Still tinkering in the theatre. We meet at 4.30 notes at 5. Youth clubs occupying most rooms so we meet in this small changing room at the back.. all 25 of us.
Feels good. Everyone focussed, wanting notes, trying to resolve technical problems together regarding microphones and scene changes.
Tonight’s preview is for families of the cast. Not that full at first but two thirds or so by the interval. Hopeless start. I give Beru the nod. He dims the houselights and no one comes on. Try again I say so he puts the houselights up and as he does so, Albert comes on. Cleverly he pretends to be looking for a prop near the band area. I am fffing and blinding by now. We start again. Blackout. Beru brings up the wrong lighting cue and so now we have actors standing in darkness. Straight out of Michael Frayn’s play Noises Off! That great moment when in the film version Michael Caine the director walks back stage and says What the f*** is going on? as stage management give the three minute call followed by the minute call followed by the five minute call.
But from then on it is magic. OK some mistakes but the audience really attentive and I hear all around me the comment ‘Ple ia I tough tumas’ which for Vanuatu is the equivalent of a 5 star rating in the Guardian! A girl who was one of the first to come to the youth centre when it opened four years ago said to Jo afterwards. ‘I am a young person. This play speaks to me. It’s perfect.’ Only 3 more previews and 20 performances to go!
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