The Audience

Gail and I were lucky enough to get tickets to see The Audience, with Dame Helen Mirren in the leading role as The Queen at The Gielgud Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. This pic was snapped as we sat in a Soho café, eating lunch prior to the matinee performance. I had been about to take a photo of the quite bizarre gaggle of autograph hunters picketing the stage door, when a car drew up and out stepped a very ordinary-looking, middle aged woman whose presence created an instantaneous excited kerfuffle. The Queen had arrived.
As we got up to leave, I took two steps towards the exit doors, misjudged the step down, stumbled and fell, heavily. The next thing I knew, I was writhing on the floor with a dislocated finger and exceptionally painful hip.
Nevertheless, 20 minutes later, we were seated four rows from the stage, totally absorbed in the most wonderfully crafted and executed play.