40 Dei - Friday 27 March

Albert is there! His baby lived through the night and he has come to do the run through. One actress's husband has been diagnosed with TB and obviously she has to be tested herself. So all in all some people have good reason for not being focussed and so it proved; the first half was a disaster. Albert finally, in a scene he does so well, stopping and saying ‘Sorry Peter I am completely lost. ‘ Others have less excuse for a loss of focus. Bit of a team talk before proceeding to the second half. It’s so difficult to get a run through started. Actors waiting at three different entrances and trying to stay in the aircon offices away from the cauldron that is the theatre. All feels like chaos and leads to an unprepared start. In a couple of cases I will have to bring it down to one cast however hard that is for the actors to take; better that than be compared unfavourably to the other person playing the part when audiences see it.

Second half went well; seems to be the case most times now and a good set of notes. Even raised a smile from Albert. I asked to him to come to work in a pair of shorts that he actually didn’t have to clutch because they are always on the verge of falling down. It’s particularly irritating when he is singing his soul out in this sad song; ‘my heart is sore( yank shorts up), ‘I try to follow the straight road’ ..whoops there go the shorts again. But we need to get some consistency..and fast.

Tooth dramas continue. The dentist rings at 4pm; she wants to take 12 of Titus’s teeth out, many of them stumps basically and advises us to get a quote from someone for lower dentures. Titus agrees, but something of an unwanted complication for your lead actor 4 weeks from opening night. Yvette needs three root canals but probably too expensive.

I heard that shackles are going to be introduced at the prison and that the bitterness about the violence amongst all inmates not only escapees is very high.