'There's something dripping in my head'.

Hello people, Gavin here. Sorry for the lack of updates. I can only assume that my actors are too busy learning their lines to post anything. And poor Alvin only has time to learn his lines after 3am cos 'Mumbo Jumbo' is still pretty pumping before then. But that's just on Wednesdays......what does he get up to during the other six days of the week? Its one of those great mysteries......its right up there with the JFK assasination. A lone gunman? Yeah, right. You want the truth, talk to Oliver Stone. That guy knows things.

Wrote my director's notes for the programme yesterday. I have mixed feelings about director's notes. I love the 'idea' of director's notes, that you're given this one chance to speak your mind about the how's and why's of this and that and all the other things that you think might help the audience understand where you're coming from. I for one, enjoy reading director's notes. Sometimes, they're really funny. Especially when the notes include words like - art, artistic, artistry, artful. That always cracks me up. But anyway, I digress. I love the idea. The actual writing is another thing entirely. Don't get me wrong. I do enjoy the process of writing director's notes cos it gives me a chance to sort of reflect on the play and what we've been doing and how its effected us and all that but to try and write all this down without making it sound like a prententious wank isn't as easy as you might think. Downright impossible actually, its like trying to say 'no' to Faridah Merican. It just doesn't happen. Anyway, I guess you guys can judge for yourselves.

We'll be running the play for the first time tonight. I'm looking forward to it. Normally first runs are either really good or really bad so it'll be interesting to see how it goes. Before the run, we'll be recording the play (finally), so that should warm the actors up pretty good for the run. Sorry the recording has taken so long. I've been wanting to get some sound bites on the blog for you guys to listen to, and we will, hopefully by next week. We tried to record it last week but we kept hearing the 'Broken Bridges' songs in the background cos they were rehearsing upstairs. So tonight's recording will be done in a proper sound proof recording studio......which I never knew we had, otherwise I would've used it the first time. Y'know those old 'Tom & Jerry' cartoons where a thought balloon pops up above a character's head and there's a picture of a jackass? Yeah, that's how I felt when I found out we had a recording booth.

The actors are really getting into their roles. U'En's portrayal of Hamm is gonna floor a lot of people I think. He's perfectly suited to material like this cos he just has a great apreciation for the language. Plus he's got cool sounding voice. He has the ability to sound menacing and sinister as well as scared and sympathetic. Alvin is a fuckin' riot, plain and simple. His Clov ranges from being painfully funny to frustratingly sad, and by the end of the play, you really feel as though the character has gone through an evolution of sorts. I love the relationship between Kelvin's Nagg and Nani's Nell. I've always had a soft spot for these characters because of the way their relationship addresses the issue of love and loss. There's something both inherently beautiful and heart breaking about old love, because you get the sense that these two people have only recently discovered that they live thier lives for each other, when neither one of them, has much time left to live.

So we've got, like what....thirteen days to go? Can't wait. It'll be a crazy night on August 2nd when the lights go down. I expect to be a wreck.

Peace.