Tardis arrives back in Barking: Blog 118

Morning all. So I am blogging somewhat later than usual. In fact in Poland its 7.20am so this must constitute a lay-in!

Having recently done the early morning and late night flights in and out of Poland, I can definitely recommend the early ones as so much less stressful. I imagine regular business travellers have this sussed already - but its a new concept for me! Arriving back in the UK yesterday morning at 7.30 am was great, no queues at either end, and I sailed through passport control and out onto the Stansted Express with ease. And to boot, I got the whole Bank Holiday Monday too. Can't be bad. 

On the way through the take-your-shoes-belts-keys-jewellery-off bit of security I found myself laughing with a young Polish woman as we struggled to juggle all our bits and pieces. We exchanged niceties - including stories of other security searches, and she made me smile with her story of a recent body
search in public. There are certain sensitivities!.... and this attractive twenty something had found the experience of being body searched embarrassing although was not rebelling against its intention. The security line was pretty empty so we took our time to put our coats and shoes on, all the while chatting and laughing. As we walked through to the departure lounge I shared with her the huge difference in border control and crossing into Eastern Europen now compared to in the early eighties. Of course she probably wasn't even born when we made our early Triple Action Theatre journeys (with Maciej at the wheel of the blue Mercedes Monster!) but it was a time in her national history that she knows well of course through school and her family's stories. 

I told her about my 21-year old naivety in thinking that because I speak German I could ease the passage of the Blue Monster through the Polish border into Eastern Germany. You see its the manners thing I was blogging about the other day - I have a possibly Pollyanna-like belief that if you are kind and polite to people they will return the favour. This has proved to be my experience much of my life, but on this particular occasion it was a definite mistake! Much to the dismay of my fellow, sleepy-eyed actors, the fact that I could converse with the baby-faced border guard (not much older than myself if at all) actually meant he could instruct me in fine detail to tell Maciej and the others to pull the van apart with all the set, props and costumes in it, including taking off wheels etc! 

Maciej and I were having a chat about this very thing the other day. He revealed to me for the first time that we had in fact been smuggling some sensitive underground political papers out of Poland that none of us except him knew about. Thanks for that Machku! So the unloading of the van was a going cold moment for him which he kept to himself. Not even my polite German and a young smile could have attempted to manage that one. Maciej was mightily relieved that when the guard opened the back of the blue monster, he found the wooden coffin which was part of the set for our production of Ulysses by James Joyce (I played Molly Bloom - great monologue!) and this resulted in the guard calling over another of his number and then roaring with laughter at the absurdity of a coffin in the van. Fortunately for Maciej and the rest of us - this meant the search didn't go any further and the smuggled leaflets remained safely tucked where M had put them- where was that?

The journey from Mansfield where TAT was based took a good two days of driving, and Maciej was then as he is now a hardcore driver, irritated by our British (as he sees it) need to stop at regular intervals for tea! He's still a bit like that now - but at least he tolerates my requests with a wry grin these days. Age has softened him I guess.

So I was sharing this story with the young woman at the airport and before we went our separate ways I had shared more about my early Polish experiences

with her. We talked about how Poland is caught in a no man's land at the moment and the economy is dire - it is neither communist nor capitalist, falling between stools once again as has been Poland's destiny for centuries. And yet it is a land of gnomes, hope, great humour, dreams, soul and rather too much vodka. I love it deeply and the idea of being there for a month to direct a show fills me with such glee - I hope it comes off. 

And so it is that my sturdy Michael O'Leary tardis landed me back in Barking yesterday - ready for a week of Arc living and imagining.

Have a lovely day.