My summer of furious thespian activity has now officially begun, and I am back in Cambridge ready to start rehearsals tomorrow morning. This evening was spent making vague acquaintance with the other members of the cast, aided of course by alcohol and pizza. The weeks ahead consist of a fortnights rehearsal before a long train journey north for the four week run in Edinburgh. I’m not quite sure what to expect from the show, a new piece of writing premiered earlier this year, but I understand my character is ‘evil and scheming’. I’ve never played a villain before, so that ought to be fun.

The show is an operetta written in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan, meaning it is cheesy and corny in the extreme, with a pun rate far in excess of safe levels. I heard mixed reports of it’s first run, and didn’t see it myself, but it ought to be entertaining if not taken too seriously. Time will tell how it is received at the festival, but they’ve got an excellent production team who have been working hard on the script, so fingers crossed for critical acclaim. Maybe. It’ll be fun to perform, anyway!

This is my first post from my phone where I can’t check it gets through ok, so I’d appreciate a comment to reassure me everything’s gone smoothly. All comments get emailed straight to my phone, so feel free to tell me how much you’re enjoying my pearls of wisdom throughout the summer (though I unfortunately can’t reply). Right now I must go to bed, since rehearsals start bright and early tomorrow. Oh, and one last thing. For some annoying reason the posts via email all claim to have been sent an hour before they in fact were, so it is actually later than it seems. Midnight still isn’t particularly late, but it’s been a long, hard day. I just can’t keep up the frenetic pace of my youth…