Wrong goes very right

The big play day today. Rushed about doing a few jobs before going to meet Beth, Mark and Callum at Lorraine's house. Beth and I taxied to The Marlborough with props and we met Amy there. Much of the day spent setting things up, running the play, making phone calls, while Amy fiddled with sound systems and the lights. Nice to see the actors with costumes, make up, fake blood and wounds etc. plus slices of turkey and cranberry to eat off the corpse.

I was also liaising with Tarik, who runs the Theatre with David.

Everyone behaving professionally and well all day. Much relieved to see Beth and Mark run through Wrong unscathed in rehearsal -- it was great to see all three just go for it in a very uninhibited way. Broke for a late pizza in a local restaurant at 3:30 as everyone was suddenly starving.

Lorraine and Glenda, Mark's Mum, arrived early bringing calm and organisation. I repaired down to the bar for a steadying few drinks. Learned about people dropping out at the last minute before the show. Tarik, trying to cheer me up, said that an audience of ten was good for a Tuesday. However we had over thirty which filled up the little theatre quite nicely. I am expecting many more on Thursday, however, when we do it again. Surprised to see my neighbours Alex and Jen arriving as well as Marja and Sarah Freems driving down from London.

Every piece worked. Lots of laughs in my Zombie piece A bite to eat. Beth and Mark doing appalling zombie noises from behind the curtain before it started. Lovely stuff, and B&M injecting comedy at every turn. Then Callum performed my fragment Mistake with chilling excellence and went straight into a caricature piece Mark had written called Amdram Timmy, performing it brilliantly. Then they segued into my late friend Tim Gallagher's piece Job Application. (A bit like seeing a ghost hearing Tim's words performed again -- and of course the reason why the corpse in all the pieces is called Timmy in tribute).

Wrong went off like a cracker. Both Beth and Mark hilarious in the part, and bringing out loads of laughs. I felt fantastic, because the play really emerges as an excellent piece of work with them performing it. Callum a great corpse too, adding deft touches here and there.

Down to the bar afterwards, the cast delighted, and lots of people saying how good the evening was. I had a couple more drinks and arrived at the notion that I was, in fact, exceedingly big and clever. An insight I was not afraid to share with people. Ended the night having an absolutely bloody final beer at midnight with Sam (who is coming on Thursday) and a buzzing Beth and Mark. All well.

Below some snaps I took during the dress rehearsal. Amy being 'production elf', Callum rehearsing Mistake, Beth rehearsing A bite to eat, and Mark in a lovely shot, also rehearsing A bite to eat.










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