Madame De Sade

I was lucky enough on Saturday to be invited by the lovely Abel and Haron to a performance of Madame De Sade, starring Dame Judi Dench. Now, I would have gone for the Dame alone, but the appeal of a play all about the women surrounding the infamous Marquis, viewed in the company of kinky friends old and new, could not be denied.
The play itself was, to vastly over-simplify, rather badly written, but acted bloody well by the six ladies concerned. There was a lovely first monologue with Frances Barber brandishing a riding crop whilst recounting the latest exploits of the Marquis which had landed him in trouble, and throughout the action you could hear the minds of the kinksters in the audience thinking "mmm, that might be an interesting role play". For a much more eloquent review of proceedings, hop over to Pandora Blake's blog, and read there!

The real pleasure of the evening though, was the chance to share the experience of the play with friends of the same mindset, and also just to have a jolly good chat in the bar afterwards. I was already acquainted with many of the people in attendance, but several were new to me, including a delightful Irish young lady, who had come all the way from Dublin, never having met any of us before. Time spent in the bar afterwards revealed a delightfully naughty streak, and I hope I will have the opportunity at some point in the future to make mischief with her. And prove to her that I am, in fact, on her side ;-)

Question of the evening... What did the more, um, staid, members of the audience make of the play? I think in particular of the couple sitting directly behind us, who must have been in their 80s, and who were very obviously there because they were fans of the Dame. I hope they didn't find the subject matter too shocking, especially as, due to the short running time of the play, there was no interval in which they could escape!