Since childhood, I have always had amazingly vivid dreams.  Stuff works its way into my subconscious, then I Dream about them and sometimes like now I end up writing about them.

Since childhood, I have also had a great love for the theatre and have been haunted by a recurring dream for many years.  I am sitting on a toilet as a huge red velvet, Palladium-esque curtain goes up like a rocket, revealing an audience of thousands.  I always said that Freud would have had a field day with me.

Very recently I was discussing the brilliance of actress Nicola Walker.  I watched Quartet with the incredible Maggie Smith for the umpteenth time and  Fascinating Aida, well I have been addicted to them for 25 years, so they are often sewing on sequins in my dreams.

Yesterday I read that Dillie Keane was appearing in a Little Night Music at The Watermill Theatre near Newbury and was thinking how much I would like to go; irritated that I can’t just jump in the car and go as the English Channel gets in the way.

So I dream.  Dillie has bamboozled the director of a high-flying play she is in with Maggie Smith and Nicola Walker, to offer me a small part.  I am ecstatic.  My dream of performing with those I have held in such awe for so long is coming true (perish the thought).

My first night and the awesome threesome are on stage together as I wait excitedly in the wings waiting for my cue.  I am awed by Maggie’s monologue as the theatrical fog shrouds the stage.  The atmosphere is intense.  I am feeling a little nervous now.  It is almost time to deliver my important one liner to Maggie and I lean, a little too heavily, on a piece of the scenery which brings the whole set crashing down around the revered actors.  Maggie is fuming and Dillie starts singing Suddenly New Zealand and I need a trap door to escape the wrath of the entire cast and crew.

Fortunately, Nicola Walker thinks it is funny as the curtain comes down and I wake up.

Filed under: Completely Nuts!, Humour, Writers Tagged: A Little Night Music, Dillie Keane, Dreaming, dreams, Freud, Maggie Smith, Nicola Walker, The Watermill Theatre