jonathan epitome of incomprehensibility Unexpected_loss. A lot of people in the theatre group were friends with him, and I was looking forward to working with him, having the impression that he was kind as well as funny and talented. He was going to play the judge in Trial By Jury. Just on Tuesday, we were rehearsing the part where we sat next to each other - I play the court clerk - and he was brainstorming some visual gags we could do in the background. I could hand him a series of increasingly bizarre objects, for instance. He asked me for ideas and I said I wasn't sure. "It depends what the props are." Then, while the director directed other people, he riffed on that idea, asking me for increasingly bizarre things: "Clerk, get me an acituprofen!" Chuckle. "Clerk, get me a bottle of laxatives and a plunger!" Giggle-snort. But this isn't a profound conversation, unless one wants to philosophize on exactly WHY I found the concept of combining medication names funny and the concept of pooping even funnier. (Not that profound: it was in the delivery, the mock seriousness.) Another memory: him reeling around as the admiral who didn't have his sea legs yet. Admirable visual acting, even though he was just an understudy stepping in for someone else. Who's his understudy? I don't even know. I was looking forward to HIM being the judge. I didn't even know him well, and it must be worse for all the others, but there's this: I was looking forward to working with him. And why? Well, here's a conversation near the beginning, when I was still learning the new-to-me folks' names: he asked what my character's name was. Not the relative in the longer play, H.M.S. Pinafore, but the court clerk in Trial By Jury. "It could be something like..." he gave a couple of monikers, Britishly worthy of my theory_of_nerdy_names. I pounced on "Mathilda": "Yes! Mathilda Mapleshire." He laughed. "Oh, that's it, that's it. That's perfect." ...This isn't so profound either, but from this conversation, I got the sense that he cared about the people he was working with and encouraged them in their acting. This wasn't a paid gig for him, either. I keep repeating myself, but I was looking forward to doing the play with him and it seems unfair that someone like him would die so soon. 260125 ... raze i don't know about you, but it's rare that i click with someone and it feels like we "get" each other and share the same sense of humour, and there's just mutual appreciation and fun banter and all that good stuff, with no awkwardness. it sounds like he was very much that kind of person. i don't think it's always necessary to know someone well or for very long to see who they are and be seen clearly by them. sometimes friendship just happens in a way that's instant and wonderful and unexpected. i know everyone says, "i'm sorry for your loss," at times like this. but i really am. i'm sorry he's gone. i hope it's of some comfort to know that he'll always be alive here in your memories of him. 260125 what's it to you? who go blather from