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Review of @ITISLENNYHENRY & @colinmcfarlane in #Fences at the Duchess Theatre

Fences at the Duchess TheatreOne of the nice things about writing a blog is that you get invited to all the top showbiz parties in London. I very rarely go to them but on this occasion I happened to be in town anyway so took them up on the offer.  Ok I can’t continue with this lie. I’ve never been invited to a showbiz party before:) Last night I went to one. This is the story.

tref with lenny henryYou may remember way back in November of last year when I was on my way to LINX79 I bumped into a neighbour of mine, Colin McFarlane. Colin is an actor and he was on his way to a second audition for a part playing opposite Lenny Henry in August Wilson’s Fences. Fences is one of a series of plays written by Wilson specifically for black actors.

We sat in the quiet coach and I read out some of Lenny Henry’s lines while Colin responded with his own. All done in an American drawl, y’awl. Well the great news is that Colin got thattref tom lenny part and Fences had a highly successful touring run before hitting the West End which it did this week. Feeling in no small part responsible for Colin getting the job I decided to go and see him in action. I was also invited with my son Tom to the after show drinks party where we got to chat with the cast.

The photos in this post come from that after show party because I know what you lot are like. Wanting to know all about the celebs and the gossip. Well I’m sorry. This is not Hello magazine or OK. It’s trefor.net. Yes there were celebs there but as far as gossip goes what goes on tour stays on tour, darling. Anyway we chatted about WebRTC, Agile computing and the internet.

Later when the theatre kicked us out we ended up in a bar called PJs which is near to the Marquis of Anglesey – the venue of “the day we nearly lost the internet.”

tref outside duchess theatreIt wouldn’t be fair of me to not mention the play and I have to come clean here. I cried through most of the second act. Fences is an utterly brilliant play. I’m not going to tell you the plot. I don’t want to spoil it for when you go which you should do 🙂 This one was a real emotional roller coaster. It made me want to go home, kiss the wife, hug the kids and tell them I loved them. You need to understand that when it comes to things like plays and movies I like nice simple happy ending stories – stuff like Mary Poppins. I was kept gripped to the seat and was exhausted by the end of it.

The performance got a standing ovation and Tom and I, as you know by now, decamped to the bar to meet Colin, Lenny and rest of the cast. They were all really lovely people and happy to indulge tourist Tref with some photoshoots which of course  I only did for journalistic reasons. Special thanks to Colin for the invitation.

Note the photo of Tref and Tom taken by Lenny Henry – nice touch I thought. Tom’s idea.

That’s it. That’s today’s post. It has only a loose association with technology but hey. It’s my blog… It’s also quite nice to round off the story from last November of the script reading on the train.

I’m off next week. Taking my daughter on a jaunt to Barcelona for a few days so there won’t be any blogging unless I feel like a break from the culture and the infernal heat.

The last photo is of me, Tom, Colin and Tanya Moodie who played Lenny Henry’s wife on stage. They were both top class. Catch ya later.

tref tom colin tanya