29 Jul 2020
We had one of those unforgettable shows at the weekend. It was raining as we stepped on stage but halfway through it began to pour, which is when we discovered the roof wasn’t waterproof. Then the wind picked up and we began to get dowsed in front of a thousand people sitting in their cars, with their windscreen wipers purring back and forth. I could hear my stage manager Adrian laughing in the control box at which point I couldn’t speak, which is what I do when I corpse. My fellow actor Morgan was as brilliant as always and kept the show going with adlibs about Michael Fish. One of my friends was watching from her car and couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about the show. I had no idea if performing in front of three hundred cars was going to work and I am amazed how well it is coming across. We received several emails afterwards from our delighted audience, some of whom are more used to seeing it in the West End. All of them confirmed that car park theatre really does work. It may be why I am content with the never-ending rollercoaster of running the company through this crisis. I wake up each morning with no idea what is going to happen from one hour to the next. One moment it seems like good news, then it’s whipped away: nothing sticks this year. So I’m just letting it happen and taking what I can whenever something arises. It’s exactly like being a small boat on a rough ocean, except as everyone is in their own boat bobbing around you, it doesn’t feel so lonely. So we’ll continue to go with the tide and hope that one day we’ll reach land.