New material night

We tried out some new material last night. Was a bit of a strange one, it was co-organised by a comedian friend who pulled out during the week, the venue got changed at a week's notice due to a double booking and we also lost an actress for the show during the week due to a sickness bug. Still, a handful of friends kindly turned up to watch Vaughan, Kev, Izzy and Heather bash through my work - I'm grateful for those who did make it, although concerned that for friends such as Audrey, Michael and Olivia especially this was their first time watching a Paul Richards play it was by far one of the worst things I've ever done, hope they come back to a more polished effort. It was a long night, I didn't realise I'd written so much - we tried out five plays, four new, and a re-write of one of my favourite older pieces. They were 'shorts', but boy did they drag... 'Toxic Tornado' - the first piece, did work, if we can get the timing right on that and add a punchline I can do more with this one. 'What Will You Have Me Do?' - the second piece, was long and didn't go anywhere, I felt sorry for everyone in the room - just because it's named after a David Ford song it doesn't mean it's any good. 'My Life In C Minor' bounced along nicely - it was only about five minutes long, but got all the laughs - Heather was outstanding in this, I think this could end up being a short film. We then tried a re-write of my favourite and arguably most successful piece, 'Letters To Sparkle', which I've had for a few years now. I put this in because I wanted to try out a few ideas for it, and also because I was worried about the new material so wanted to throw something in that I knew would work - it did, it was by far the strongest piece of the night, as predicted. 'When Jimmy Became James' - an idea I've had for years about a nervous boxer, dragged, although the romantic ending (aided by a Randy Newman song) saved it, and I really like the punchline - that play didn't work on the night, but can do with a bit of cutting/tweaking.

Wasn't a total disaster then, but a really long show, I even mouthed 'sorry' at one person in the audience who seemed to be drifting. The actors were, as always, fantastic, I appreciate them a lot and am keen to reward them with a really strong Christmas production. My mate Alan reckoned it had a "60% hit rate", he was too kind. Still, it's healthy to keep the brain active - I've effectively written four plays in 9 days, but must learn that sometimes things should be left to mature rather than going public with them straight away. I should have learnt this years ago, really.

After the theatre my friend Rohan Leach performed a beautiful piece on the Bawu which everyone (including myself - I was on experimental percussion for him) loved, a quality end to a mediocre evening.