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Thursday 24.1.02 | Right. Mad week almost at an end, but things are going to get more muddled before they get sorted out. Play (opening tonight) still looks and feels like an emergency drill in a loony bin, but I predict that, as with so much in my life, it will all fall together approximately four seconds before curtain goes up. It's been an interesting week. Monday was spent hanging lights above the stage and auditorium, which I shat myself doing. I've never worked in this particular theatre before, and when the techie people pointed out where we were off to in order to hang the lanterns, I cackled loudly, thinking they were joking. Doing the stage involves going up to the very top of a theatre to a platform 2ft wide in order to reach out over said stage (we're talking a good 100ft up and no safety harness/general sanity like that) to loads weights onto pulleys to secure the lighting bars while you put the damn lanterns on them when they're at stage level. Why this is I'm not sure, but I'm told it's elementary physics, so it's the sort of thing I just don't question. Anyway, being up there was fine once I got used to it, but getting up and down was the interesting part - a ladder. A very, very big ladder, the ascent of which provoked much oral foulness emanating from me. Anyway, I gratefully got down, thinking that the nightmare was over, but 20 minutes later I found myself strapped to the celing of the theatre, climbing out above the auditorium, hanging lanterns there. Admittedly, I couldn't have fallen if I'd tried as I was wearing a very strong-looking harness and a viking-style helmet that made me look like Helga the Hun, but the fear was there, I can tell you. Other tims this week have seen me building the stage (and anyone remembering my DIY nightmare over the Summer - see posting of 6th July - will remember just how far I am from being capable of any sort of construction work), drilling bits of wood together, the reason for which now escapes me (I think they just gave me that to keep me busy as I haven't seen the wood since) and other random things which really aren't me. I am now sitting here, contemplating quietly that in 12 hours time, we will be in the middle (just wrote the muddle - silly me) of the first performance and we aren't nearly ready. The more pressing question, however, is quite how I'm going to stretch my arms the three inches needed to operate my follow-spot effectively and without looking like I have the shakes. Hmm. Friday 25.1.02 Only after 19 years and acute pain in my left leg am I learning not to attempt to put on a jumper whilst walking down a flight of stairs. Anyway, play went well last night, thank God. Am treasuring a morning of freedom (by getting my hair cut and doing my laundry - scintillating, I know) before I head back into theatrical hibernation for a matinee and an evening performance. Hurrah. Oh, and by the way: Q. What does Nelly the Elephant use as a tampon? A; Dolly the sheep. (Anyone disgusted by my general foulness should blame Michelle, for her repertoire seems to be even more rank than mine. Tuesday 29.1.02 It's all over. Large cast pissup on Saturday night was good fun, though was a bit too knackered to go clubbing with everyone, so decided to be boring and go to bed at around 1. Sunday was spent shuffling around in my slippers, feeling roughly like I had been hit by a train, and spacing out at embarrassing moments. I have a mountain of work to catch up on, and the UCL debating competition is less than two weeks away. It will all fall together, I am convinced. Quite how is another question. Putting this off, I ended up going to Heaven last night with Francesca, where I met a lovely-looking guy called Lee. Whilst discovering that the curry I had just eaten had more charisma, I managed to knock his mate's can of beer on to the dance floor from the platform we were on. Not my finest hour.
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