>Some writing done on the play for Birmingham Rep. Good. Some useful stuff as well – you know how it is when it goes off at a tangent, or you find a detail that doesn’t quite fit. I love that. Thinking through doing I suppose.
I read Scenes From The Back of Beyond by Meredith Oakes which is on at The Royal Court Upstairs. It has received a bad review in The Standard (spit) but has been eloquently defended by David Eldridge. I haven’t seen the play, but from a reading I’d have to say that David sounds spot on. The review is one of those that lays into a play for not being the play the critic wants to see, but is nothing to do with what the writer is trying to do (a clumsy sentence – how to phrase it better?).
Also, as this is a writing day, I managed to clean out the bit of the loft the electrican will need to work in when he comes on Thursday. We found a wasps nest – luckily empty. The best writing days seem to encompass and celebrate the displacement activities that usually make you feel guilty and worthless.
Tomorrow is a Birmingham teaching day – leave home at 6am, back by 9pm if all goes well. Tuesday will be exciting (for me) because of the radio play (see below), and the new shed is being delivered. We’ve gone for a metal shed because they’re easier to build and they don’t burn down (next door has an arson attack on their back garden a few weeks ago). It does look like a metal shed though and you can beak in with a tin-opener.
Lance Woodman 