Current location:	London
Current mood:	tired

Alan Rickman. Yeah.
Today was a pretty laid back day.  We had a brief discussion session on Jump, though there wasn’t much to be said except that it kicked ass and the tech crew deserved a medal.  Oh, and that Kurt Vonnegut died today/last night- to which Jack had the kind of insensitive comment of “well, we all die.”  Lilli in particular was pretty upset by that.  I just want to run off and read Man Without a Country now.

I took some of my Vicodin and Indomethacin and popped my retainers back in (finally) and spent much of the day reading about Arthur Adamov and Harold Pinter in Esslin’s book.  That and napping.  I needed a day of rest.

We saw Pinter’s The Caretaker tonight.  This was the most masterful acting I have ever seen.  I was so very excited to see some absurdism (that I wasn’t in) and I was in no way disappointed.  David Bradley, who plays Filch in Harry Potter (we’ve seen almost nothing but Potter actors at this point, it’s pretty funny) played Davies, the tramp, and he was just wonderful.  A great doddering, old intrusive fool, who really gained my disgust and finally empathy by the end of the show.  But one guy (and I can’t rememer his damn name to save my life) was stellar as Aston, the slightly retarded brother, put on the single most masterful monologue I have ever seen.  EVER.  No one piece I have ever seen has ever been better.  His character was telling the story of his former hallucinations, and how he thought that they were actually the most lucid moments of his life, and then how it was all ripped from him through electroshock therapy.  The whole time, you can see this lovely, kind man just fighting back the pain of this memory, right up until he said that afterward he “thought more slowly,” and your heart just broke.  I... there are no words.  Simply no words- this was something to be experienced.  I’ve never seen an actor hold an audience in the palm of his hand like this man did.  It honestly made me feel inferior as an actor- if I can ever do something along those lines, if I can take a piece that meaty and that long and make it that compelling, I will seriously die happy.  Just incredible. 

Bradley and the other actor (whose name I can’t remember either) who played Mick were equally brilliant, with Mick’s lightning-paced delivery for Pinter’s characteristic unmotivated ramblings, and a terrifying smile that was perfectly juxtaposed to Aston’s unquestionably caring, almost dopey smile.  The whole thing was just unmatched, and by virtue of the script, it may well have already unseated Equus as my favorite production of all time. 

Then after the show a handful of us stayed at the bar at the theatre, and I met Bradley, the man who played Aston (who was a lovely, energetic man, really grateful to have us there and so excited to talk to us.  A fun man to share a pint with) and... Alan Rickman, who had come to see Bradley in the show.  I finally (after a double whiskey on the rocks) got up the courage to go up and tell him that I really admired his work, and had ever since I was five and obsessed with the movie Robin Hood, to which he replied “Hah, you must have been a bit of a bizarre child,” to which I replied “yep!”  Then we chatted for a brief moment, he said thanks for the compliment, then we shook hands and had a quick cheers.  So yeah.   I met Alan Rickman.  Booyah.  A really nice man, he was so patient with me and about 7 others coming to say hello.  Same goes for Bradley, we chatted for awhile and he asked us about Oregon and such, really a lovely old gentleman. 

Great night.