Run-through in "performance conditions" last night, i.e. we weren't allowed to shout for our lines if we forgot what to say.

So all the other conditions were entirely the same. Same row of tired looking people sitting watching us. Same drafty church hall with the floor covered in blue tape, odd arrangements of fake flowers on the windowsills and the sunlight streaming through the windows.

But somehow the thought that you won't get a prompt if your head empties of the lines makes all the difference in the world. Or at least makes you a little extra jittery.

So of course a thousand small mistakes result. But maybe this is just the stuff of being an actor.