Three Hours from Spain 11

The dinner

Maria and Oliver are in a restaurant in Kensington.

OLIVER:    Tomorrow we’ll go up the Thames in a boat.  Then we’ll go to Kew Gardens, and at Kew we’ll…

MARIA:     Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow!  Tomorrow I’m going to Madrid.

OLIVER:    But I thought you were here for another two days.

MARIA:     No, we only came for a week.  I’ve got to go to Madrid tomorrow!

OLIVER:    We could have gone up the Thames in a boat.  We could have spent the whole day at Kew Gardens. We could have…

MARIA:     We could have… We could have…  But we can’t.  We can’t do anything!  I’ve got to go to Madrid.  I hate Madrid!

OLIVER:    You said you loved Madrid. 

MARIA:     I know I did, but I’ve changed my mind.  London has changed! I have changed!  Everything has changed!  Tomorrow I’ll be in Barajas.  I hate Barajas!

OLIVER:    But you said….  Oh, never mind.  Look, let’s sort out WhatsApp addresses.

MARIA:     I’ll WhatsApp you the moment I arrive.  

OLIVER:    Cyberspace will be red hot with messages.   

MARIA:     Millions of texts!  A stream of texts from Piccadilly to Cibeles!  Oh, Cibeles!  I’ve got to go back to Madrid!  At 9 o’clock tomorrow morning!  Tomorrow! 

OLIVER:    Oh dear!  Here’s the waiter, and we haven’t even looked at the menu.  What on earth are we going to eat?

Outside St Martin’s Theatre

Carmen, Ana, Calum and Harry

CARMEN:  I really enjoyed that.

CALUM:    It’s the second time I’ve seen it.

CARMEN:  Oh.  When was the first?

CALUM:    I came with my mother when I was a boy.  I was only eight years old. And my mother went with my grandfather when she was a girl!  This is what happens!  People see it and then bring their children, and then those children bring their children, and so on!

CARMEN:  It could go on for ever!

CALUM:    Well, it might!  It’s like the Tower of London or Big Ben!  It’s here for ever!  When The Mousetrap is no longer showing at St Martin’s Theatre, the kingdom of England will fall!

ANA:           Yes, I’d never have guessed that the murderer was …

HARRY:     Shhh!  Don’t say who did it.

CALUM:    You remember what they said at the end of the play.  “Tell your friends to come, but don’t tell them who did it!”
ANA:           Or even whodunit!

HARRY:     Or even whodunit!  Exactly!

ANA:          And tomorrow we go back to Madrid.  I don’t want to think about tomorrow.

CALUM:    Well, don’t. Don’t think about tomorrow. Don’t think about anything.    Listen!

Today is clear, decisions take themselves,

No thought, no balancing alternatives,

No weighing up of what is good or bad,

Like a good surfer, take the wave that comes,

And just enjoy it, ride it to the end!

CARMEN:  That’s nice.

CALUM:    But did you realise that all that was blank verse?  Did you realise that?  Did it sound normal or did it sound weird? In verse or not in verse, that is the question.  Think how all the students and the apprentices standing in the pit in the Globe loved listening to blank verse and came again for more, and yet today no one dares to use it?  They enjoyed ‘Julius Caesar’ and ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and they never said, ‘Ah that’s no good.  Doesn’t sound right. I want my penny back!’ Today no play in verse would last beyond the opening night or even until the interval.  Why couldn’t ‘The Mousetrap’ be in verse?  What’s happened?

ANA:           No idea.  And I’m getting thirsty.

CALUM:    You’re so right, Ana!  It’s your last night in London, and so let’s all go for a drink.  All we have to do is find a pub with a table for four where we can sit and round off our holiday.

CARMEN:  And make plans for the next one.

ANA:          And for your next visit to Madrid.

HARRY:     OK, but the next problem is finding a place to sit down in any pub within a mile of here at this time of night.

ANA:          Think positive!  There’s one over there across the road.  Let’s try that!  Come on!