First real rehearsal on Sunday night with a select two members of the cast. And how very exciting to properly start getting my teeth into it.

Obligingly, practical stuff is starting to fall into place. My scripts, rather importantly, turned up this morning. The venue, at last, got back in touch and said we could meet to talk about practical things. Jon very kindly snapped us some soulful looking pictures of Shirley / Antigone in last night's torrential rain. It's amazing how much easier it is to consider supporting things like props and music and the like once rehearsals have actually begun. I'm no DG, that is sadly for sure.

But many people (or maybe even all people) seem hopelessly enthusiastic. Various people have read various online reviews of various productions. Jacques / Creon has read the trilogy of stories of which Antig apparently forms a part. Clearly I should know all this stuff but I do not. He's also read a Penguin version and the beautifully written but turgid and impenetrable Seamus Heaney take on the story. Burial at Thebes if you're tempted. Shirley / Antig has outdone even that as she is reading a book about the history and tradition of myths to understand where Antig fits.

I feel slightly out-read again with only my multiple script copies to show for my labours. Shoddy slapdash director strikes again.