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PATRICK STEWART
At the PSN Gathering, The Albery Theatre, London
27 July 2003
On Sunday 27th July 2003 Patrick Stewart met with members of the PSN (Patrick Stewart Network) for a gathering at the Albery Theatre, where he was performing the lead role of Halvard Solness in Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder.
I am the first to admit that I am no theatre-goer and I despised classic literature, especially Shakespeare, at school. Mr Stewart has done a better job at educating me in literature then any teacher I had, as I have since read several plays and classics he has performed in.
In preparation for seeing the play, I bought a copy and decided to read it at least twice to fathom out what it was about. I found it quite easy to follow and enjoyed the story. It wasn’t until the gathering I realised I had barely scratched the surface of understanding the depths to the play.
To my horror, I discovered that Patrick was suffering from a throat infection the week before the gathering was due to take place and had had to miss several shows. Although I had read he was back on stage, I kept a firm grip on the arm of my seat in the theatre until he walked on stage on the Saturday evening, the night before the gathering, and I could sit back and enjoy his performance.
The gathering was a small affair with around 100 members from all over the world descending on the theatre on Sunday morning. I was incredibly nervous just at the thought of being in the same room as him (call me sad if you want!). There was something about this guy that made me feel a tingle of excitement as he entered the auditorium, looking very cool in jeans, trainers and tshirt. Being aware that he was suffering from a throat infection, the auditorium fell silent listening intently to his every word as he explained his illness before taking questions and comments about the play from the audience. I have to admit to feeling a little out of my depth at the level of some of the questions people were asking. PSN members are so clever and had a far greater understanding of the play then I could ever begin to imagine! I sat quietly and tried to look as though I had been dying to ask all those clever questions too.
Only once did the topic of Star Trek come up to which he commented that he thought that the 10th Star Trek film, Nemesis, would be the last for Captain Picard. He told us about his next theatre project across in New York, ‘The Caretaker’ (which ran November 2003-January 2004) and the voice-over work he was doing as a bad-guy stallion for animated movie “Racing Stripes”.
The hour seemed to fly by, and it was time for him to disappear to prepare for the matinee and to grab some lunch.
I cannot say a big enough THANK YOU to Patrick and everyone at the PSN for arranging this event.
