Nettles

It was a long lazy start to the day which featured no fewer than two cups of tea and a bacon sandwich being brought to me in bed.

There were also a few text messages flying around with Father’s Day wishes along with the same for the birthdays of my father and brother in law.

My head was swimming a little as the play closed last night. The culmination of almost five months work of memorising so many lines of dialogue was reached over four nights. The audiences have been small, but perfectly formed and for the most the play seems to have been well received. 

I was pretty happy with my efforts, but for me the Thursday night was the most special. Maybe it was because my children were all watching or we were just in the flow, I don’t know, but in the key crucial, moving moments, I felt like I was able to reach down into the nettles of my soul to tear out a handful of them and bring them to the surface. Never been able to do that on stage before, and it wasn’t something that I was able to recapture over the final two performances, but that Thursday night will stay with me and serve as a welcome reminder of why I devote myself to such a ridiculous, time-consuming hobby.

The wee ones were back with me from midday, so we headed into a largely empty town where I spent my gifted book token and treated us all to a hot chocolate. As we were walking back we discussed the play and the themes and whether or not they considered my character a “bad person” - they didn’t, but agreed that he was deeply flawed and selfish.

Later on we collected my parents and met my sister and her family at a pub in Levens for a delicious late lunch/early tea. My sister and I, exhausted from the week’s drama almost fell asleep on each other’s shoulders, but lasted the afternoon and were briefly galvanised with a post-meal brew back at the parents.

It’s going to be quite the come-down signing back onto work tomorrow.

Happy Father’s Day, all and as ever, big hugs to those for whom this is a difficult day.

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