Meeting Marc

With Coby safely tucked in bed at granny's, Al and I drove to Leicester to see a fantastic play by Martin McDonagh called The Pillowman. A long way to go to see a play? Well, my favourite actor, Marc Warren, was playing the lead role and through various resources, we were fairly optimistic about meeting him after the show (Facebook pals with Marc's brother, an exchange of e-mails with him etc). Anyway, we arrived and joined the queue and started chatting to a lovely couple, Michael and Marie, they were friends of Marc and when we explained my obsession, sorry admiration of him, they told us they had arranged to have a drink with him after the show and asked if we would like to join them.

The play was sooooo good, very dark and forboding, but tinged with some sharp humour. Its about a writer named Katurian (Marc Warren) who exists in a totalitarian state. His short stories resemble a number of child murders that are happening in his town and the play starts with him being interrogated by two police officers, Tupolski and Ariel. The acting was first class from Marc, Russell Dixon, Benedict Wong and particularly Paul Ready.

After the performance, we waited in the bar and sure enough Marc came over to see Michael who introduced us to him. As I explained who I was (I run Marc's Facebook group) he said "Oh, SJ right?". We chatted to him for about half and hour and he signed my programme, 'SJ, lovely to meet you, thank you for doing the website, with love Marc Warren xx'. Al mentioned he played poker at which Marc's eyes lit up! He was very tired from performing the play twice that day and he had a long drive home, so after the photos, a peck on the cheek and a handshake for Al, he dashed off into the night! Lovely chap!