So I arrived in Cape Town early on Wednesday morning, last week, for the opening of Dirt - which Nick wrote and James acts in - at the Kalk Bay Theatre... James collected me from the airport in his new super cool super outrageous seeing glasses - which I spent about 30 mins trying not to stare at them to work out if they were seeing glasses or sunglasses... or both... until eventually he said... so these are my actual seeing glasses... Yes. Quite. James is fantastically bizarre and that's one of the many reasons why we love him. James is also the only actor - or person for that matter - who arrives at my house at 4am to pack the car for the Grahamstown Arts Festival dressed like MacGyver... yellow army pants, Swiss army knife housed in what looked like a tool belt, and a head lamp... yes... a head lamp... on his head. But I'm talking about Cape Town. Right. So opening night... what a ride as always... We spend hours in the day rehearsing with the lights, props and music... After a fab intro from Simon Cooper...
Fade to Black and... go track... Error! Er... okay... eject CD... and go... Erroooor... eject CD... GO... ERROR... change CD - to old one with music transitions that are too short - Go track... Phew! Theatre. Really. That's perhaps why we love it.
So besides not having enough music to fully cover the blackouts > a few misplaced props > the odd late cue > a dropped line here and there >>> we got a standing ovation - followed by a whack of fab reviews. Cape Argus gave us 5 stars and said Nick's writing was brilliant - The Sunday Times said James is a genius and gave him a massive pic.... looking fantastic!
Yes this is the picture. How rad?
I also met super brilliant Director Lara Bye at the opening... And I think I gushed. Well I know I gushed. All over the place. But so would you if you'd seen 'London Road' and 'I Claudia.' What's that little puddle on the floor? Oh right it's me... Blind. I think.
Yes this is the picture. How rad? 
