Opening Night

Pete Brooks' diary

We opened the show last night. There were 3 performances lasting 35 minutes each to an audience of 6. Not surprisingly the performances are all completely sold out and we have been asked whether we could manage 4 shows each evening. This seems quite reasonable. We can start the first show at 8.30 (any earlier and the theatre which has a domed fabric roof is not really dark enough). The second show would be at 9.20 then 10.10 with the last show at 11.00 as advertised. Even if the company call is at 7.00 this is still only a four and a half hour call, but of course without breaks.

The show went well. I push the audience truck so my perspective on the performance is fairly compromised. Pushing the truck is very hard work and on every run there were sticky moments when the thing wouldn't move. It is however no worse than I expected. The group has been excellent, there have of course been tensions but no more than in a professional company. It has been an ambitious project, and we have arrived at the end point. No one died and we have made an original, engaging and rather unusual piece of work. Tonight the press come. This has been my first experience of blogging and contributing has been painless.This however will be my last entry; I want to read Vassilly Grossman's Life and Fate before I leave here so that will I think fully occupy my non working moments. I will make sure that any reviews are posted and some production stills attached.

So to all of you out there reading this we don't know who you are but we do know where you are (the blog analytics are fascinating) thanks for reading.

Ciao.