The One Time I Met Richard Armitage

A couple of days after I arrived in London, my friends and I were running from one stop to another on the tube, and one friend noticed a poster advertising The Crucible. She pointed it out to me, saying something to the effect of, "Hey! The Crucible! I'd like to see that." I glanced at the poster, and noticed the attractive man on it. I then did a double take, because that man was none other than Richard Armitage. If you don't know who that is, check it out here, and then go and watch everything he's in. I'll wait.

Finished? Good. So my friends and I looked up the tickets, and discovered there were tickets available for less than £20. So we decided buying tickets would be a good decision in our lives, and booked our seats to see Richard in the flesh.

It was finally the big night. We had a lovely spaghetti dinner, and then it was time to head to the theater!

When we got off of the tube, we realized we hadn't exactly looked up how to get from the station to the theater, which was a tiny bit problematic, but thanks to the help of a police officer, we found the exit we needed to take, and luckily, the theater was right outside of the train station.

Because we got cheaper tickets, we were in the "restricted view" section. I was a little nervous our seats would be really bad and we wouldn't be able to see anything, but they were actually quite good! The theatre was in the round, so we were pretty close to the stage, and definitely close enough to see Richard's angry, distressed face. The only bad thing about our seats is we didn't have a backrest, so I was pretty darn sore by the end of the night, but there are worse things.

The play was amazing. I'm a little ashamed to say that this was the first time I had seen/read The Crucible, but boy, oh boy, it was so flipping good. The production was super creepy, and Richard Armitage's performance was flawless. (Especially the part where he took off his shirt. Woo baby!) He played the part extremely well. And the other actors were outstanding as well. It was such a great performance.

Our program director told us we could go back by the stage door and meet the cast after the show. So we decided to do just that. I don't really have the best reputation for being normal when meeting famous people, so I should have thought through what I was going to say to him, but all of that went out the window when my friend said, "Jen! He's posing for pictures with people!"

So he comes over to us, and I'm trying to spit out something along the lines of, "That was a wonderful performance. You're so talented!" But I think I was just mumbling. For your convenience, here's a transcript of the conversation my friends and I had with Richard:

Jen: mumblemumblemumble
Sarah: You did such a great job. That was an awesome performance!
Richard: (in his characteristic deep, sexy voice) Thank you! I really appreciate you guys coming out.
Jen: (blurting out) Can I get a picture with you?
Richard: (charmingly) Sure, where's your camera?
Jen: (points) Uh, there
Richard: (puts his arm around Jen)
Jen: (swoons)
While Richard is putting his arm around Jen, Jen feeling his soft leather jacket on her skin, her friends are fumbling with their cameras, trying to get a picture. Because of the darkness, the cameras take an abnormally long amount of time to take one simple picture. But Jen doesn't mind.
Richard: Uh-oh, digital.
Picture snaps
Jen: Thank you so much!
As Richard walks away, Jen thinks to herself, "Look back. Look back at me."

Basically, it was a fantastic, wonderful evening. Richard was so nice and charming, and it was so lovely to meet him in person. If you are in London sometime before September, you need to go see this. And if you can't make it to London, just go watch North and South a couple of times.