This week I received the draft of the first two episodes of Bring Again The Now Of Then…and it sounds amazing! As the introductory music fades we hear the crackling of an open fire and bang…we’re in Gertrud Grunow’s study where she regales us with the story of the spiritual years of the Bauhaus as she goes about her paperwork.
Read MoreFor me it’s walking. It’s when all my best ideas come. Their genesis, their development, and their resolution. It literally never happens whilst I am sitting at the PC. Something about the subconscious, I suppose. One day after watching a documentary on BBC 4, celebrating the centenary of the Bauhaus opening in Weimar, I went for a walk. I think you know what happened next…
Read MoreIt was a pleasure, last week, to mingle with an excellent cast for a reading of my new audio play Bring Again the Now of Then on the early years of the Bauhaus. The aim was to establish the correct mix of voices for the piece and, as ever, to ascertain whether another draft of the play is required. Happy to say only small edits are needed.
Read MoreA year ago tonight, Dance The Colour Blue played to its last audience. My first professionally produced play was an entirely unexpected affair…as well as something of a revelatory experience!
Read MoreThere is a poem which threads through Dance The Colour Blue, refering back to The Odyssey. A plea from Penelope to be heard. Although, thanks to Homer, we can never be sure we are hearing this enigmatic character clearly.
The poem appears here in full. The third stanza is added for completeness. It did not feature in the play.
Penelope
Once on a overcast morning, I asked the messenger Hermes
Is time a dancing boy whose legs move bright with speed?
Tenderly taking my hand, he affirmed my familiar fate
Denizens, five score men, claiming a tenure of nature that’s yours
Me; tears stain my face entering more deeply into my heart
Swiftly days pass, Odysseus, for the dark chases them away
Three years last you laid by my side, must yet I prepare for three more?
Read MoreBarfly Don didn’t much care for them…but here were the sounds on the jukebox in Dance The Colour Blue:
Home At Last - Steely Dan
Counting Backwards - Throwing Muses
I Want More - Can
Monkey Gone to Heaven - Pixies
Too Shy - Kajagoogoo
Felt Mountain - Goldfrapp
Reelin’ In The Years - Steely Dan
Dress You Up - Madonna
Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
Tom’s Diner - Suzanne Vega
Lovelight - ABBA
Read MoreLooking back on the run of Dance The Colour Blue is like recalling a dream: you’re convinced it happened, you just can’t point to or touch it. What I do know is…the production was smooth…the cast were exquisite…the audiences were appreciative… and the direction was flawless. And even though the world views everyone in its same unwavering regard, there is a change in my perspective as I look round. It was a beautiful production. A professional production. And that is…something.
Read MoreTonight was my first ‘first night’ as a writer sitting in the audience. Usually I’m part of the stage management. That’s the nature of fringe theatre. But as part of a professional production, my role is just ‘the writer’. More time. I’d say ‘more time to relax’ …but that’s stretching it! I needn’t have worried, for in the hands of director Olivia Millar-Ross, and actors Habiba Saleh, Rory Grant, Billy Mack, Dani Heron, Nicola Docherty and Kareem Nasif, the play was always in the safest of hands.
Read MoreToday we had the dress rehearsal of Dance The Colour Blue…and…
We’re ready to go!
For the last 3 weeks, director Olivia Millar-Ross has worked with the actors in order to create a world that is caught somewhere in the mid-late 90s. It was a time of optimism: a decrepit government ready for the scrapheap, a century of conflict breathing its last; and new music scenes appropriating the past. I won’t say what happened next in the real world. Best for us to remain with Nicky, Mikey, Liz, Suzy, Pete and Don in The Everlasting Arms…where the music is good, the beer flows, and the banter is better.
Read MoreIt’s a new experience for me: to occasionally sit at the back of a studio whilst a play develops before your eyes. It’s a privilege too. To be the writer watching the emergence of an interpretation of your work. Director Olivia Millar-Ross is doing a truly superb job of bringing Dance The Colour Blue to life. I’m not exactly sure what I expected but I am learning a lot that will be useful when next I direct a play.
Read MoreToday was the first day of rehearsals for Dance The Colour Blue. This is possibly the calmest sentence I’ll write…for it went as well as anyone could’ve hoped for!
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