Opening night
October 28, 2011
I've woken up to a mist on the Avon, much akin to Wuthering Heights, I can barely see the boats across the river but I know that they are there as I can hear the old chain ferry being pulled through the water. It is the morning after our opening night, the first of many for Written on the Heart and the mist feels very appropriate. First nights of a production often blur by in a haze of nerves, adrenaline and panic so maybe a hurricane rather than a mist would be more fitting.
Paul Chahidi, who plays Laud and Thomson, said to me as we passed backstage, 'On first nights you find yourself being so precise and tense in order to get it right, the way you've rehearsed it, but then you come off stage and think - what was I worrying about, I should have just played!' (And he doesn't mean the traditional game of footy that occurs in our warm-up time either- though Ian Midlane scored a cracking goal today so I should probably mention it.)
You can never really tell how a first night went, for yourself or for others as it seems to stampede around you and through you. The audience laughed in unexpected places and were quiet in places we thought sure of laughter, lines were forgotten and new ones adlibbed in, but we got through it.
After the show we received final confirmation of how it had gone... Across the tannoy, streaming into our dressing rooms boomed, 'Hello Blue Company, this is Greg. Well done!'
Now off to the Dirty Duck...
Photo: The River Avon by Laura Darrall
by Laura Darrall
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