by Sapphire Mason-Brown

Created on: September 20, 2010

It’s seven-thirty in the Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall and a hush falls over the audience as the voice of our husky announcer signals that, within seconds, the reason for our pottering down to scenic south side of the river shall soon be with us. And there it is, those two words of only three syllables but holding such importance to those seated, “Stephen Fry”. Out comes the colourfully dressed, national treasure himself, to raucous applause a beaming smiles (I personally found myself smiling like I never have before, at least, not in memory). The applause draws to its natural end and the show begins.

There’s something appealing about Mr Fry, something one cannot quite put their finger on. Is it his charm? Linguistic pralice? Humility? Humanity? Honesty? His love of the technology? His comedy? His familiarity? His talent as an actor, speaker, director, or documentarian? No, such explanations just don’t quite suffice, but there is a reason why he sold out Royal Festival Hall and filled cinemas this evening, why he is approaching 2 million followers on Twitter and why he has been voted the most desired dinner party guest. Alas, the objective of these paragraphs is not to idenitify why Stephen fry is so beloved, but to reflect upon the first of his three live performances at the Royal Festival Hall.

In an opening somewhat reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin’s Oscar acceptance speech, Fry greets not only the audience at the Royal Festival Hall including those in the side seats that he hadn’t initially seen (“Ooo, there are people up there”) and those in the “cheap seats” (“It’s poverty row!”), but those at the cinemas across the country to which Stephen Fry Live! is being transmitted. During the course of the show, a list of these cinemas is read out resulting in many a “woop” from the audience, the first of which illiciting a “But you’re not there. How peculiar…” from the host.

Now, initially the reason for this evening, featured in blue in the above image, The Fry Chronicles. Released the day of the first live show and available in a variety of formats, The Fry Chronicles, of course, was central to the evening. After explaining why each chapter began with C, Mr Fry began to explore the first C, C12H22O11, or, to the lay person, sugar. The verbose, but pleasantly so, language we have grown accustomed to fills the first chapter of the book as Fry details his love of sugared cereals, the absence of these at boarding school, the introduction of “tuck” and the forbidden but irresistible Village shop.

Over the course of the evening, Stephen Fry takes the audience on, not a journey, but to a series of stops that contributed to his being the man standing before us. The formulation of what became his comedy team and his progression from the Footlights, to the Fringe , to the BBC are discussed, with some areas being read directly from The Fry Chronicles. Of course, some areas are skated over, but a thorough exploration of every aspect of his life was not expected.

In the first of his Royal Festival Hall dates, Stephen Fry provides the audience with a taste of his autobiography, and, through a variety of means, entertains them for ninety minutes. What more could one ask for?

Learn more about this author, Sapphire Mason-Brown.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.