Saturday on stage was the most challenging because of Cocaine and Alcohol his girlfriend. As if watching TV they sat on the front row and talked at me in a stoned slurr from the opening curtains until the interval.He was dressed like a cross between a gangster and a telly tubby with tilted trilby and his slouched girlfriend had red wine stains down her white dress: an apt metaphor as they were a loud car crash on the winding road of my play.
Neither returned for the second half leaving a sort of post crash silence in the audience. On leaving the theatre he shouted at me from the bar “I didn’t understand the play man. Your books are better. You used to be good. I read you when I was a kid. No really. You were.” His was wrecked. I could have punched him had he not been on crutches. Later I am told that he is some kind of well known poet.
But the next day, the Sunday Matinee was the most brilliant stage work of the week. There was virtually no audience and a summer storm broke in the middle of the play. It couldn’t have been better timed After the applause at the end of the play I decided on a Q and A. “It is as important to perform to my utmost capability in front of low numbers as it is to high.” I said. “we had something very special on this stome ladened afternoon”
The Q and A was incredible! I am afraid I have never defined my self esteem by audience figures. Robert the press officer told me afterwards that fifty percent of the audience were reviewers from major national newspapers! I tell this to Le Journaliste in London and she says every audience member, wherever they are from, is a reviewer! Every audience member is a reviewer from the most influential newspaper on earth called Word of Mouth. It is syndicated and it's cross platform and respected by the working class and the aristocrat alike. Word.