Thursday 19th May 2022

Woke around 0600 with a persistent tickly cough...got up at 0630 and downed a couple of pints of tea before it finally calmed down. Aki cooked me a breakfast and I did a couple of hours work at the computer before going back to bed...didn't really nod off, but it was very restful just lying there in the horizontal for an hour or so with the weight off of my feet. Aki cycled off to do some shopping for foodstuffs, and came back and cooked chicken with a garlic and lemon rub, which we ate with a nice salad, and a yoghurt and sardine sauce, would you believe. Spent the rest of the afternoon slowly warming up my voice, and going through lines before tonight's performance. Geoff, a retired Savills' director, coming with his wife, Sarah, tonight...all the way from Dorking...hope they are not the only members of tonight's audience! Drove over to Stoke Newington for 1815 and tried to get my voice going. It was slightly worse than last night, for some reason, so I had to manage the delivery through my facial resonators in an effort to take the pressure off the cords. Again, the tricky bit comes in the second half, as the energy needs upping while my energy saps! But got through it. Sangita (Maria) a bit all over the place with her lines tonight. A couple of hefty dries, but we stumbled through somehow. I tripped on the stage left rostra and fell backwards...thought I was going to send the table flying, but as luck would have it I landed on Sir Andrew Aguecheek...fortunately it's my drunk scene, so people seemed to think it was deliberate! Not as many in tonight as last night, and they were quiet, but they were enthusiastic in their appreciation at curtain call. I got downstairs to be told by the bar man that Geoff and Sarah had just left...I caught them up in the street. Gave them a lift to Finsbury Park station so they could begin their journey back to Dorking. They had really enjoyed it, and had fallen for the theatre, promising to come back in the future. Got home at 2345 and Aki ran me a bath...