Old Boys

Well, despite the fact that Hampstead have not yet learned that both words in a title should start with capital letters, and that they got the name of one of my characters wrong in the programme, and that, come to think of it, the programme itself would have looked more appropriate at a Year 7 school concert (and it was photocopied wonkily), Old Boys was actually wonderfully good and left me far too bouncy for a Wednesday evening. I realise I had far too little faith in the whole thing, and took Hampstead's complete lack of organisation and my director's lack of interest as some sort of sign that the whole thing would be a complete and utter disaster. It wasn't. I am now coming down from my egotistical, luvvie high, fresh from dreams of an audience (a small one, but an audience nonetheless) laughing at jokes that I'd written! I was feeling sweetly proud that I'd written a group of characters that bounced off one another so seamlessly, and was lucky to have actors good enough to play them. They all deserve a mention (actually they all deserve an Oscar and a medal for putting up with the sheer rubbishness of the whole project, but as these are not easily accessible, a mention on my esteemed blog will have to do...)

To Aki, who played James, I owe a huge apology. He doesn't have much acting experience and didn't get that much support from our "director" either, and I was convinced he wouldn't learn his lines. But he did and he was FANTASTIC! Chilled, confident and the right side of cocky, my "Bengali Fonz" made my lead character, and I owe him for that.

Ben, playing Daniel, probably got more laughs than anyone and has impeccable comic timing and (unlike my director) was able to grasp then run with the concept of irony.

Charlie eptitomised the Arrogant Public Schoolboy so well that for a moment I thought I was back at the door of the prefect's common room, not daring to go in for fear that they would notice I had a slight Lancashire accent and was wearing a suit from George Asda. I'm relieved to say he was acting, and is actually a lovely bloke, but it got us a lot of laughs.

Lorraine had a slightly boring part in Eleanor, which I felt a bit guilty about, but she made it interesting by playing her slightly the worse for wear towards the end, which she pulled off beautifully. I wish I'd thought of that... I'll make sure I write her a bigger part next time.

Leila - the actress who my director rudely commented should count herself lucky she hadn't been referred to simply as "Oi, you!" was also brilliant, and my mate Helen's favourite. I'm relieved about this, too, since her role is pivotal in the whole thing (it's her who "moves on" at the end, apparently sacked but possibly after seeing the light and getting the hell out of there, it's deliberately ambiguous) but not especially interesting. She played the innocent, hard-working underdog beautifully and it's really down to Leila that the office dynamic came across so well.

Aimee played Annabel, which was possibly one of the most fun characters in the whole thing (not least because she gets to give Oliver a good slap at the end, though this bit was unfortunately not rehearsed because by this point the director had "given up directing" and frankly it showed) and put me in mind of someone I used to work with at the LSE, that is to say, she made it as accurate a portrayal as was humanly possible. I also have great respect for someone who can sit on the edge of a set happily miming away while other characters babble on around her.

And Jo - Jo Wilde should be the next big thing. I cannot sing Jo's praises enough. She is the most professional, versatile of actresses and inadvertantly found herself covering as director half the time. Without meaning to sound too much like a Metro theatre reviewer, Jo positively sparkled. She managed to do bossy, sexy, withering and manic all in one half-hour show (and sometimes all at the same time!) She is responsible for me not hurling myself off the nearest bridge as she had her lines pretty much sewn up well over a week ago, and last night was able to cover when another of the actors forgot a couple of lines so convincingly that only we could have noticed. Melody is probably my favourite character from any of the plays I've written, but that probably made it even tougher for anypne playing her, particularly with the writer breathing down her neck for four weeks (and I am, according to my director, "extremely precious" when it comes to my writing. I'm so glad she enlightened me on this point.) Melody is the most important character, because if she isn't convincing, the others won't be either, however good they are. But she was brilliant and fantastic and wonderful, and, whereas there's been talk of going up to Edinburgh with this play next year, the non-precious part of me (if such a part exists) kind of hopes she will be doing something far more important by then.

My thanks also go out to the Chees'm, my loan supporter in the blog world, for hauling his ass all the way across London for the sake of thirty minutes of undirected, precious self-promotion.

The sun is shining, and the birds are singing (well, there aren't many birds in Clerkenwell, but the pigeons are sort of cooing, or whatever it is that pigeons do, so you get my point). It's a beautiful day, la vita e bella. Have a good one :-)

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