it wasn't mr darcy, it was... coincidence?

[bluetuesday]

right. well, i don't believe in coincidence, but something curious happened to me last night.

 

i went to the birmingham rep theatre to see a great play called festen. about an hour before i set off it suddenly popped into my head that the actor matthew macfadyen was going to be sitting next to me in the theatre.

 

i put it out of my head, but it was a really strong feeling. i presumed i thought this because the night before i'd been watching the new pride and prejudice film (the keira knightley one) on dvd and matthew macfadyen plays mr darcy in it.

 

trust me, i'm not really the sort of person who imagines herself meeting famous people. i just don't do that. i'm not at all star struck. and as far as i know, that actor lives in london some 120 miles away and i had no reason to think he was going to be there. i'm just telling you what happened.

 

so i get to the theatre, and sit in my seat which is in row M. a blond guy, kind of studenty looking, sits two seats away from me. then another couple arrive and he moves up to take the seat immediately to my left. the row isn't full but the bit in the middle where we're all sitting, is. i glance at him, he's a good looking chap, but i think no more of it.

 

the play starts, and because i'm too cheap to buy a programme, i only discover when he comes on stage that the man playing the lead (and making a fine job of it) is an actor called christian coulson, who played tom riddle in harry potter and the chamber of secrets. i think this is cool, 'cause i love harry potter.

 

at the interval, everyone else in the row leaves to go to the bar or wherever, and i sit there alone because, well, just because. it's gone out of my head that i thought i was going to meet matthew macfadyen, who is clearly not there.

 

after about 5 mins the blond studenty lad comes back and sits next to me, i offer him a malteser (he refuses 'cause he's going out to dinner later - what, and ONE malteser is going to ruin your meal? but anyway) but we get talking and i tell him about tom riddle and he says, to my surprise, that christian being in the play is the reason he's there. they're friends, and he's travelled from london just to see the show.

 

i think this is a little unusual, for me to have mentioned it and for them to be friends, but it's not unheard of for someone you meet at the theatre to be friends with someone in the play.

 

anyway, during the course of a very friendly conversation about the play, and what he thinks of birmingham (he's never been here before) and some mix up on the train that meant he had to buy two tickets for a single journey which cost him £130, he asks me what i do for a living and i tell him i'm a newspaper reporter and he tells me he's an actor.

 

i ask him if he's working at the moment and he says he's filming a little american film, which is going to be called 'penelope'. i say that's great, and ask if there's anyone in it i'd have heard of, and he says, sort of shyly, 'well, yeah, i guess. reece witherspoon's in it.

 

at this point, i start wondering if i shouldn't be recognising this guy. i mean, is he famous? am i offending him by not knowing who he is? anyway, i say that as well as being a badly paid journalist i work part time in a video store and when 'penelope' comes out i'll be sure to keep an eye out for it.

 

and then he tells me he happens to also be in a film that's out on dvd this week. which one? i ask. 'pride and prejudice', he says.

 

and i look at him again, sort of quizzically, and he smiles and suddenly it's perfectly obvious that this studenty looking lad played... not mr darcy, but his best friend mr bingley. he makes a joke about having had bigger hair in the film. my god, it IS him. and he's all friendly and polite, a bit like mr bingley.

 

anyway, the play resumes and finally ends, and we say goodbye and he says in a very sweet and polite way 'it was lovely to have met you' and i wish him luck with 'penelope' and we part - him to his dinner and me, home.

 

does anyone else think this is weird? that i get a strong feeling i'll be meeting the actor who played mr darcy and the man who is really sitting next to me is the actor who played mr bingley?

[loony]

<- Don't worry, here I am now!

[bluetuesday]

ah colin. you beautiful, beautiful man.

[Outcast]

A mighty nifty tale, that! What fun!

[lindya]

does anyone else think this is weird? that i get a strong feeling i'll be meeting the actor who played mr darcy and the man who is really sitting next to me is the actor who played mr bingley?

 

Yes! Just think - if you hadn't had that thought about sitting next to Mr Darcy, then you probably wouldn't have started speaking to Mr Bingley. It just goes to show that we need to pay attention to these random thoughts we have.

 

This has sparked off the memory of one particularly weird dream I had last night - but I'll write about it in a different thread in order to avoid hijacking.