What an Audience

This weekend had been kept as free as possible to allow for relaxation and preparation for best behaviour to start again in earnest on Monday. There was going to be veggie shopping, flat cleaning, maybe a bit of swimming and a spot of sunning. All the quiet, relaxing things and minimal moments of excess.

            However, as always happens when a weekend has been kept deliberately free, something comes up that can’t be avoided and plans have to change accordingly. This Saturday our friend Ash had her mum and sister visiting, and in order to show them a proper Singapore weekend, she requested friends to join up for a big Saturday brunch celebration followed by drinks at the Cricket Club.

            Whilst Nick and I managed to keep the celebrations fairly sedate, with just a couple of glasses of wine and only proper brunch food (eggs, bacon and sausage) consumed, it was still pretty ridiculous, and as Nick and I snuck away from the others at 7pm to head to the theatre, it was clear that most of them were pretty worse for wear, and that they were going to be struggling with life the next day.

            Thankfully, I had gotten over excited about the prospect of The Audience with Helen Mirren being screened live from The National to the cinema in Singapore, and so I had booked up Saturday night tickets without a second thought about what we would be doing during the day.

            When we left the Cricket Club to rush over to the theatre I had a sneaking suspicion that Nick was sad to leave and would happily have carried on with the others, but I was relieved to have tickets to use, and enjoyed calling time on the brunch before the rest of the group.

            Even better, The Audience was absolutely brilliant! We stocked up on popcorn before heading into the tiny cinema and grabbing two seats, exactly front and centre. Normally at the cinema I would say that the front row is the worst place to be, but as this was in a small theatre, they were the perfect seats, with extra legroom and no one obscuring our view of the utterly fantastic Helen Mirren. 

I laughed, I cried and by the end of an emotional few hours I was more in awe of our fabulous Queen then usual, whilst also being blown away by the fact that a show in London can be screened over to Singapore and still be mind-blowingly good, even from such a distance. I miss London theatre, but this really was the next best thing. The show was being sent all over the world in celebration of The National Theatres 50th birthday (which makes that one theatre a year older than Singapore as a country!) so I am sure there will be more brilliant treats in store - I wonder what they will be screening next!