IN PRAISE OF THE WORTHY SCAFFOLD

It is hard to believe that over seven years have passed since Paul Hunter and I mounted this worthy scaffold (designed by Michael Vale) for the world premiere of My Perfect Mind. Just the other day I was contacted by Told by An Idiot to say that a festival in China had asked permission to screen the archive recording of the show for a group of academics on 30th September. To coincide with this, TBAI are planning to stream the recording again on their website for a week or so.

At a time when so many theatres throughout the world remain dark, I offer here a poem in grateful celebration of Theatre’s magic and in lively remembrance of My Perfect Mind. [To hear the audio version click Play.]

In Praise of the Worthy Scaffold

So calmly, clean, so well proportioned, waiting
This mood our stage expressed I seldom saw
We’re in our dressing rooms; it’s emanating
Some silent secret, something at the core
Of what we’ll do. The call ‘Beginners please’
Invites, commands, ‘Adopt a state of being’
Seized by the moment we in turn must seize.
Whether leading, following or fleeing,
‘Adopt a temperance’, the prince advised,
‘May give it smoothness’; princely paradox.
Whatever hurricanes we have devised
We’ll be legitimate, unorthodox.
Not deterred by such a contradiction
Harmonious dissonance was benediction.
We met upon this tilt, this cradle, this launch pad
Madness, Sanity, my Mother, Dad.
‘Beginners please’ – another start impends
‘Beginners’ then at last – the comedy ends.