Rowan's Birthday Performance

• On January 6th, I went to Theatre Royal in Drury Lane to see the play Oliver! Before that day I could manage to submit two essays, so I really enjoyed it from the bottom of my heart. This was the most wonderful experience in my life in London so far.
• Last October, when I was on the bus to the college, I happened to see the advertisement posted on the body of another bus. It says "Rowan Atkinson in Theatre Royal." So I looked up the two words on the Internet when I arrived at the library. Then, I had learned that the famous British actor plays a role of Fagin in the drama Oliver! Acquiring the fact, I would like to go see it immediately, but, of course, first I had to book the ticket in advance. First of all, going to the website of Theatre Royal, I look at the performance schedule. I could go any day if I would want to do. So in the beginning I didn't come up with any specific date, which would be suitable for my personal calendar. Presently, I remembered that I had to hand in the course works on January 5th 2009, and that was what I was most worried about at that time. Considering my task at the outset of New Year, I thought that January 6th, the following day after I finished writing up the papers, is the perfect day to enjoy the play, and to celebrate the end of the first term by myself. Thus, I decided to make a reservation for the ticket on that day.
  
• Leaving my room at 5pm, I took an underground to Covent Garden. I still had enough time to kill, so I took several pictures around the theatre. The first time I knew the name of this theatre was when I, as a junior at the university in my country, was studying Elizabeth Inchbald's play Lovers' Vows, which is featured in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. Lovers' Vows was also performed at this site in the late 18th century. Therefore, as you know, this traditional theatre itself was very attractive for me, indeed. I was truly impressed with the thought that about 200 years ago Jane Austen walked around this area to see the play. Wikipedia gives us a brief overview of this theatre, a part of which I'd like to paste here: "The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663, making it the oldest London theatre. For its first two centuries, Drury Lane could "reasonably have claimed to be London's leading theatre" and thus one of the most important theatres in the English-speaking world. Through most of that time, it was one of a small handful of patent theatres that were granted monopoly rights to the production of "legitimate" (meaning spoken plays, rather than opera, dance, concerts, or plays with music) drama in London" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_Royal,_Drury_Lane).
• Basically Oliver! is based on the original, Dickens' Oliver Twist. But it is adopted to the musical presentation. Since I had read the novel and watched the recent film version by Roman Polanski before, I could follow the story without any difficulties, even if sometimes I couldn't understand what the characters said in English. The play began with the most well-known scene at the workhouse, in which Oliver tremblingly comes forward, bowl in hand, and makes his famous request: "Please, sir, I want some more." When Rowan appeared as Fagin with just one word "What?" in replying to Dodger's call, I could hear a big cheers and applause from the audience. Through that scene, including the reaction from the gallery, I realized that he had already become the national hero now. The picture of the top article on the free paper (the right above), which I luckily got a few days later, seems to affirm my impression. The caption "Please, sir, can we have some more?" puns on the popular line of Oliver's above, and here again I can find the very British sense of humour, which I like.
  
• Very fortunately, the date of the performance was also Rowan's birthday. He revealed this fact when he asked us to make donations for the theatre in the curtain call. As soon as he told it to the audience, some of them started to sing to him "Happy Birthday to You." Of course, I was willing to sing it with them. As a whole, I had a fantastic night, indeed.
  
• During the intermission I took some pictures inside the foyer after buying a few souvenirs, which are pasted below.