Nittygritty

Third Othello.

We’ve all invented time anyway. But we almost got it in under three hours including the interval. Tim came to the pub afterwards which means he didn’t want to strangle us all.

Time bends in live theatre when you’re performing. And it hugely changes through the run.

First night. You are waiting for your cue for three or four millennia, then the lines before your cue come up. You enter. You exit. Lines? Did they? They certainly might have. Nobody died. Was I wearing the right clothes?

Third show? Space starting to happen. These things we say, there’s time within them starting to open up. We have said them loads but we’ve kept them fresh. We need to know more about it all now. There’s space starting to happen.

I played a clean show tonight which I needed. Details might have shifted in terms of where I placed myself, but vocally a clean line and heard, singing on point, didn’t feel like a dick. Didn’t throw lots of plans at myself either thankfully. It’s typical that I got gloves yesterday and used them twice, they’re just noise but Annie observed positively this evening that my journey has been *despite* my intellect. That’s a clear observation. It’s not really that helpful for actors to be left brain clever. I’ve gone towards my body as best I can, with the help of the likes of Wendy Allnutt and now just glorious Lou.

Scott said in the dressing room that his favourite moment tonight was when as Lodovico I walked through a narrow piece of stage where Jono, holding two swords, was so actively trying to get one of them into his scabbard that he had no fucking clue that the brother of the pope was an inch away from the other naked blade. Lodovico saw a sword pointed at him. My reaction was entirely honest, small but truthful. Cost about half a second and did the Tim thing of truth. 100% Factory, plus helped catalyse conversations with other company members about how we all go after “the truth” and what that means. It’s a fascinating game Tim gets us to play. Maybe the game noise is designed to flood the left brain. Right brain dominant players like Annie have an immediate advantage if they trust they can play. Annie reminds me so hard of Maz, one of the Factory people I’m happiest to play with. I hope our conversation tonight opens a similar freedom to the one I am so familiar with from Maz.

I wanna post pictures but I’m being careful. I’ll try and talk to the company about this but I’m not sure if I want them to know about this blog generally… Kester knew I was blogging on the Olympics and it didn’t cause ructions but I guess I’m even more cagey cos acting has always been my primary …