Is 45 minutes and max 3 actors easier or harder than 2 acts and a cast of ten?
Just different. Something i’ve only become aware of in the last couple of years is that limitations are strangely freeing. If I set my mind the puzzle of what it can’t do, it invariably comes up with some creative way of beating me! So, for example, with the Uncertainty Files, I made a piece for 3 actors playing 14 characters!
Should every play come with a complimentary pie and pint?
I’m keen on variation so I’d like to see a play a pasty and a pint (the south country tour); or a play a pasta and pint (the italian tour); or a play, a pastis and pint (the french tour where we all get maroculous).
What is more scary, contemplating a blank sheet of paper, contemplating a deadline or contemplating the audience at the first performance?
All three are a challenge in their own way: the blank sheet of paper (or screen) always demands something new, it won’t tolerate same old same old. The deadline, especially when the show is already programmed is at once scary and exciting but with an inflexibility that reminds me of those terrible moments at school when you knew you were going to get the strap and there was nothing you could do except hold out your hand and wince. And the audience because no matter how much confidence i have in a piece I spend that first performance quivering.
In three words how do you feel about about the critics?
Medium rare, please.
Do you agree with Thomas Edison that “Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration” ?
I think he was talking about lightbulbs! I’m more of a fan of Vilfredo Pareto’s 80:20 principle.