interesting 27 January 2008
now, isn’t it interesting – our last night (tonight) wasn’t half as raucous or enjoyable as, say, last night. The audience didn’t stand at the bow as they did last night, though they clearly had loved it, and it was all a more staid affair (okay okay, I am SPOILED). BUT the important thing is that everyone enjoyed it. So no prob there. It’s just proved again what I say – every show belongs to the audience – you can but guide.
Other than that BRIGHT LIGHTS AND PROMISES is number 5 in the Irish fiction charts today and that is fab. MAny thaks to you all, Ireland or otherwise…
chuck 26 January 2008
if only we could bottle audiences! tonight galway did us proud and of course i announced to everyone that commented on it that these are my people. comes a time for a show when you go out and do what you have rehearsed and then it is taken from you by the crowd – which is exactly what should happen. theatre is only for that night. you may do the same show but no 2 audiences are the same and you are told where the laughs/sighs/tears are by that most interactive of audiences. way it should be too.
sorry about the lack of capitals – phone…
ps chuck norris doesn’t believe in germany, apparently
home town 25 January 2008
right – being home is MAD. tonight i went to a totally lovely teatime dinner for a lovely friend of mine who is 73 today and had lovely chats with him – paddy norman, in case you want the name – and his 2 year old granddaughter (a miracle who lives up to that name) sang many songs for me. her mother is a TOTAL friend from school and i dedicated a book to her too (and teased her MERCILESSLY that my performance in The Taming of The Shrew is all about her – she did put up the best chicken curry in front of me that i have had in a long whil… and that might not always have been her way…) then into work and a good show (hooray) and afterwards there was Carmelita Leyden that i used to sit beside at second level with some friends and it was just mighty. But a bit weird, cos there we are and we are still as fab and mad as we ever were..just a tad older…though really i honestly wasn’t too worried about us cos we are still a tiny bit ok-slash-HOT.
an opening 24 January 2008
0h lord, an opening. it went well, and very well? hope so. but, oh my lord, the potential for badness. which is all very well till you realise that
1) you will suffer
2) tomorrow is another performance
3) not a WORD will be written while this divine madness continues…
well there you have it too – the greatness. – I am beginning to give myself dispensation for just doing one bit of that at a time..who knows what way around it will turn out…
still not a bit happy about heath ledger
heath 23 January 2008
I am really really shocked about Heath Ledger dying. That can’t be right at all, in any universe’s book. The man was beautiful, talented and only 28. I am beginning to feel I have cheated death majorly now, from my lofty 45 years..and there have been times when I have come to in the morning, at home, wondering what I got up to from about 10 the night before. Mind you, as the squarest woman in the world all I expect and deserve (on top of a fine scolding) is the business end of a major hangover if I have been on the razz. I don’t indulge in anything stronger than a Solpadeine when it comes to pharmaceuticals and it’s only recently I started to be able to keep that fizziness down (must be all my hard work with Cava, Champs and Prosecco…) Heath Ledger had an awful lot left to give and it’s a great shame he has not got that chance now. My Mum was telling me about a programme on telly she watched where John Banville the writer was talking about how much he loves this life and is not at all happy to know that he will have to quit it at some stage. She said it was very moving and thought provoking. I know how he feels. It’s good to be alive, however tough and infuriating that is sometimes, and when you see a young wonder like Heath Ledger quenched so easily and unneccessarily you realise there is a lot out there that we must be doing. I’m going to try not to whinge for ages from here on out and just get on with this living lark. Churlish not to.
back 21 January 2008
I am back where I started. We begin our tour in Galway, where I grew up. The others are in apartments on the other side of town and I am home with The Mammy. I am also back in my old room. It’s painted in different colours now but there’s still a familiar chill in the air – which was my excuse for not getting up too early when I was a teenager (I still see little reason for arising before 11 if I can help it…a/m, though, not p/m so I have not gone to hell entirely, yet). Also, as always, beside of the bed is stacked with books to be read and I am terrified to start any in case I cannot stop and get too little sleep, as the next few days will be tough…but perhaps just a wee peek at a Daniel Silva I have not yet read…Tomorrow morning, if the weather is mild enough, I will walk into town by the railway line, which was my route to school and, indeed, the theatre is across the road from my old primary and around the corner from the secondary school. Actually the theatre (the Town Hall) used to be a cinema when I was growing up and I remember seeing all sorts of goodies there, even graduating to going on dates with fellas, though I was always more interested in seeing the movie rather than snogging so I can’t have been that much fun for your average teenage lech. I still maintain my stance on that – the cinema is for movies, snogging can take place anyhwere. Imagine not seeing the end of a classic cos some lad had his face stuck to yours? Not on.
russia 20 January 2008
The hubby’s obsession with Russia continues and grows apace. He is currently reading the diaries of Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist murdered in October 2006. Every so often he gets the laptop and looks up the various people metioned in the book on Wikipedia (which seems a frightening and compelling read) and a lot of the time he is denied access to information with vandalism (his) cited as the reason. As he’s doing all of this on my laptop I must therefore be the vandal. All very strange indeed. It’s no wonder the world is full of conspiracy theories when this can happen to two ordinary Irish citizens just trying to find out more about a subject that is becoming increasingly interesting to them.
knock offs 19 January 2008
Well, it was bound to happen, I suppose…the knock-offs showed their worth. My fake UGGs are still as cosy as ever BUT turns out they can’t do rain – and I don’t think it would have mattered if I had sprayed them first with the protector thingy or not (I didn’t) I think they were never meant to keep out any serious precipitation. SO I had a great walk through town today (truly) then first of all the toes got drenched, though not unlike a sweaty feeling so I rose above it, and then the heels got wet and that’s unnatural so had to be addressed and the upshot is I went home early, took off the sodden boots (£10 worth and will be a total success in drier weather and are not going to be chucked cos I love them and they are doing their best and at the price still don’t owe me a penny) and had a lovely snooze which I wouldn’t have had if I had been motoring with dry feet (hoping for one – snooze – but unable to justify it)…Those boots, as I say, don’t owe me a cent.
exercise 18 January 2008
I met my mate Keith Duffy at a TV station tonight and he is carrying an injury from earlier in the day. Basically a weight fell on his hand in the gym and broke it. Veh veh painful and proof all over again that exercise is dangerous…I lived with a drummer for a while once and he based a lot of his life’s philosophy on Spinal Tap, the movie. As those of you who have seen that film will know bad (and often unusal) things, mostly death, happen to the drummers in the band. One of the freak occurances was a gardening accident and he would always cite it when asked to do any manual labour like cutting the grass. Fair enough, really. We all have to have a code. I am boycotting gyms awhile now…
Late show 18 January 2008
Word is am on in second part of show tonight now rather than the third..sure ye will watching anyhow!