March 11, 2002
By Beate Herrmann

When I heard that Joseph Fiennes would be live on stage as Edward II in Sheffield in March 2001, I knew I had to be there. I managed to get time off from March 8 - 18, and some friends and I bought tickets together for that period of time.

The dress rehearsal was on March 8, and we had to queue to get tickets for that one as they didn't sell those tickets beforehand. I managed to get a Row B ticket and knew that the adventure could begin now! The stage was not very big and there was no orchestra pit so in Row A you were practically sitting on stage. There was nothing on the stage except some chairs, but this minimalist style worked beautifully because the lighting, the music etc was really good. When Joe came on stage, I grabbed the knees of the people sitting next to me, I was so excited. I was really seeing him live - the moment I had waited for for so long.

I had read Edward II before to prepare myself for the play and hadn't seen any comedy in it. Boy, did I get surprised! There were some truly hilarous scenes in it, especially Joe was very funny - and quite sexy too. I was blown away by the whole play, it was truly wonderful.

The play ended at 10.30 and we were going up to the bar to have a few drinks - when suddenly the whole cast appeared, Joe a bit later. I waited till he had finished a conversation and then I approached him with my programme, asking if he would mind signing it. He said "sure, of course" and wrote "Best wishes, Joe Fiennes". I told him he was brilliant and that I found it remarkable how he was able to switch from comedy to tragedy in a second. He thanked me and said that there is comedy in every tragedy. He was in a very good mood, very happy and relieved it had gone so well, so he was nice, charming, approachable and chatty. I then told him that we had given him standing ovations and he looked at us and exclaimed "Oh that was YOU!" He was positively beaming.

He told us we were a lovely audience, and that our reaction to the play helped the cast a lot. He was just so sweet and charming and interested in where we came from, I was overwhelmed. I told him we would come back because we had quite a few tickets and he was like "Really? Oh that's great!" He was very relaxed that night.

On another evening, I went to him when he had just finished a chat with someone and held out my "Burial" book to him. I said "I told you I would come back with a book by your Mum. Would you mind signing it?" He was obviously very moved. He signed and kept looking at it while I asked him about something and then he turned the book around and looked at the back cover where there is a picture of his Mum looking really young. He looked at it and said "She is beautiful, isn't she?" which moved ME greatly. All I could manage to say is "Yes, she is indeed", and then I thanked him and walked away.

I didn't only talk to Joe but to some of the other cast members as well, who were a really friendly group, overwhelmed by all the attention they got. Susanne and I had a chat with Alex Avery (he has a short part in Quills), who told us that all the cast members really liked Joe for not being bigheaded. We didn't mention Joe as we thought it was impolite anyway but also because we wanted to talk about the play as such, so it was funny that he kept mentioning him all by himself, like when I told him that I had read the play and had not found any comedy in it, he said "Neither did I, but there are people like Joe or Geoffrey Rush who manage to bring the comedy out."

I was in the theatre every night of my stay in Sheffield, so the memories become a bit blurred. I remember the premiere night where there seemed to be a lot of friends or family of the actors cheering them on, including Joe's girlfriend who I saw standing next to him in the bar afterwards. I remember the two tables behind the ropes which were reserved for the cast, who were all laughing and talking together, taking Joe in the middle to shield him off from overzealous fans. He wore that baseball cap at all times and slapped his thighs to the music, sometimes getting up and fetching another drink from the bar for him and others, one time ending up next to me at the bar counter (I frantically tried to keep my composure and try to look as uninterested as I could at that moment ;)

On March 16 I went to see Enemy at the Gates at the local Sheffield cinema with my friend Barbara and ended up sharing the cinema with half of the cast from Edward II. That evening, when I told Joe that I had seen the movie and saw some of his fellow cast members in the audience, he smiled and said "Yeah, they were teasing me afterwards". ;)

Joe looks like the guy next door when you see him other than in a play or movie. What I mean is that he perfectly blends in with the crowd and I am not sure if I would notice him if he walked past me on the street. That is not to imply that he isn't special or breathtakingly gorgeous, I just see an air of normalcy around him which is refreshing. He wore Jeans or Army pants, a t-shirt and trainers, plus the obligatory baseball cap, and he doesn't seem to be very tall at all. I am not sure this 6ft information is correct - he must be smaller. He has this absolute presence on stage, he looks every inch a king, whether he is dressed as "a coal miner with crown" or not, is not important. His voice, normally so soft, isn't weak at all, he can shout quite loud. When he mourned Gaveston's death and shouted "you villains that have slain my Gaveston!" his neck veins really popped out and I thought they would burst any minute. He can deliver that strong performance on stage and when the play is over and people clap he stands there like a little boy receiving the applause with a kind of embarrassed "ok, it's enough now".

I pretty much expected him to be the way he is - nice, charming, polite, soft-spoken when you talk to him - and God, those eyes really get you! He is appreciative, ponders every question, and greets people he knows very warmly, smiling and hugging them.

But Sheffield wasn't all Joe for me - it was fantastic to put faces to some names from the mailing lists, and I am glad I met so many nice people. Lasting memories include the nice manager of our hotel who must have thought we were a bunch of madwomen (You rock, Tim!), watching some taped Joe stage performances in the Shakespeare Centre Library in Stratford and exchanging impressions and thoughts about Joe and the play with like-minded fellow fans.

I can't wait to see Joe on stage again!