Pulling

I have been a terrible blogger. Well, the blogs themselves are pretty good (even if I do say so myself), but I've been very lax about it recently.

This is owing to (deep breath): work, auditions, drinks, driving (not at the same time), visiting family, going to see a play, driving again, hosting a guest, more auditions and more work.

Let me tell you about the play. This weekend I drove to an unspecified town (believe me, it's kinder this way) to see an amateur dramatics play with my friend Erica. Why would I drive a 300-mile round trip to see amdram? Well, the play was Daisy Pulls it Off, which was the first play I ever directed, about ten years ago. Erica played the part of Mr Thompson back in 1997 and also assistant directed (meaning she had to do all the shit jobs that I was far too important for. She still reminds me how she nearly gassed herself spray-painting a load of two-pence coins gold in an enclosed garage. I maintain that this was her fault, and if anything then it was natural selection.)

The play's a thrilling schoolgirl romp, hammy as anything, and ideal to do for a girls' school play. Which was exactly what we did. Admittedly though, the first act was a bit alien to me, as we only had 45 minutes for our play, so I adapted it and we only actually produced the second act.

So, Erica and I trotted off to see a play in an unspecified town. It was about three minutes into the play that we realised that the mean age of the theatre company was about 60. And that the most likely thing Daisy would pull off would be her colostomy bag.

That's not to say we didn't have a rip-roaring evening, full of spiffingness and top-hole entertainment, because we did. But sometimes we were laughing for the wrong reasons.

And our production did well to cut the tedious hockey matches, plus our assembly scenes were better. Possibly because we dressed up a sixth former to look exactly like our own real-life headmistress at that time. Disturbingly, the real-life headmistress looked exactly like Andrew Lloyd Webber, who worryingly wrote the music for the West End revival of Daisy a few years back.

Coincidence? I think not.*

* Actually, I think it probably is a coincidence, but ending an entry with "Coincidence? I think so" is less strong.