Audience Participation

Tonight I went to see The Reduced Shakespeare Company performing 'Completely Hollywood (abridged)' - well, it's better than avoiding the football on the tv! It was a pretty mad decision which involved me coming home via Harrogate (long story, fairly boring) and dashing into the house to get ready, and out again in the space of 15 minutes to get to the theatre. Once I'd got over the sight of someone wearing hideous pink Croc shoes in the theatre bar, I settled into it.

I think I preferred it to their 'Complete Works of Shakespeare' which, funny as it is, treads on rather too many of my heroes for me to completely love it. This worked because it was Americans poking fun at America, particularly the craziness that is the movie industry - 'I'm not good enough to be a real actor, I'm only good enough to be ... a STAR', 'quick, fetch the Tom Cruise box'. It's frenetic, and the energy needed is incredible.

The audience are the extras in this movie extravagnza, and all through the first half we were promised that our time would come - sadly, this was only the case for the first couple of rows who they got up on stage - predictably, this was the funniest part of the show, and oh, how I wanted to be part of it. The prize for the most embarassed person in the audience must go to the sole woman on the front row whose phone went off at a crucial point, leading to them stopping the show, and waiting for her to deal with it, before starting again and, losing their place, getting the giggles. Well, it's one way to make her remember to check it next time!

Afterwards we sat in the theatre bar drinking wine and chatting about wanting to do more drama. And also about the photos on the back of the costume hire leaftet, which includes a shot of the 'ruby slippers' that I once hired - 'see, they probably still have some of my garden on them - I should have them really'.*

*I need ruby slippers for when we go and see 'Wicked'