Catching Up
Well, I'm back on line again. The play finished last Saturday night and, as we were all doing the communal hug thang, Gill turned to me and said, "Well, your life can get back to normal now". And actually, that's just how it has been feeling.
The past couple of weeks have been just a rush and it's good having time to myself to potter round the house and reclaim my space. If only life wouldn't keep getting in the way.
So, as my friend Phil keeps asking "What's the skinny?"
Well, the play was fab. You can find out more about it and my role along with some photies by clicking here. In fact, let's get the button clicking out of the way immediately coz I've also posted some holiday snaps and some new photies of Rod and Dale, Chris and my cousin, Trevor.
Right, do I have your attention again. Good.
So, as I said, the play has been fab. The last week was a blast. Extra rehearsals on site on Saturday morning, then a whole day on Sunday where we tried the whole thing in situ for the first time and found that whole chunks just did not work so they had to be re-thought. Then, I got told that the first section of the piece, which was mainly down to me, had to be changed for political reasons and that 80% of what we had worked on had to be ditched. So, I had a frantic time, re-inventing my character from scratch. But, hey, we're all professionals here.
Tuesday night brought the Technical Dress Rehearsal with full costumes for the first time and that was a challenge in itself. If you've looked at the photies, you'll have seen how different my two characters were in appearance. Pat and I had less than 10 minutes for that changeover.
Then we got our first audience on the Preview night and, of course, half the things we had rehearsed didn't work with an audience there. So there was another set of re-blocking we had to go through.
Anyway, suffice it to say that the audiences loved the show. It certainly looked spectacular. Not everyone understood it but waddathaheck. I was most satisfied with my performance on the final night. Actually I'd just had a minor upset with Fred and I think I took a lot of my anger and hurt out on the audience. It was wonderful.
The only real downer for me was that no-one special to me came to see the play. I gave up asking Fred. My sister bought tickets for her and Ian but she came down with a throat infection and called off. And Keith was so exhausted by his College work that he collapsed in a heap at home and didn't make it.
Still, everyone in the company was really pleasant. Obviously, I got on better with some than others but that's par for the course. There's also a distinct possibility of more theatre work coming out of it. Geoff, the Director, is keen to do a very adventurous production of Titus Andronicus next year some time. I think I could be well into that.
And, of course, I met the delectable Darren who was working on the Stage Management team. Time will only tell if he becomes a regular player in the EJ but we are going to be spending some time together socially on Saturday. I'm not kidding myself that this is any big shakes. He's probably flattered that someone of my age takes him seriously and I'm certainly flattered that he cares to spend time with me.
Anyway, he's going to have to work hard to find me available the rate things are going. I'm meeting Michael for the first time on Thursday night and Craig and Sean on Friday along with James II. And then, of course, there's Fred.
There's a passage (I think it's in F Scott Fitzgerald's novel Tender is the Night) where he talks about the fact that, in any affair, you never know which occasion is going to be the last time you make love. That's sort of how I felt about how Fred and I finished over two weeks ago. It all just sort of happened without me seeing that it was going to.
We've had our ups and downs since then. I've been raging at times when I've thought that he was taking me for granted or ignoring me. He got wildly jealous when he saw me out with Greg. We've both dated other people since. We've had sort of reconciliations. And there was one night of no sleep because the atmosphere got so bad and one night of real happiness when we did sleep together and we did have sex but it was more like making friend than making love.
I dunno I think we're getting there.
Two hour break
I've just gotten in back from looking at flats in the Barbican with Fred. Sorry, I should have said that he's got a job here now in the UK and starts in September. So, although he goes back to Singapore in July, he'll be returning (Home Office and Work Permits permitting).
Oh, God. I am now the proud owner of a rather smart tortoiseshell Colibri lighter with the engraving on the side
DAVID & FRED 1996
My stomach's gone into spasm. Just when I think I understand what sort of level we're supposed to be operating on, he throws me a curving ball like that.
I feel like I need loads of hugs. 