Sharing

Ahhh wonders. I’m home.

I woke at about half 3 and that was it for sleep. Busted out of a dream into full wakefulness. By 5 I had totally given up and I was reading As You Like It. I beat through all my verse. Found an Alexandrine I had missed. Found a useful storytelling pause. Found a moment where Jacques tries to pull everyone into prose and jar things into a different energy as is his job. Early morning good. It was time well spent. But I’m fucked now.

Went into Brixton by overground from Victoria. The streets of Brixton are always madness. The narrative that London is somehow dangerous seems utterly egregious and unfamiliar to the place I’m living in. Yeah sure I live in Chelsea. But I’m an actor. I’m going to the interesting places. Brixton has always had vibrant shouty multicoloured streetlife. There’s no more threat now than there was when I was a teenager going to gigs in pubs. I would be considerably more concerned about going to a country where there’s an active militia of untrained murderous goons with guns. Just as well I’m going somewhere perfectly safe instead, eh? Eh?

We had our sharing today. Some gorgeous people with us, to watch and share thoughts. This thing we have made – it works. And we care about it. And we are all really pulling in the same direction for it. This strange unusual pastoral play, a serious of vignettes on love bound together into a mad tale of a court lost in a dark forest of love.

I wish we had it longer. Such a short tour and this group is joyful to the point it makes my heart feel full to bursting. We have an official scribe in Grace. I avoided that role because the daily drive of this strange thing I feed you – it cannot and will not guarantee quality. Days like today I have only the contents of my head and the last few hours left. Other days I have too much time and too much whimsy.

I went to a show. Brian sorted tickets for the household. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I bought a Don’t Panic T-Shirt. It’s an immersive show with actors who aren’t shouting at you blind, so it might be unfamiliar to Secret Cinema aficionados. I think they’re probably being paid in more than carpet-mites. It’s a karaoke musical experience inspired by the Douglas Adams books, with some very deft and moving moments, with exceptionally clever and present immersive performers thank god and in the world of the Douglas Adams. Some Shunt influences. Some Gatsby influences. But these things are inevitable. It was a unique and delightful experience, I didn’t feel part of a conveyor belt, and the actors weren’t dead in the eyes when they spoke to me. Perhaps they’re being paid properly. It was all held together with smart writing. Different stations occasionally. Some performers wasted. Some ideas given more production space than they warranted in the execution. But I think they are still refining what’s possible. I like them. And I like the game they have made. Hopefully it’ll run a good while. I would go again if I was with a friend who was a fan.

I am gonna sleep like a log.