Well, to tell you all before you start reading this, we never really got to
meet Sean Bean. Yes, yes we grieve that fact as much as you ;) But going to
the Albery theatre and waiting for him proved to be well worth it anyway!
On February the 24th we sat down at a bar across the stage door of the Albery
Theatre. Val had hurt her leg/foot quite badly at the Baftas the night before,
so sitting down to wait was no big deal. It was our last day in London and we
had to leave for a plane at 5.30 PM. We figured that if the play started at
7.30 it would be reasonable for Sean to come in at about 5. Or so we tried to
kid ourselves. Fact of the matter just was that Mr. Bean did this play 7 times
a week for the past couple of months. He was trained in the preparation and
there was no way he would take 2 1/2 hours to get ready. Not at this stage of
the play.
As Val stretched her legs and froze up (we were sitting outside) I went into
the theatre to ask when Sean usually arrives. The man at the door first came
with the bad news of first 'I don't know, love...' and'about 7'. You can imagine
the shock on my face :P Luckily he corrected himself and said 'no... wait, there's
a warm-up at 5... he won't be attending that. well, i guess no earlier than
6'. I went outside and told Val the news. We both didn't like the fact that
we had to leave just half an hour before he might arrive.
We decided to make the best of it. We wouldn't take any chances of 'misencountering'
him, so we waited till 5.30 and gave it all the time we had. In the meantime
we took up the advice we got from the people working at the theatre. If we want
things signed, then just leave it in an envelope with your name and address
on it. I went to the post office nearby to collect some stamps and envelopes.
Just to please Mr. Bean's ego we had also bought a card in which we could praise
him and his acting skills ;)
At about 5.15 we started writing the card and preparing the envelopes. We had
bought two programmes of the play for him to sign. At 5.30 we felt numb from
the cold and I brought the envelopes and card inside. The man inside was very
kind and told us 'he would pass it on to him, love... make sure he gets it'.
After that, we got our stuff together, took a couple of last looks... - It was
hard walking away ;) And then set a steady pace back to leicester square and
stopped a cab.
Our hopes were set on those envelopes and Sean Bean's kindness of returning
them ;) And he did! On Tuesday the 4th of March both Val and I got back our
MacBeth programmes! Signed on the page we requested! To Sy and Val! So it turned
out to have been a productive day after all ;)
