Personal Burnout
We had our first previews for Pedestrian and Speechless a week ago today. Things couldn’t really have gone much better for both shows: we’ve been fortunate enough to have maintained great houses, a favourable critical response and morale is high in both camps. But today was the first day I personally can honestly say “I really enjoyed myself”.
It’s been a mad first ten days for me – trying to juggle the prouducing with the acting. I wanted Pedestrian to hit the ground running, make our presence felt and get the word out there. Today, we got the 4* Scotsman review we’d all been hoping for from the minute we decided to come to Edinburgh back in February. I sat through the show tonight, for the first time in a few days, and it was a cracking one. Even though I’ve produced it, I watched simply in awe of Tom Wainwright’s tour de force performance – immensely proud to be involved in getting it seen up here.
It felt like we’d really turned a corner – the previews are over, there are no more 2for1s and we’re on our own so the timing of the Scotsman review couldn’t have been better – thank you to them for finding the time to come and championing Tom’s work. The show’s settled in beautifully, promoters and press and kindly making time to come in, other companies are graciously returning for a second time to catch Tom in action, and the word of mouth is starting to kick in. Some would think now’s the time to relax, but my brain starts going into overdrive thinking: “How can we capitalise on this great start we’ve made?” We need to maintain the momentum, and who knows, maybe even take it onto the next level of success – whatever that might be.
And with Speechless; well it always takes a bit of time to settle into any play as an actor, and today was the first day I felt really comfortable – another corner turned. It’s fascinating experiencing the Traverse shifting time slot policy first hand. As much as a 10:15am show is in theory a nightmare for most actors, for the audiences coming in, we’re their first show of the day and they are fresh, alert and ready to be entertained. By the 21:30 show, most of the audience would have been sat in darkened theatres for hours before coming to see us, probably having caught up to five or so shows, and they must be feeling pretty weary. As much as I am sure they’re engaged, the vocal response from them is certainly quieter – fair enough I say. It’s up to us as actors, to make sure – whether it’s their first or fifteenth show of the day – that they enjoy it and see the show at it’s best. Maybe we need to work harder on the night shift to grab them on board and keep them with us.
And I had a bit of a drink tonight to celebrate, for the first time really this festival. When I was performing here last back in 2005, in a company of four young men, we somehow managed to go out every night, come in and do a show hungover (yep, still feeling rough at 8pm every evening), sweat out the booze, ready to go again when we were done. It’s been so different this year. I haven’t really been out at all, I’ve been running, gyming and generally being boring when I haven’t been working. So, it’s time to turn that final corner – by properly getting stuck into the festival spirit, staying out late, having a drink and feeling rough the next morning. My own personal burnout. Finally, after 10 days of Edinburgh – it’s about time.
