Judy arrives

Judy spent Friday night at the Airp0rt Hotel in Vienna and got up at 5 AM in order to catch the 7 o'clock flight to Heathrow, arriving at Terminal One at 8:35. My experience at the passport control the day before led me to believe that she would be stalled there for at least one hour and not get to Piccadilly until at least 11:00. But, what actually happened was that passport control went quickly BUT the Piccadilly Underground express from Heathrow was so crowded (Easter weekend!) that the controllers decided not to issue tickets at the airport and told people: "Just get on the tube and pay when you get off at the end. We have informed the station to expect a big crowd." Anyway, I got a text message: "I am at Eros" and it was just 11:00.
I walked to Piccadilly Circus and there she was, tired. We walked back to Rupert Street and I carried her carry-0n up the stairs. She took a nap and had a snack of French bread and cheese.
the matinee show was right down on Haymarket, an easy walk from the flat. The weather was good and we strolled through Piccadilly to the Theatre Royal Haymarket in time for the 2:30 show. We had no idea what to expect. The play is based on the Commedia dell'Arte play The Servant of Two Masters, written by Carlo Goldoni in 1746. Goldoni used stock characters in his satirical and comic plays and the writer of this show, Richard Bean, blended classical Commedia dell'Arte with modern British slapstick humor.
The play opened with a Skiffle Band playing on stage. This was The Craze Band and their music was typical skiffle: a lot like Zydeco and early rock: guitar, bass fiddle, washboard and harmonica. They set the tone for the whole performance and kept returning before every scene with another song. BUT...to further the craziness of the show, each actor also had a musical bit throughout the performance. For example, the Romantic Lead came out and played a song on car horns and the two heavy male actors sang and danced. The girls did a 1960's song dressed in bouffant hairdos and party dresses. These musical spots were funny and still you admired the talent of the cast.
In fact, it is the talent that impressed us the most. The lead actor, Owain Arthur, was a comic genius, using every trick of slapstick and verbal humor to make fun. For example, at one point, he invited two men in the audience to come up on the stage and "help" him move a heavy trunk. He looked at them and said, "Well, I can see that you both love the fashions of the 1960's." And when they bent over to pick up the trunk, he made them look away from each other and then, on the count of three, he jumped on the trunk and so made it too heavy to move. Simple jokes, but the audience loved them. Anyway, Owain has won the Richard Burton Memorial Award, and has most of his experience in classical Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet for the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Comedy of Errors for the Manchester Royal Exchange. Like the director, Nicholas Hytner, who is the Director of the National Theatre, Owain comes from the classical British theater.
All I can say is that Judy laughed so hard during the show that she lost her breath a couple of times. It was a non-stop comedy including such wonderful tricks as an elderly waiter, who was stooped with age, and staggered around the stage carrying heavy bowls of soup. This actor was spectacular and would fall down stairs and trip over himself and cause mayhem.
The show was a great hit with us. A completely funny and hilarious piece of theater. Judy and I loved it. It was a perfect first show for us together in London.