Writing the solo show

Last week I finally nailed the script for my completely solo show, Things Could Be Marvellous. I've often billed my recent tour show, Some Plays By Paul Richards, as being 'solo-ish' - for it's largely just me on stage, but with that show the little scenes where the actress (in the second tour and for the forthcoming fringe run, Hind Shubber) enters it's my benchmark in the play, a chance to get back on track if things are getting a bit wobbly. Which they do, quite often, but nobody notices. Ever. But now; completely solo - nobody to stop me spiralling off on a tangent, nobody to be my wingman/woman if it just isn't working. It's tough writing a solo show, hence why it's been so close to the fringe before actually nailing a decent draft of it (that, and the fact I agreed to the show only a few weeks back, and that I've been gigging/recording/rehearsing like a possessed man recently), but I'm really happy with the script now. It's a solo show - but definitely not stand-up, it's a theatre piece - but definitely not theatrical. My fear is losing the audience half way through, it's a danger when there's only the one voice for nearly an hour...the chances are I'd get bored of watching me for an hour. The story itself tells two connecting tales, running simultaneously. Different scenes are told from different areas of the stage, Britpop music showers the piece and I play a couple songs on the keyboard. There's (intentionally) bad drawings, there's quite a bit of shouting. It's an ambitious piece of writing, it could be my finest hour (okay, 50 minutes), but could easily be a shambles...but it's completely in my hands, all of it, nobody else to blame.

Now I just need to learn it - it's 50 minutes of dialogue, ahead of the friends/family invite performance next Wednesday (it opens at the Edinburgh Fringe 4 days later). I could really do with learning my lines for Redundancy Club, that opens in Cambridge this Friday.This week I'm performing plays 7 times, I'm playing 5 gigs and I'm moving house.  I know I leave things till the last minute, I have something of a reputation for doing so and I get a strange buzz out of it, but even by my standards I know I'm pushing it a bit. I could do with a rest, a nap would be nice. He says, booking a post-fringe UK tour...