In which we battle through Strife.

Monday 29th October

Somewhat inadvisedly, I caught sight of my face in the bathroom mirror this morning and saw a sallow-faced Victorian undertaker looking back at me. My eyes are so tired that the lids appear to have swollen, whilst the areas directly beneath them have turned an unhealthy shade of greyish-blue (curiously enough, matching the seats in my car). Under the hard white light of your typical Travelodge bathroom is perhaps the very worst place to examine your own features unless you value an almost clinically detailed knowledge of every pock-mark and broken vein, and this unlooked for reacquaintance with my knackered visage served only to remind me that it's Hallowe'en in two days' time.

Monday morning in Camberley near Sandhurst. Damp, grey, miserable and we're doing Strife with thirty children, in a hall that's wider than it is long which means adopting a daring crescent-shaped stage. Sadly, the children they sent us had not the highest attention span, and Strife is a difficult show at the best of times. When it works it can be great, although I'm not terribly fond of it, but when the odds are against you as they were today, it can just turn into a trial. From my point of view, much of my morning is taken up with drilling the physical theatre component - ie. all the kids who don't have speaking parts - who in this show appear as a sort of chorus at intervals, physically illustrating the themes underpinning the story. Well, that's the theory. This lot couldn't have physically underpinned the tail on the donkey - no co-ordination, no sense of rhythm and not a great deal of interest in being there. To add to my complaints, my knee (from which, you will remember, a sizeable slice of cartillage was removed in August, and which so far has been healing nicely) is suffering as a result of my impromptu half-marathon around Cardiff on Saturday in my smart shoes (not ideal for fun-running), and this made the Jewish kletzmer dance in the play murder to perform.

To make up for the day, we found a very nice pub to have dinner in this evening, then for once, blessedly, I managed to get an early night.