New York

It’s been an interesting week. SKELLIG is blessed with the most wonderful cast and crew both on and off stage, so we were always going to have a chance of doing something great out here. But after a very successful rehearsal last week, somehow the weight of New York began to hold us back. There was uncertainly about how the audience would react and I almost felt that we were giving a presentation of last year’s show instead of seizing the opportunity to perform the show with fresh thoughts, fresh impetus, and new discoveries, despite our wonderful director Phil Clark encouraging us to do so since we started. Somehow we had lost our electricity, our danger – and though there had been many flashes throughout the week, it hadn’t properly come together. I expressed my thoughts to the cast on Friday morning and repeated what Phil had been telling us – the challenge he had given us. We only needed to discuss it once: that morning’s performance was electric – it was the first time we really worked as a team here – and far from sitting back on it in the evening’s performance, the cast went even further and flamed amazement on themselves, each other and the audience.