Kirk done

And done.

Bergman is full to bursting. Moleskine capes and waistcoats. Dresses and bustles. A collection of Virgin Mary icons. Cow is dead sadly. Victorian theatrical periodicals. Stuffed animals. Curtains and sheets and cushions. A lamp. Paddles with “Fact” and “Opinion” written on them. Actually both in the plural this time as we had no quality control. My frock coat. Campbell’s costume. So. Much. Stuff. Just a fraction of what I have. But already so much. Enough.

We filled a dry building with bodies and we gave them a very mixed up creative response. I think we filled the brief. It was a long long time in the making but we can go home happy in the knowledge that we did the thing.

My brother Rupert showed up unexpectedly for the matinee where Lou was there too. There were also family members of a close friend. I walked out in character as Mister Kirkaldy, about to improvise my face off, and immediately looked into my own brother’s eyes. To avoid it I looked aside and saw Lou. I have no idea whether the sentences I subsequently uttered had subject object verb and all that stuff. I was mister WHY ARE YOU SENDING UP YOUR FATHER? Despite being half Scottish, “doing” Scottish has never been particularly natural. The other half is Spanish and until I started working in South America I couldn’t even really pass the time of day in that language.

Nevertheless, I saw it through. He’s a decent enough fellow, Mister K. The rigour and the passion for testing things properly… it’s a step away from this guy who just likes to pull things out of a hat and then try and persuade everyone it was magic.

The team? Sammy. Poor brilliant Sammy, putting up with my bullshit with compassion and kindness. She’s a worker and a fighter and a believer. I’m extremely glad to be her friend. We were essentially partners on this, but the way she coped with my vanishing and distraction? She deserves medals. Judith used to run The Nursery and host The Factory for shows. We put her in a tricky room downstairs. With the help of Cow it was made delightful. Siwan stuck into the lab, with all the peculiar vigour and wit that she brings to the Halloween tour, and brought her incredible craftiness to bear. Multitasking. My nephew Campbell? I made him do immersive acting when he literally hasn’t ever done anything close to that before, or seen much of it. If I wanted to maximise my weird uncle points, then I did just that by roping him in. He was game for it. David was the character time-keeper – the most rigorous of us all. Then Jude, Omar, Noah – giving their time to dress in big capes and hats and serve punch or tear tickets.

Good people. I will miss them.

It’s bedtime now. And it’s all done. Tomorrow I’ll have to empty Bergie. But this has been glorious. We are better together. Always. This has been a team game. And joyful.