Transformations

If someone were to ask me which is my favourite amongst all the shows I've had a hand in creatively, the answer would be immediate and simple: the one I'm involved in, at any given time. I know this sounds glib, but it happens to be true. The intensity demanded by any production results in complete, almost obsessive, absorption and over time I've come to realise the attendant transformatory power (magic, really) is so invigoratingly palpable that whilst it lasts it can be close to intoxicating. I'm talking about the power of a script becoming something real and living on a stage; the ways in which all involved in generating the drama are rendered changed in some way by it, especially relative youngsters; the reality of having one's world widened by acts of necessary empathy.

I suppose all forms of performance art possess something of this power. Great dance, great music does something to you. But it seems to me that only drama can lead us with something akin to surgical precision into an understanding of the minds, the emotions, the sufferings, the joys of others. We should be better people for our involvement in it - as creators, if we're lucky, and as spectators. If we fail to be so then it would seem a kind of betrayal.

Mind you, I feel obliged to confess that one transformation just worked on me now our most recent work for the stage has come to an end (and a highly satisfactory one at that, I'm pleased to report) was very noticeable this morning. After three weeks or so of waking early with a distinct awareness of energy emerging from somewhere to deal with the particular day ahead, this morning I struggled to overcome a not unpleasant lassitude of a very high order. I did get some things done, but with a ponderous deliberateness quite foreign to my recent experience. Yes, I'm back down to earth.