Lord Arthur Savile's Murder

One of the girls in my running club had a friend who was soon to be appearing in an amateur production of "Lord Arthur Savile's Murder", a play based on a short story by Oliver Wilde.  She invited a large group of us to come, and a number of us decided to take her up on it.  Why not, after all?    Theatre is always fun.

I happened to be working in the office, and so e-mailed back and forth with Roofie's Brother, agreeing that after work we would head up to the play together.  When it got near the end of the work day, he told me that he'd meet me at Moorgate station, and then we'd take the Overground up to the middle of nowhere in north London, where this play was taking place.

When I got to the station, he gave me a kiss on the lips as usual, and then revealed that he'd gotten me a paper, given that he knows how much I enjoy reading all the random stories I can find in it.  Very amusingly, after berating me for being about 10 minutes late, when going through the barriers he discovered that his Oyster card didn't work, as he'd forgotten to top it up.  So we missed the next train and had to wait 10 minutes for another, because he wasted all of his time waiting for me, instead of topping up his card!

Still, we got on the train, and spent the journey reading bits of stories aloud to each other.  He seemed amused at how I read the paper differently from most people, brushing past the stories of murder, politics, and generalised mayhem to focus on the strange, absurd and amusing.  I think he was shocked at how many interesting stories I managed to find in a single free paper, whilst he was focused on all of the standard news.  He really does need to learn how to read a paper properly!

When we got to our stop, we got out and walked to the place where the play was being held, a stroll that took a good half-hour.  The Tall South African called me while we were walking, but I declined his call, preferring to talk to Roofie's Brother instead.  I told him stories about taking Cookie out to dinner to meet men, and of my sorority days at university, which he seemed to find incredibly amusing.

We arrived at the church where the play was being held (I think we were both surprised to discover it was a church), and were quickly greeted by all of the others who were attending.  Sister Fister was there and monopolised him immediately, but I've come to expect this so I didn't really care.  I got a great surprise when I discovered that Scottish Lawyer Guy was there, and so had a good time chatting and catching up with him a bit.  He's really such a charming and interesting guy, I forget that at times.

The group all found seats together, and I found myself seated in between Sweedy and Roofie's Brother.    Strangely, although there was plenty of room on both sides of our seats, I found Roofie's Brother subtly leaning into me for the entire duration of the play.  All down one side, from our shoulders to our legs, were pressed against each other, as though we were squeezed into too tight a space.  Almost as an experiment, I would periodically shift in my seat to see what he would do, but he always kept leaning back into me, almost as though it were an unconscious action.  Kind of cute, really.

The play itself was very obviously an amateur production, but they'd really given it their all, and everyone spoke in the humorous, stilted manner that is so distinctive of Oscar Wilde.  The basic plot was about a young dandy about to be married, but his future mother-in-law insisted that he have his palm read by a man who swore he could forsee the future in it.  The palmist then declared that he would one day commit a murder, so in the bizarre manner of Oscar Wild, the young man decided that he would have to commit his murder in the next week, before he got married.  All manner of comedy of errors ensued...

Still, if we had any doubts about the professional status of the actors, there was one moment towards the very end of the play, when one of the lead actors very obviously forgot his line.  The two actors speaking to each other just absolutely stared at each other for nearly 30 seconds (someone in our crowd timed it), while you could see the sweat forming on their brows as they desperately tried to remember their next line.  It was hilarious when the one chap remembered the line, which happened to be, "I forgot to tell you...."  The entire audience absolutely burst out laughing uncontrollably, it was so wonderfully ironic!

After the play ended, the group all went out to the local bus stop, figuring to catch a bus to the nearest station.  The wait turned out to be over 20 minutes however, and the night was cold.  While I still tried to figure out what everyone was doing, half the group disappeared around a corner to go to another bus stop, Sister Fister wandered off in another direction, and suddenly only myself and Roofie's Brother were still standing there, shivering in the cold.  Kind of amusing, we'd been so busy paying attention to each other that we'd lost everybody else!

Sister Fister hadn't gone far however, and we discovered that she'd called a cab to the nearby station, so we figured we might as well just go with her.  I think poor Roofie's Brother had lost all thought of anything at this point beyond how cold he was, and just wanted to go home.  I had to admit, I was tired as well, and just wanted to go home to bed.  We rode on the train, and I was a bit surprised when at an earlier stop than I expected, without saying anything, Roofie's Brother planted a quick kiss on my mouth and jumped off the train.  Strange.

I then found myself travelling a bit further with Sister Fister, continuing to make conversation with her, which just reinforced my opinion of how nuts she is.  She kept talking about how she was flipping out throughout the play, as being in the crowds with all those people around was making her go mental.  I've heard about people like that, who are uncomfortable in crowds, although I imagine it must make it very hard for her to cope on a day-to-day basis living in London.  Ah well, glad that's one problem I don't have.  Still, I have to admit I was glad when we reached my stop, I was able to bid her goodnight, and head on home to my own bed!