Things I will miss

Clustering alongside the balcony edge outside the venue on Victoria Street

Worrying about whether or not Jacques will lose his voice and not be able to scream so loud

The scream

Karen nibbling her way through rehearsals

Not worrying about whether or not Antigone will turn up

The soldier-lined opening of the play

The salutes

Being able to peer down at them all clustered in what passed for wings anxiously exchanging tales of misfortunes in the medium of sign language

Heather staring

Heather’s march across stage with the gun mid-Antigone / Ismene scene

The crowd scene

Ross’ “needless to say there was a certain panic in the air” amongst other great lines

Neil’s stiff little fingers

The Thom Dibdin lie to Jo about seeing the show on the Tuesday

Seeing my boys marching about in desert combat fatigues – very hot

Being able to call them my boys

Spending hours in the dead of night on edtwinge obsessing about our karma rating – even though it didn’t make the slightest bit of difference to anything

Wondering if Jacques might, once just once to please me, pay an aisle visit that second time

Jo’s speech about love

Brian who’s supposed to be in France walking into the theatre

Matt and Umi back from honeymoon that very day walking into the theatre

The girl who we’re not allowed to mention publicly in connection with the show being so superbly efficient and proactive and thinking ahead

Miriam patting the seat to show her mother where to sit

The late morning dash to the newsagent to see whether we’ve been reviewed

Jon’s accusing “you Creon you”

The blonde haired angel child sitting at his feet giving Creon the evil eye

The day the sound didn’t work. Thank god for father

Larry looking anxious

Looking down on the silent conferring in the wings about where Larry should go next

The night we had a lady in a wheelchair sat in the aisle and we (they!) had to navigate the stretcher through the gap

The night the evil kicking boot smashed the photo frame irreparably

Dressing in (mostly) black which I don’t normally do for fear people think I’m morbid (just in case they hadn’t realised already)

Lorraine: “Queen of Thebes. I never asked to be that”

People being turned away at the box office because we’re sold out

Siobhan’s delight at overhearing Germans declaring (in German) that they can’t get tickets because we’re whatever the German word for sold out is

The audience member who didn’t clap

The body bag fights

Gillian: the cleanest soldier ever

Jess: the foxiest soldier ever

Miriam grinning at her aunt in the audience

Sitting alongside my daddy in what passed for a lighting box

Being able to go and see another show afterwards

Hilary, the picture of a tragic heroine at the end of the play as the death count mounts

DJ Cam’s Twilight Zone during Jo “he thinks I want to ruin him because he is the king. Stupid fucker” speech (even if I’m in a distinct minority here)

Jacques in rehearsals being all terribly serious and shouty and angry and then laughing terribly when he forgot a line

Miriam flinging her arms around Gillian whenever she came off stage

Karen who learnt all of her lines in 4 days alongside a day job and preparation to climb Kilimanjaro

Oddly, Jo’s “whisper no prayers now”

The spotlight on the shrine at the end just before the curtain call

The facebook comment from someone saying they didn’t like the way the cast stared accusingly at them while they were trying to clap

The first pint in the pub afterwards

Things I won’t miss

Staggering out of bed at 8:30 this morning for the move out after the tiniest portion of post-after-show-party sleep. But at least it was quick