So, last night we thought would be a low key, non-Sherlock
related evening for Team Sherlockology. Not that going to see
Derren Brown's Svengali show could ever be considered low key in
itself, but a night off from Sherlockology work related pursuits
certainly. As ever, how wrong we were.
We knew of course that Mark Gatiss had seen the show earlier in
the month, tweeting afterward the show, "DerrenBrown's
'Svengali' wonderful. Lips stitched. Where else could you see
Bernie Clifton and Donald Sinden in the same audience?" Not to
mention the further connection being Derren made his acting debut
in BBC4's 'Crooked House' in 2008. A drama his friend Mark wrote
and produced, and remains still a rare acting role for Derren, be
it only a cameo appearance.
There are obvious similarities of course between Sherlock
Holmes' abilities and Derren Brown's own, even on his website, it
sites the BBC's 'Sherlock' as having more than a small similarity
to himself, "Not only has it been mentioned several times on
the web that the BBC remake of Sherlock Holmes was based on DB
himself, but there's some hints at dress sense and behavioural
ticks that seem a little too coincidental for us. A poor decision
not to include goatees resulted in 3 people nearly losing their
job, only to be saved by rampant use of waistcoats."
With all this in mind, Team Sherlockology some months ago had
duly booked our 'Svengali' tickets at the Shaftesbury Theatre in
London for Saturday 25th 2011 and were looking forward to seeing
the man himself, doing what he does best, live.
And so there we were, having arrived in more than enough time
before the show started at 7:30. We found our seats in row J of the
stalls, settled down and people watched while the auditorium filled
up and people found their own seats. While watching lazily the
hustle and bustle around us and enjoying the buzz of pre show
excitement, a rather familiar face entered through the stalls door
and made his way up the central isle to row E, flanked by another
rather familiar face.
"Oh my god!!!!!" one of us exclaimed rather too loudly.
We all looked in the vague direction she was wide eyed and staring,
to see what had clearly prompted this rather unexpected reaction.
"Oh my god, there's MARTIN FREEMAN!!!!!" she continued,
probably loud enough for row A to hear, just incase we along with
the rest of the theatre had missed it. This was in fact the same
team member who stood frozen to the spot in slack jaw surprise when
Steven Moffat strolled past her at the entrance of The Lexi Cinema
last month for the screening of 'The Private Life of Sherlock
Holmes', so we can only assume she was probably trying to make up
for her inaction on that occasion.
To our enormous surprise, it was indeed Martin Freeman and his
very gorgeous partner Amanda Abbington, and not just the fact that
we've watched 'Sherlock' so many times we were now hallucinating
cast members in everyday situations.
As we watched, (we won't say stalked as after all we were
sitting down first), he was quite the gentleman and stood aside for
Amanda to go ahead and choose her seat while he followed her to his
own seat next to her. They sat directly in front of us and we would
be lying to say that it wasn't just a little surreal. Of all the
evenings we could have booked, and of all the actors who could have
walked in, what were the chances? But yes, there he was wearing a
rather loud but very fetching pale blue pinstripe jacket. He looked
relaxed and ready to enjoy the evening, just like everyone else out
with his or her partners and friends in the theatre. The fellow
residents of his row appeared not to recognize either he or Amanda
and as far as we could tell, he went unnoticed by everyone other
than ourselves, although two people behind us were discussing when
'The Hobbit' was to be released next year so maybe they overheard
our overzealous cries of excitement at the spot?
The show itself was everything you would expect from Derren
Brown and Martin and Amanda along with everyone else participated
willing when asked to do so, but were not picked for anything along
with the majority of the one and a half thousand strong audience.
They like us thankfully got away with never having to be summoned
on stage. Derren even mentioned Sherlock Holmes at one point and
his real life counterpart Dr. Joseph Bell, and demonstrated how
Sherlock would deduce certain things from people, all with alarming
accuracy. We won't go into any more detain however, as we don't
want to spoil it for anyone yet to see the show and Derren in fact
requested that people do not post spoilers on the internet. What we
will say is, as impressive as his deductions were, we must admit,
we thought a Belstaff coat wouldn't have gone amiss. Maybe we were
just being picky though?
During the interval we wrestled with the idea of approaching
Martin as opportunities like this are a rare gift indeed, however
they were both tucking into ice creams and it really didn't seem
fair to disturb them on a Saturday night out and Martin's night off
from 'Sherlock'.
The show ended just after 10pm and both Martin and Amanda gave
Derren a standing ovation. We rather hoped we would have perhaps a
small window where we may have been able to say hello and perhaps
take a photo, however we think Sherlock underestimates John
immensely if Martin is anything to go by, as he literally
disappeared into thin air! One minute he was in the middle of his
isle in front of us, with people blocking his exit either side
while making their own way out… the next, and in the blink of an
eye, no longer, he had vanished. Someone suggested to us on Twitter
that he must have used The Ring that Bilbo Baggins found in 'The
Hobbit' and we're inclined to believe it, as one second he was
there, then he wasn't. With the greatest respect to Derren Brown,
it was the best magic trick we had witnessed all night. We assume
he must have gone through one of the doors marked Private to meet
Derren after the show, a lucky privilege for those who are also
names. This was later confirmed when Derren Tweeted just after 1am,
"Post-show nosh with Bilbo-to-be Martin Freeman & Amanda
Abbington. Glorious couple."
It was a real treat to have seen Martin and we hoped he and
Amanda enjoyed the show as much as we did and had a lovely evening
together. As much as it would have been amazing to see Benedict
there, attending the show too, at least we know now that Sherlock
doesn't gatecrash all of John's dates!
