I’m doing the laundry. Dunno why I volunteered for that but I did. Three people’s worth of stuff all mixed up. Rolling round and round and it is half one in the morning. We had two shows today.
This morning Benjy and I went to Bonny Blue for brunch. One of the professors I worked with recently had the surname “Trump”. “I don’t know if I’m ever gonna escape the association,” they said. I thought of friends of mine called Saville and felt bad for them, cos this one hasn’t even exploded yet.
Bonnie Blue is a breakfast restaurant in Virginia. There are other associations with the name. We went there with a limited amount of time. The waiter tried to make us go round the corner for some reason even though there were seats right in front of us. Accent? Still, we got sat down. We sat down in Bonny Blue.
Pulled pork? Smashed avocado? It was just Benjy and I and we were in a rush. We got crabs from Bonnie Blue.
Crab Benedict. And it was glorious. I was glad of it. Gave me the energy I needed to push through a two show day.
So much acting, and two very different audiences. The matinee there was one schoolboy, no lover but his parents – (under 30 people who look like they like each other), no soldier at all… Literally nobody bearded between the age of 30 and 50. I had to choose some good ole boy. I’m the Justice. They were all the pantaloon, with some very much pushing towards oblivion.
Just in case I’m being too obscure, I’m always checking out the audience working out who to direct the lines of the famousest monologue towards. All the world’s a stage. Often I hear people mumbling along to it like I’m doing karaoke Shakespeare.
Evening show we had one wing of the thrust eaten up by enthusiastic students. The reception was electric. We had to discipline ourselves not to showboat and to include the other two wings. At one point in a song I dropped my kazoo, character styled it and got a cheer for it and Grace quite rightly said “Don’t encourage him” to them. Moments later I told them they were fools in a circle. Bless them, they all stood up at the end. This is definitely a great way to experience a wonderful play. But clearly the good people of Winchester are starved of high quality culture. Nice to be able to bring it. This company and method is a well oiled machine now. Decades of sending out shows like this. I’m loving being part of one again. It is impossible not to enjoy it when I watch the ones I’m not involved in.
I’m still doing laundry. I got into a long long chat with Sharon at the front desk about the state of the union. And then I had to put everything in to tumble dry again. It’s fucking half past two. I will not be going for a hike tomorrow. 😦
AlBarclay 