Displacement activities
how to fill time without doing what you need to be doing
I know, I know, I should be writing a considered note. Flexing my creative muscles, teasing them into shape and keeping them toned. But I’m locked. Locked in a spiral of inconsequential activities. As you’ll see at the end of this piece, there are some truly fun ways to fill your time when you really ought to be doing something else.
The something else is Previously Loved. My play that opens at Alnwick Playhouse in just under four weeks’ time and potters around North Northumberland for a few nights to Chatton, Etal and Berwick (Spittal).
We’ve hit the ‘complete run through’ landmark in rehearsals, ticket sales are motoring, logistics are tricky but not insurmountable, cast and crew are taking it in turns to be ill - plus ça change. All is calm.
Who am I trying to kid? It’s absolutely terrifying.
There are lines to be learnt (I’ve written about that before here) which is strangely debilitating. You know you have to sit down and get on with it, but you’re weirdly resistant. Plus there’s other stuff…
The play’s set in a charity shop and props and paraphernalia are paramount. There’s transport to be organised to shift everything between venues. Talking of venues, each of the four venues is differently configured - a nerve-jangling fact. We’re all still wrestling with the order of the scenes, without having to manage different entrances and exits every night! There’s promotion and ticket sales to organise - it’s always a little uncomfortable pumping the volume of you’re own work. But I am proud of this play... and how else will the fab cast get the audiences they’ve worked so hard for and deserve?
The cast are seriously amazing as is the director Cheryl Stewart and the stage manager Judy Tribe. It’s thrilling to see your work brought to life, to witness your words given nuance and meaning beyond what you realised you’d written, and to see the scenes you imagined live beyond mind and page.
So, instead of line learning and all the other things I’m worrying about but not ‘doing’, what have I been doing?
The Christmas cake isn’t quite the thing of beauty I’d intended. I’d just arranged a beautiful doily of almonds on top when I spotted the grated lemon and orange zest I’d forgotten to add during the mixing. What to do? I opted to put dollops of the zest on the top of the cake and poke it in with a fork. I’m sure a snowstorm of icing will cover the evidence. And, the proof of the pudding and all that.
So this week, whilst at the gym, or making beds, or walking, or messing up the Christmas cake, I’ve listened to BBC Sounds and relished a few other diversions. Here’s a few you might enjoy distracting yourself with.
This Cultural Life Bill Nighy - on the back of this listen, we watched the absurdist 2002 film Punch-drunk Love last night with Adam Sandler. It was quite unexpected.
Private Passions Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - surprisingly moving and insightful and a lovely range of music.
Drama on 4 The Goat Doctor - crazy and hilarious. A true tale of an American quack doctor who convinced a huge range of men that he could revive their sex lives by implanting goats’ testicles. By Graeme Garden of The Goodies fame.
Drama on 4 OK Boomer - a fun romp with a nice little sting.
Drama on 4 The Poor Olympics and the Flying Housewife - a brilliant listen. For me, radio drama at its best.
I’ve been continuing to read Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead - one or two chapters a night. It is so well-judged. Just when you think the grime and emotion will become too much (which it often did with, for example, Shuggie Bain) the layers of humour and wry observation lift you and compel you to find out what good old Demon will do (and what will be done to him) next.
The Husband and I have completed the current series of Only Murders in the Building (Disney+) - not my fave series tbh… might give the next one a miss (particularly since the youngest daughter is threatening to end her Disney+ subscription); we’ve binge-watched (and loved) Nobody Wants This (Netflix). I have also secretly watched the most recent set of Selling Sunset (Netflix) - don’t ever go there, it’s wrong on so many levels. We also watched Ludwig (BBC) and are already looking forward to a new series when it’s made.
All this interspersed with displacement Bananagrams.
What does your week look like when you should be doing something else?
Till next time
