my housemates and I went to see Midsummer (a play with songs) presented by the La Boite theatre company. It's a play fresh from Edinburgh and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
We had good intentions. We decided to drive and we also decided on a time that we would be out of the house and in the car to allow to find a park and to be just that little bit early to find a good seat. Then we had to cook dinner and get dressed and so instead of being out of the house at 6:45pm (for a 7:30 show), we left at 7:05, Already not a good start. Then, trying to follow the directions on the iphone (which tries to tell you to turn right in a street where there is no right turn) we got lost and of course I was driving so it was way stressful. This trip to Kelvin Grove should probably only take us about 10-15 minutes max. from our house but it took us sooooo much longer. Then we finally got to Kelvin Grove and I found a park but the others told me to keep driving to try to get a closer park, all the while one of my housemates decided that it would be really helpful to keep repeating the time "It's 7:24!" and "Guys, it's 7:27!" Wow was that helpful. So after driving past that perfectly okay parking spot, there were no others and we had to get out onto the main road and then come all the way back in again. But just as we drive out, the road work people cut off all the turns into the complex. We had to keep driving for over a kilometre down the road just to turn around and come all the way back. And they had cut down a three lane road to one lane so it was very slow going. Finally we were able to turn back into the Kelvin Grove area. The park I had wanted to take was still there so I took it and we all ran. Puffing we got to the place where you collect your tickets. They searched around and I almost thought they weren't going to find them but after a search, there they were. Thank goodness. But the show had already started and we had to wait about 6 minutes before we could go in. 6minutes is a long time to miss out on.
Many other people were late too. The theatre guy told everyone to be quiet and turn off their phones. So what do the other people do? Keep talking. He told them again and they hushed at least and he led us in. Then about 5 minutes after being seated, what do you hear? Someone's phone going off. How rude! It is the height of rudeness when that happens. There are these people on stage, bearing their sould almost to give us a good show and deliver this raw emotion that the show asks them to bear and here are these annoying, rude people disrespecting that by not doing the simple thing of turning their phones at least to silent. Ridiculous.
The show was really good though. The two actors were great. They played all the parts and all the music, either on acoustic guitar, electric guitar or ukulele and vocals. The singing worked really well within the dynamic of the play and whilst this play was essentially a comedy, it was really sad. When you think about the themes they were examining, there was this deep, profound sadness beneath the jokes. Definitely a show to see if you can.
Our hectic night really just mirrored the hectic night that the characters in the play had. Okay so ours was much more tame than theirs was but still, never want to be late for the theatre ever again. I was so embarrassed but lesson learnt.
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