So we lost this website for a while, and my brother in law, Peter, has worked himself into the ground to get this new one up and running again. I’m not working at the moment, and that is a whole another story, but I’m trying to save pennies, well I have to, but fortunately I had bought a few film and theatre tickets when I was working – so I have seen a few things. I loved the film about Ian McKellen – so honest and warm and rather humble, as our british acting giants tend to be. Watching the clips of his career, on stage and on film, I wonder if he is the actor that I have seen on stage more than any other. I first saw him as Edward II, then Faustus, then Edgar in Lear. a brilliant actor, and I am thrilled that I have bumped into him a few times over the years.
then the Garrick came up trumps with Priscilla, Queen of the desert. Great performances and dancing. There was a slight chance that I could have directed and designed it, but the show has to have the paintbrushes, the cupcakes, the lizards, and I don’t think I could have had the resources to reinvent it. I could not immediately think of a new image or new theatrical language for it. after all the colour of that show, and a stage full of brashness, the Lauriston studio performed Stones in his Pockets, which is such a great play, and the two actors did it superbly, with relentless energy.
We will be in there soon with Playhouse Creatures, assuming I earn some money to keep me going till then. I do worry that work for me is about to dry up, and I’ve been put out to pasture. Such as it seems, but there’s a lot of life in this old dog yet.