Brian and I made an executive decision to free Boo from her cone purgatory today. Suture came out and it’s healing well. She doesn’t seem too inclined to gnaw at herself. And that cone feels like cruelty. She hates it, I hate pretending I can’t take it off. Time to trust her.
Today was about helping some young actors. Six of them, all women, all doing a show directed by an old dear collaborator. Hanna and I believed in things and tried to do them. She’s extremely precise, driven and clear. I worked with her a few times in the early days and it was always insightful and a happy show. She’s directing some young’uns in one of those “oh god I really hope someone comes to this” shows that I did so many of when I was punting for agents. Nobody ever came.
It’s up in Redbridge, and the tribe is coming together to help make it work. Nobody has any money. Alex runs Questors Theatre in Ealing these days, I remember him from way back when at The Finborough when we were young and less sexy. Alex has lent them some crucial bits of set. I was transport. Pick ’em up, drop ’em off. Ealing to Redbridge and honest to god that drama centre really is in the middle of nowhere, driving back while avoiding the congestion charge I might as well have gone to Brighton. Still I’ll likely be back there Monday night to pick up the set again. Nobody else will. And it fits in Bergman. And I’ll get to see a good show.
It will be good too. These guys are recent graduates from Rose Bruford and the scourge of academia has not so badly polluted their training. Lots of old institutions are now turning out critics, people generally not well placed to be in practice, theorists and writers perhaps but from places that used to make actors. The state has taken over. Uncertainty is necessary in a creative grounding. Institutions like certainty. The universities are gradually murdering the vocational actor trainings in the name of record keeping. I think Rose B has still avoided the worst of it for now.
So I’ll go and enjoy a show I’ve had a tiny part in making a reality. Who knows what the continuation will be? The one thing I’m surprised I didn’t have to bring is a hatstand. They tend to congregate in theatres at that level, and nowhere else these days.
I was sad this evening cos it was cold and dark again. So I made steak and chips and played “How Fish is Made” which is utterly pointless. Can’t be bad.
AlBarclay 