“And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe, and then from hour to hour we rot and rot”.
I’m the oldest in the AYLI company and I’m definitely in the second section of that particular aphorism that my character finds surprisingly funny. Impermanence and rot. Teeth. Eyes. Taste. Everything. It’s all going in the end. And it seems for many of the company, the list is starting to get underway.
“I think I’ve chipped my tooth at the front,” Joanna said in check-in, while I explored the calamity of a shattered molar I got from biting into nothing more than a biscuit about two weeks ago. “I can’t stop running my tongue around it”. I know the feeling and assure her it’s natural. I remember though the first time I had a tooth properly split, right at the back, and I couldn’t swallow. It was scary. I was lucky with this one though. Prevention before it forced my hand.
“The tooth is split and it’s infected. Needs to come out right away. I’m surprised you aren’t in pain yet but you will be.” Damn. I partly hoped it would just be a check-up and a band aid and can deal with it when I’m back home. But nay. He’s got the needle in my gum five minutes after the x-ray, and I’m listening to little crunching sounds and my best biting tooth tries and fails to cling on. I didn’t ask to keep it. Horrible fucking thing.
I told the AYLI WhatsApp group. Benjy is having repairs done on his front teeth, he took some damage to old damage. Sam is off to the dentist tomorrow… “True I have lost my teeth in your service,” my character Adam says. Sam will be fine though, he’s still on the ripening part of his strange eventful pilgrimage. Bunch of crumbling Shakespeareans coming over to make a play about love. At least I’m on the “mortality” character.
We have all been too busy since rehearsal started to put time aside for the dentist. We all know this is the longest gap between showings we will have. So we are all getting our notoriously bad British mouths ready for America.
I feel fine, a bit shaky but it feels like it has clotted ok. Will sleep carefully tonight if I can, and Brian bought me yoghurt and ibuprofen. I nearly took one of my tramadol but they are over a decade old, off one of the chefs at the open golf tournament. I think I’ll bin them.
AlBarclay 