Long, long rehearsals at the moment for Medea, and with every day, a change, whether it be in designing the light, the set, or, however implausibly, the cast. Despite the panics and concerns, I still remain very confident about the end product. I have a great cast and crew, a collection of people who are sensitive and emphatic to the needs of each other and are aways supportive. There have been a good few times, I don't mind admitting (well, come on, it's not like anyone's really reading this yet) that I haven't really known what the solution was to a particular problem scene. But I've always felt comfortable that my cast were able (and confident) to wait patiently while I sorted through a few possibilties, some of them clearly insane and unworkable, and at least a few that I doggedly stuck with for more than a few rehearsals, before coming up with the solution that worked. Which, in more than a few cases, was the idea that one of the cast had gently suggested in the first place.

Anyway, we're hurtling toward production week, and the first night is on 16th - just over a week away. Last time I checked, the last night had already sold out, and the Tuesday was down to just one ticket left. You can check up on the current sales here: http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/newventuretheatre. There's at least a chance that we might be able to release extra tickets closer to the time, but no promises.

All of which means that I didn't get much of a chance to see a great deal of the Brighton Festivals this year, which is a real shame - at the very least, I wanted to check out the new pop-up venue The Warren, which by all accounts was a lovely edfringe type place, and of course ended up winning a Latest7 award for best venue. In fact, the main thing I saw over the fringe was a production of 'Antigone', in which the audience mainly consisted of cast members of Medea having something of a busman's holiday. While it had merit, I found that I much preferred a production from years ago, back in Croydon, directed by Richard Vincent, and featuring Holly Sullivan in the title role. I'd love to tell you that my bias was just that - bias, blended in with a healthy degree of nostaglia, but I think the earlier production really was the better one. Although one of my clearest memories of that production was my mother in the audience, panicking throughout the evening that I'd been beaten up. Somehow, she hadn't cottoned onto the fact that I was playing a blind seer, and the dark patches around my eyes were simply stage make-up, and not massive facial bruising.

In the meantime (as if I have meantime right now) I'm writing a ten minute play for the Brighton And Hove Arts Council for their 'People's Day' in mid-July (the day, in fact, that the Olympic Torch is carried through Brighton). It'll start rehearsing as soon as we get out of Medea - so, only for a week or two - and will be performed somewhere near Pavillion Gardens in Brighton on July 14th. If you have any interest in being involved as an actor, please get in touch. It will be a very quick turnaround - a few rehearsals on a few eveinings, and then one single performance. I've already had some interested parties get in touch, and while I sort out the actual characters, etc, it'll be good to know if there's any other interest from elsewhere.