Everything's As If We Never Said Goodbye...

I don't know why I'm frightened.

I know my way around here.

Well, I wasn't really aware quite how poignant that song from Sunset Boulevard  was going to be when I thought of it as the title of my 'return to the theatre' post.
It's been a fortnight since I returned, but I needed to let it all sink in, and properly process how I feel about it all.
Because I feel a lot of things.

So, on  the 20th May (Eliza Doolitle day to all who celebrate), I returned to the theatre for the first time in 153 days, and sat in an audience for one of the most cathartic, overwhelming, and healing evenings in recent memory.

Amelie the Musical has made it's way into London's West End, in a perfect sized theatre, right on Piccadilly Circus (the rather gorgeous Criterion). It's a show I raved about when I saw it in 2019 on tour, but I longed to see it in a theatre that worked for it (500 seats rather than 1800 seats...it really did look like a postage stamp on the New Theatre Oxford stage).

Amelie is also one of those rare shows (much like Romantics Anonymous), where introverts find themselves staring back at them from the stage. When the title character finishes her working day, and returns home to solitude, it hits a nerve (especially more so after the last year).
It's a story of isolation, and of our desperate need for connection, and I don't think I'd fully prepared for quite how intensely moving that was going to be. 
We haven't been able to properly connect in the way we normally do for over a year now, and whilst we've managed (some of the time), the true toll it has taken, and continued to take is now becoming apparent.
I've reviewed Amelie before (Amelie Review) and my thoughts on the show are largely the same. It's lovely to see it in a sensible sized theatre, where it fits perfectly and feels cosy. The cast (a mixture of new and old performers) is great, and the piece is still perfectly led by the exquisite Audrey Brisson. I'll forever shout that she should be an Olivier award winner and Amelie should have won Best New Musical, but Brisson's performance now has an even deeper level of nuance, charm and cheekiness. Now paired with her real-life partner (Chris Jared) as Nino, moments like Stay take on an even more human meaning, as a real life couple talk about their fears of opening themselves up. 

Emotionally, I've not let it all out very often - I feel like my crying has been turned off over the last year, along with most of my emotions. I kinda stopped feeling...anything for a long time. And whilst I have a lot of theatre booked for the next few months, I can't let myself excited or hopeful. Self preservation, eh? But I did have a proper cry at the last 15 minutes of Amelie, as we begin to look towards our collective healing from the hell we have been through (and basically still are but I won't turn this into an attack on the government).

"Will there be troubles? I don't know.

Will you be with me? I hope so." 

On another note - WORK HAS REOPENED IT'S DOORS!

We've been working quietly behind the scenes to get things ready for Stage 3 of the Roadmap, and in the first two weeks of reopening exactly 1000 people have been to either an indoor show/film or one of our outdoor film screenings (like so many we're trying new things this year and running some outdoor cinema - it's going down a treat, even if I do have to swallow my artistic pride and put on Pretty Woman and The Greatest Showman!)

I can't tell you what a difference it has made, not just physically, but also mentally, in having an audience back. 
Working in the building for the last 5 months, but there being nothing happening, and no-one in the auditorium has just been odd.

But this time we'll be bigger.

And brighter than we knew it.

Yes, everything's as if we never said goodbye... 💗💙