Wed 11th Bar Las Delicias 11.30pm

An sitting outside. A group of guys have just left the table beside me. Big Latin hugs and cheek-kissing. Some girls from the flat across the road are calling out to them – ‘Che – con la bicycleta!’ The girls laugh at their cheek and the boys ignore them and walk off. My milanesa en dos panes arrives.

It’s a lovely night, but earlier it rained torrents. When F and I arrived at the rehearsal space, half the floor was flooded, rain dripping through the ceiling. Antonio, from the parking, had earlier told me that the weather was changing. Near where he lives the vineyards used to harvest the grapes in March. Now, because of the drier summers, they’re harvested in February. We watched the rain falling in torrents outside and he said it wouldn’t be enough.

F&I worked through his speeches. I asked him to do an exercise acting out the images in his speeches (processed cheese/ mutants etc) and it failed spectacularly, so I got him to draw them instead, an that worked better. As he drew I tried to sweep the water off the floor, a Sisyphean task which made him laugh. We worked for three hours then took a break, going to watch the second half of the Man U – Inter match at 6.

Ana arrived at 7. The rain had stopped. We spent a second day working on 1. Ana did the scene throwing objects at JR for him to catch, with JR trying to regain control. Helped to concretise the humour and the moments JR tries to reassert his authority. At 9pm Cecilia, who’s doing wardrobe, arrived. She watched a run of the scene, the actors by now more or less off book. The run went OK. I think they all think I’m far too laid back, what with my ‘It’s fine, we’ve still got 6 weeks’, but am so far don’t see that we could be moving any faster, though am sure that might come back to haunt me. We finished at 10.45, latest so far.


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Of marginal note: the bus fare went up today, unexpectedly as far as I’m concerned, from 14 pesos to 15. Ie from about 45p to about 48p.

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