His Dark Materials First Two Nights

You will be pleased to know, O stout hearted reader, that the bear exit has been resolved by none other than Damon himself, the director of His Dark Materials. This was the part of Play One that particularly concerned me but that may have been of course because it was outside my direct control. I have to admit to being a control freak and therefore to be in a situation of relying upon others to engineer my graceful and obviously tear jerking removal from stage was exacting to say the least. Damon's compromise, or inspired piece of directorial thought, was to have me hoisted to my feet by just two bears and then escorted offstage by a pack of bears presumably to be devoured offstage. I am therefore much obliged to Damon for the idea and to Liam and Phil the two bears doing the hoisting. It is surprising how helpless one feels dressed in a full polar bear outfit and polystyrene breast plate, unable to use one hand because it is clutching a bear's head and the other is encased in a glove and gauntlet too small and designed for the wrong hand. I tried really hard to tell the wardrobe mistress and her fellow costumiers that I had rehearsed scenes and stage fight holding the bear's head in my left hand. However when my costume arrived it had to be changed because it had been made presuming the bear's head was in my right hand. Having had the costume changed I found on dress rehearsal day that I had been provided with a gauntlet and glove that fitted in size but was intended for my left hand! How I soldier on under these intolerable circumstances I know not!
I felt the whole play (or at least those parts in which I am concerned) lifted last night. One of the reasons was Charley was in good health and finding subtleties and sparkles of humour that were missing on the first night due to her illness. Another was that we sorted out one or two of the hiatuses that slowed things down a bit on the first night - an example being the entry of the Oxford pedestrians. We spent a considerable amount of time, energy and effort on Thursday working out in the wings (such as they are at the arts Centre) when we should actually go on. As this all had to be conducted in mime in semi darkness it wasn't as successful as it otherwise might have been and led to a pause that gave Damon collywobbles.
At the end of the performance last night (Friday) the cast was ushered back on stage to meet our sponsors. This is an unusual occurrence for our company and some of us were more bashful than others. I held back a little because the seat of my trousers was damp and I couldn't work out why. I found out later that a lump of wet wipes used to remove black face make up had been carelessly thrown on my chair where I sit at the end of the show. I obviously don't know who the culprit was but the delightful Megan may have darker aspects to her nature than I first suspected. Anyway the sponsors were delightful and the two ladies were enthusiastic fans of the Pullman trilogy and seemed to have enjoyed our performance.
The reviewer from the Portsmouth News is coming to see Play Two this evening (Saturday), having seen Play One on the first night, and will then put a review of the whole thing in Monday's edition of the paper.
My nephew, Michael, is bringing his partner, Jenny T, to see both plays today and is staying overnight at a bed and breakfast. This means we will celebrate Alice's 27th birthday at the Dipak after the show and again tomorrow lunchtime at the Castle in Rowlands.
For those following my career as a film extra (and I have been amazed by the number of references to my blog - it must run into as many fingers as are on one hand- and they are not all family!) I can only say that so far it has failed to launch. I say "so far" in a self protective way as I think the failure to hear anything at all would in normal circumstances be considered a resounding and complete no-no. However the small optimist in me is hoping that once I am free of other commitments (trusting of course that some one has actually read my application letter and what is laughingly referred to as my CV) in January, someone somewhere might want to exploit my availability. Mind you, we have one Saturday already planned for "The Seafarer" at the Cottesloe (one spare ticket available if anyone is interested), a weekend for my birthday celebrations including "Don Juan in Soho" at the Donmar, a couple of days babysitting my firstborn after her dental operation and a couple of Wednesdays earmarked for London matinees plus several cinema visits to catch up on films missed so far. And Ingrid expects her tea cooked and on the table!