I am fascinated by the amount of excellent graffitti that I see around the place. It's becoming something of an obsession. This from Frankfurt. Which proved to be a great little break.

Until I arrived back to discover that two of my actors hadn't turned up to rehearsal again. It's quite fascinating. I have emailed them both numerous times, phoned them even more numerous times, giving them every opportunity for get out under the sun. But still no word, no call, no text. And still the non-appearance. Mesmerised by the rudeness. I should be tolerant. Maybe a horrible accident has befallen (both of) them. But it is nonetheless exasperating.

So proceed again with recasting. Now we have resorted to an open call for auditionees which I had been struggling to avoid as I didn't want to seem desperate. Surely, I felt, I am more organised than someone who would resort to a desperate last minute call for actors. Still, 6 weeks to go and I have to shelve my pride. A sorry downward slide into begging.

We have elicited some responses already. I think I have an excellent replacement for one of the disappeared. I'm struggling a little more for the other. Oh, and I potentially have another who at least has had the courtesy to indicate that he might pull out. But I need to try and replace him too. I feel like a hamster in one of those endlessly spinning wheels.

But then on the other hand, the actors I do have are getting pretty good. I had a rehearsal on Tuesday - only last night in fact - with the two singers, with Simon and Grusha. And that was lovely as we had rather more time to play about with things.

I realised that a kind of non-time-wasting mania always seems to grip me as soon as I have more than about 6 actors in a room at once. So we rattle through scenes and I despatch people home with a ruthless efficiency once they're done. So I maybe need to allow a little more play time. Still, books down in a couple of weeks. Plenty of time to play then.

But it's all blocked. For those that have been there at any rate. Just need some actors now. Give me a shout if you're interested.