Rehearsal 16, Thursday 13th June 2002

David kicks off tonight by telling us that even though England are playing on Saturday, we will still have to have a rehearsal because he has someone coming in to teach us how to pronounce Russian names. No need to worry, though, as this turns out to be just a spot of directorial waggery. The cast laugh heartily, demonstrating how fond we all are of David, and what a close-knit and worthy-of-carrying-on-next-year bunch we are.

Tonight, we are to run through the whole play. Consequently, I have brought along my mini-recorder to tape it so that I can listen later and learn my lines. I'm also very tired tonight and feel somewhat lacklustre, so I know my bits won't have much pep. As it turns out, the whole performance drags on a bit, largely because there is still too much to get into the available time. We haven't finished after two hours!

David announces that he needs to cut the play some more. I hope this is for the sake of the audience and not because he is moonlighting and needs to get to his other job on time after our performances.

Actually, on a more serious note, when I listen to the tape afterwards, I sound appalling - that tiredness really shows through. It strikes me that just before cuts are made is not the time to sound bad.

I am somewhat worried…

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