Gormenghast
Last week I went to London and saw John Finnemore's Priory Engagement, which was fucking brilliant; I had tears streaming down my face I was laughing so hard, and how awesome to be in a pub only a few feet away from the actors; it was wonderful. I am looking forward to hearing the Souvenir Programme recorded the following evening to see which sketches he ended up going with; we definitely caught him off guard with our enthusiastic response to his "museum audio guide for six-year-olds"; it would appear that he does not have children but very well remembers being one. The acting was great (I can say this with confidence because the night before I was at the BBC watching the recording of an episode of The Golden Age, in which some of the acting was decidedly not great, but then the poor woman wasn't given much to work with) but unfortunately I have no idea what the names of the actors are. It was especially fun to watch Finnemore play so many different characters, none of whom were Arthur Shappey. It was weird when one of them would remind me a bit of Arthur and then not be Arthur.
Finnemore is as everybody has reported absolutely effervescent: He just radiates joy. And there was such camaraderie among the audience: There was a real feeling of kindred, knowing that we were all Finnemore fans. We all chatted with the people sitting around us, many of whom had come quite far to be there: one couple all the way from Scotland! (Though nobody as far as me, from Canada.) The age range was quite wide; two women who appeared roughly my age asked me if I was on lj. Which was refreshing because I spend so much time surrounded by teenagers on Tumblr.
As soon as the show ended the Scottish couple and I made a beeline for Finnemore's table at the back; the poor man didn't even get to take a breath! After the Scottish couple spoke to him I said, "We're not even giving you a chance to recombobulate!" and he said it was fine but asked me to let him take a phone call. While he was on the phone my friend and I told the rest of the cast how awesome they had been, and one of them complimented me on my t-shirt (which reads "talk nerdy to me") and I told her I had worn it especially for the occasion. She asked me what I was trying to say and I back-pedaled a bit, saying innocently, "Oh, it just means 'Talk to me!' I'm just saying I'm social!"
I had spent the entire day planning what I would say to Finnemore, so I told him that when I grow up I want to write as well as he does (which is kind of funny because I'm three years older than he is) and he seemed quite flattered. Then I told him I had come all the way from Canada partly to see his show but mostly to see Hitchhiker's Live and we chatted a bit about how awesome that was going to be (it was). Then I asked if my friend could take a picture of us (of course) and if it was alright if I posted it on Tumblr and he seemed really surprised that I would bother to ask permission; I guess people don't but really it only seems civil. Anyway, he's so photogenic! Look at that SMILE! How does he do it? Although he's even more captivating in person. One thing you can't tell from photos is that his eyes are the freakiest gold colour; it's a good thing you're supposed to make eye contact when you're talking to somebody or I would have felt like I was staring. They were actually off-putting; I don't think I've ever met a human with eyes that colour.
After the photo I remembered that I had a prepared a question for him: "What are your three favourite radio dramas?" He seemed thrown. "Dramas?" "Yes, dramas. Not comedy." He was seriously stumped. "We don't really make dramas." After a while I said, "OK, just one." So he told me about a radio adaptation of Gormenghast that BBC Radio 4 did last year (actually called The History of Titus Groan) which he said was pretty good.
And that was it. I went back and chatted with my friends and the others for a while and squeed about the awesome photo and cast longing glances in Finnemore's direction, and then we went home.
Titus Groan is no longer playing on the BBC's iPlayer, so I'll have to download the torrent... which means learning how to do that.