London with Cat

On my arrival in St Pancras station on Monday I had several hours to myself before meeting up with Cat. As readers will know, this is never a problem because I am always happy to amuse myself. So I went for a wee walk to nearby Granary Square, which has dancing fountains in the centre and is situated right beside Regent’s Canal. There is a lot of renovation work taking place on the old buildings around the area - as James often says, “It’ll be nice when it’s finished!” - it’s shaping up to be very attractive and trendy indeed.
I nipped into the friendly Lighterman pub and had a tasty lunch overlooking the canal towpath, which was very picturesque. I then walked along the canal for a bit admiring the barges including one that is a bookshop!
It was so great to see Cat. She looked gorgeous and very professional in her work clothes and we went for a drink before dinner and caught up with each other’s news. Cat then treated me to dinner in a French restaurant called the Brasserie Zédel, which was only about eight minutes walk from the Noel Coward Theatre. The food was classic traditional French in a magnificent Art Deco dining room; I had the boeuf bourguinon which was delicious - much more tender than the one I made last week - I must keep trying! After coffee and petit fours we made our way to the theatre, where our seats were in the front row of the circle, affording us an excellent view of the stage.
The play was Labour of Love by James Graham and starred Martin Freeman and Tamsin Greig. It is a political comedy about a Labour MP and his constituency manager over a period of 27 years, recounting the many changes in the Labour Party over that time. If that sounds a bit dreary - it’s not! It’s actually both thoughtful and hilariously funny. The dialogue is very sharp and both of the lead actors were amazing - the supporting actors were good too, especially Rachael Stirling as the MP’s wife. It had an interesting time line; starting in the present day then going back in time, scene by scene to about 1990 - and then moving forward along the same time line to the present day again. So each scene is further developed as it comes round again. Cat and I both enjoyed it very much. At the end we went round to the stage door where a small crowd were waiting to see members of the cast leaving; however the security man came out to say that Martin Freeman and Tamsin Greig had already left - no doubt they had both slipped out through a different door! However, to our surprise David Walliams came out of the door instead - and he isn’t even in the cast! I presume that he had also been in the audience and had gone backstage to visit his actor pals. We took the tube back to our hotel; it was a lovely evening with much chat and laughter.