This was my first play back at SLT after returning from London. The most positive response to a job application I got whilst there was from the Leeds Royal Armouries, who said that if I'd had more acting experience, I'd have got the job - so this was it.
After a First Night From Hell, things rapidly improved over the course of the week.

It was very cold in the theatre during the production of this classic thriller, which wasn't the play that was originally going to be on at this time. I had to rig up the lights so that the gaslights went up and down at the same time as the fresnels I had covering them. I also had to make the rig and lighting plan simple enough to be followed by someone else, because the last couple of nights of the run co-incided with the Hogswatch Barbecue Meet, which I had already said I would be going to before I knew the production had changed.

This moderately funny comedy set in a gentleman's rest home in Surrey in the mid-80s ran the week after Redemption, so I wasn't there for the final few rehearsals (including the dress). I had booked Redemption last Easter, and I had warned the producer I would be unavailable that weekend when I was first asked whether I could do lights. It was a very simple setup - basically the same as for Gaslight (well, even the set was the same), but without all the yellow filters or ingenious doubling. I wonder if Sir Terry Pratchett has seen it, as it touches on things like encroaching dementia/senility.

The director wanted me for the part of Charley from the very beginning. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to say whether or not I'd be able to do it, as I had a job interview in Newcastle in the first week of rehearsals, and I was kept waiting for two weeks past when they said they'd notify me as to whether I got the job or not. I went to rehearsals anyway, which is just as well, because it turned out I didn't get the job. Rehearsals proceeded reasonably well, but things were still patchy a week before the play. Then a few days before, things just seemed to come together. Until the final dress rehearsal, when David lost it a bit more than usual. But everything got back on track for the performance, and I didn't get a single prompt (except on Thursday, when David got completely lost, and I was prompted to try and get him back on track, but he took the prompt as his line). A rather fun play, but would have been better if it hadn't been so bloody hot!