Everything you always wanted to know about The Flying Doctors. Dedicated to Lenore Smith and Christopher Stollery.
 

Meeting Robert

Sydney, December 2004. There was a lot of advertising for the musical "We will rock you" in Sydney: on taxi's, in newspapers; everywhere. I wanted to treat myself as it was my last week in Sydney and so I decided to buy a ticket. The real reason that I wanted to see the show was because I knew (from the internet) that Robert Grubb was starring in it. To be certain I asked the lady from the ticket-sell-store who was playing in the musical. Wrong question, as I got a long list of names I didn't know, but then, aha! Robert's name! So I bought a ticket for Saturday, 18 December at 1 pm (then I would certainly get a bus back and it turned out later I was very lucky that I picked the afternoon).

I was way to early at the Lyric Theatre in Star City, so I walked around a bit, wondering that who knows I might run into Robert somewhere! Finally the show began and I was sitting front row! When the music started it was very, very loud, but oh my god, it was so beautiful! From the first moment on I really enjoyed myself and sometimes I just got tears in my eyes because it was so overwhelming with all the music, songs, lights and everything. I really love theatre and especially musicals and this was a great show! It was about how there was no real music left sometime in the future and about a group of outcasts who go and search for the music from the old times. It isn't really about Queen, but the songs they sing are from Queen and many lines they say are referring to lyrics of Queen-songs. It is a bit of comedy and drama.

Robert came on stage first and I had to look very closely to recognize him. He played Pop, an old hippie-like outcast with a huge accent and long hair. After this first act, Robert disappeared from stage till after the break. Then he was back and now he had more lines and even had to sing a song. I especially liked to joke about Pop referring to an old videotape with Flying Doctors on it and "some guy" who played in it! It was a bit strange for me to see Robert in another role than dr Geoff, but I thought he did a great job and I really liked his part. When the show was over and everyone was applauding, I got a close look at him when he was standing just in front of me on stage, but well, you can't just speak to someone then, can you??

So I went to a guy who held the doors open and told him I was all the way from the Netherlands and a huge fan of Robert and if it was possible to just say hello to him. I will be grateful all my life that the guy told me how to get to the stage door (I am not a die-hard groupie, so I had no idea about stage doors). I waited and waited and saw almost all of the cast, but no Robert. Then a guy asked if I was waiting for someone and I told him yes. He said he would go and find out and he returned really quickly and said: '5 minutes'. Well, it was a bit longer, but there he was! He asked my name and we sat down on the stairs. I told him about the re-runs of The Flying Doctors in the Netherlands and about how the series are totally back with old and new fans. It was clear that Robert was very pleased to hear it and also that he had very good memories of the series. He told me about how he would love to come to Europe again: maybe if his son finished university. And that he couldn't make it last summer, when Lenore came over to Utrecht. I was still only hoping for an autograph on the cd I bought from the musical, but then Robert asked: 'What are you doing now? Because I'm going to have sushi for dinner and maybe you would like to come?'

Well, as if I had anything more important to do! So we went to a sushi bar and sat down. I never had sushi before, but that was no problem for Robert: he was very good at explaining everything and handing me over what he thought I would like. He said it was actually quite "fun", eating sushi with someone who never had it before and warned me for the wasabi which was very spicy (he was right about that...). So we talked a bit more about Flying Doctors: how the writers changed with the years and also the series. How when David Reyne entered the series, it wasn't sure anymore who was going to be the "main" doctor. How cold it was, especially for Lenore with her short uniform and thin shoes. How he still keeps in touch with Lewis and Peter and uses to call Lenore when he was in Sydney ('I haven't done that yet, but I will'). How he still thought about the series as the best time ever because all of the cast and crew were so close and according to him, they all had a good sense of humour. He asked about me and I told him about what I did and that I would love to live and work in Australia for a while. We just talked and talked and I said to him that I was sorry for my English (he said it was very good), but that it was maybe a good thing for him because I always talk too much in my own language!

Then it was time for Robert to go back. There was another performance at 6 pm. After that show they would all go immediately to another place by bus to sing some songs (so that's why I was so lucky I went to the afternoon-performance; it was fate, I'm sure!). Robert said he would buy me dinner and of course I told him not to bother, but then he said smiling: 'I have a good job, it's okay'. So I said to him that I would promote him by the Dutch fans to thank him, but well, then there would be a tiny risk that every time he'd leave a theatre there'd be a Dutch fan waiting for him, expecting him to treat on sushi! I asked him for an autograph on my cd and as an example of how well I was prepared I can tell you that I didn't even had a pen that wrote in my bag! Luckily the lady from the sushi bar was very helpful and she also took the pictures (Robert told her that I never had sushi before, how amazing was that). I got three kisses, as Robert remembered from the Netherlands and then he left for a cup of coffee and I left for the bus home.

I can tell you I felt a bit dizzy with some butterflies flying around everywhere as I sat in the bus and thinking back of what actually had happened to me. Just like Lenore, who I met last summer, Robert is an extremely nice person and it was actually quite "normal" just sitting there with Robert having dinner! For you Flying Doctors fans I can only apologize that I didn't ask any "intelligent and useful" questions, but as an excuse I can say that, well, who would have thought this would happen to me?? I certainly didn't, but I had a really, really great time. Great story to tell the grandchildren one day and still smiling when I'm thinking back about it! Who can say that he learned to eat sushi (and by the way, I really liked it) from dr Geoff Standish??

Picture


Me and Robert

Robert

Me and Robert

Robert