Time of our lives

It’s been nearly 6 years. In some ways it feels like yesterday, in others it feels a life time away. I haven’t seen most of these people since the day we graduated. Their lives were at a different stage to mine when we finished, and we didn’t keep in touch. It was also in the days before Facebook, which is where I’ve rediscovered everyone. I wouldn’t have known about this reunion without it.

What surprises me is how many of them are still in York, and yet I don’t ever see them (don’t they shop?!). I guess we go to different places.

I’m also surprised that everyone looks the same. Oh, there are a few different haircuts, a little weight gained, and lost (and that’s just me), but it’s like the years have rolled back, and the same groupings quickly start forming. Some haven’t been back since graduation, and have been re-visiting college during their stay. I’m slightly horrified to be told that the Chapel Theatre is no more, and it has been converted into a soulless conference venue. Even the Grot* Suite has gone.

The chosen venues don’t allow for much catching up to be done. We start in Vodka Revolution. The last time I was in there, it was still Bar 38. It’s quite Gothic, so I like the decoraton, but sometime after 9pm, they turn the volume up, and everyone is having to shout to try and have a conversation. Eventually there’s a general consensus that we should move somewhere quieter (and cheaper). Rounding everyone up turns into a bit of an effort, and we leave a few stragglers behind.

We head to the Lowther. I smile wryly. The last time I was in here I was getting very drunk with actors. It’s not one of my drinking places of choice in normal circumstances. The bar staff leave a lot to be desired, lacking in customer service skills and, it seems, basic intelligence. It feels quite empty, but we soon fill it up, but the dynamics have changed en route. In the last place, we were all standing and circulating to catch up, now people are sitting down, and it becomes less easy to chat.

Another surprise is just how many are working ‘in the industry’. At the end of Uni, few people seemed to have plans, as many of us seemed pretty jaded at the end of 3 years, but now most of them are doing something that could be described as ‘creative’. Two are actors, one is doing the drivetime show on Yorkshire Coast Radio, others are working in tv, or in technical positions, some are teaching, one ‘works for the government’, and one is a lecturer at Uni in film and tv.

I have to admit to being a little envious, and a part of me wishes that I’d had the confidence and been brave enough to follow the dream, particularly when I tell them that I still work in personnel, and that I don’t do much theatre these days. It makes me wonder what would have happened if I'd have gone for it, rather than settle for something which now no longer exists.

*So called, not because it was grotty, (though it was a bit), but after Jerzy Grotowski – reading his biog makes you sort of understand the sort of theatre they liked at college, and you can see why, for a while, I stopped going to musicals!