A difficult week

Harriet Marriott (director of UP THERE'S HEAVEN) has decided belatedly to star in her own production. Her one difficulty is that she's not a deaf blind amputee, and rather worryingly she's looking into having some radical surgery before the end of the week (press night). All this on top of learning the lines (which of course she doesn't actually speak, but she insists that her inner dialogue must be scripted and learned). I am enthralled and disturbed - all theatre aspires to this level of commitment, but how many of us actually make the leap? I so wish she could meet Prat, but I fear the surgery will preclude such an encounter. I have now tracked down most of the props - I'm finding it difficult to find an iron lung for the climactic scene in the disused Kosovo hospital... But these rehearsals are certainly helping me crystallise my thoughts about my own opus, the promenade production set during the Balkanese Wars. Bookings for UP THERE'S HEAVEN are said to be "sluggish", but I pointed out that there's an election on and people are distracted. I'm convinced we'll sell out, especially in such a cramped and leaky auditorium... Watch this space!!!