I'm on strike!!!

I have desided to go on strike. This desision has not been easy for me, but I have litrally no alternative. Please do not fret. It is just something I must do to save the planet.

Let's all Give Up The Internet. I know I did.

It's Super Tuesday!

I always call Tuesdays super, because it's the first day of the week (after Sunday and Monday) that contains the letters d, a, and y.

Often mispronounced chews-day, it is in fact Tyooz-day (as in 'Tyooz a pencil when you have a pen would be stupid')

Other interesting facts about Tuesday:

1) It is the only day in the week that begins with T (apart from Thursday)
2) It precedes Saturday by three days
3) It is the Christian name of the late former wife of the late former Dudley Moore*
4) It is named after Shrove Tuesday, when Jesus baked pancakes for the nicest of his disciples (unfortunately, there were no lemons in far off days, because Herod had banned them)


*Tuesday Weld

Haiku du Jour

Recession confession:
I yearn
To earn. Yet...
Am I free
If paid a fee?

(inspired by a pensee d'Alan de Button)

Phew! Where did I go???

Hello, fans! It's me - Shaun! Guess what! I've decided to become a PHOLISIPHER! Like my all time hero, Alan de Button! What a great name, eh? I wonder - should I also call myself something mysterious? How about Shaooon de Spok? I mean, I do want to be taken seriously after all, and a poncy name helps (apparently). Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and let you all know I've not been ill or lazy, just caught up in my theatrical duties for the last 2 years (you know, getting real by signing on and discovering its not all first nights and rapturous applause).

I'll have a good think soon and be offering up my thoughts and musings here. I know it's got to be deep, so it'll probably be something like this:

In an era of continuous change, the wise man pauses... ...and only then moves on. The challenge is in the pause, not the moving on(ness).

Here is another pholisipher, the great Prof. Wensleydale Smith MFI of Frinton University, discussing the perils of language, arguabably the lingua franca de nos jours:

Until next time, quod erat demonstrandum!

Jan Svankmajer - tma svetlo tma

jan svankmajer darkness light darkness 1989

Hello, fellow theatre-adorers, long time no see!!! I thought you all might be interested in this fab Jan Svankmajer film from 1989... Cheaper and shorter than Pete Hall's 50th anniversary production of GODOT, dontchafink!!!

Plucked from the headlines

Wouldnt it be luvvvverleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee to see these three in Trev's touring bonkbuster My Fair Lady???? I'm wasted as a brilliant theatre director - I should be in casting!!!


Orl I want is a bonk round 'ere Wiv a little bit of bloomin' luck!

I'm back!

Sorry, fokes - I know, I know: it's been TOO LONG! (as the bishop said to the actress after a matinee of Hamlet!). I plead no excuse - it's just, quite litrally, I have had NOTHING to BLOG!!! Theatre is going through a renaissance again, which is fab. As far as I understand there are now MORE PLAYS ABOUT IRAQ THAN AT ANY TIME IN HISTORY and this can only be a GOOD THING!!! For if theatre is to stay relivant then it must ONLY deal with ISSUES. I'm sick and tired of IRRELIVANT PLAYS and MUSICALS!!! In fact I've just applied for an Arts Council grant to go to Basra to research a DRAMATIC CRITIQUE of TONY BLAIR!!! Col says I'm sure to get funding cos his best mate Alyssia got one for her brilliant ATTACK on the Israel/Contra scandal (if I got some of those details wrong, forgive me, I'm not very interested in politics, just people, esp people who've lost a limb or three...).

Another good sign - Mark Ravenbald has twenty-five plays and musicals now running in the West End!!! Plus those endless columns in the broadsheets berating emerging talent!!! He's great!! Truly, the Noel Cowerd de nos jours!!!

So these are fab times to be working in the theatre. And Celebrity X Factor too!!! Truly, a wonderful time to be alive!!!