Familiar Territory

First rehearsal today of The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew, this being the third time I'll have directed the play. I've never worked with such a mature cast before and I've never had such limited time in which to work. This is what is euphemistically known as a challenge.

Doing something the second or third time round results in ghosts. Benign ones, usually. I have almost complete recall of the first performance in a small school hall in South Yorkshire - the only time I ever seriously wondered if we'd actually get to the end of the two hours without the show falling apart. We did and it didn't. And I learnt that really putting yourself on the line is terrifying and exhilarating in just about equal degrees. I even felt brave.

In truth, I have almost complete recall of every performance of the play I've ever done. Sadly my mind works that way. Happily I've always had the incredible good fortune of working on it with people I've really liked, and that hasn't changed.

Nice being back with you, old friend.