Books down from the weekend so this week's rehearsals could've been a calamity. But instead, thanks in no small measure to a few wonderful people who learnt their lines some while ago, it's been almost fun.

Enhanced by pretty much word perfect children, enlivened by Claudius' Sunday we can't really be expected to do this without our scripts, can we? face, energised by the ever perky Cinna the Conspirator from Birmingham and his trusty sidekick, Ligarius and invigorated by Casca's repeated attempts tonight to describe how hence, he put three times the (not) crown away. 

The greater problem this week is absenteeism. Through no-one except the inclement autumn's fault, we were two down on Tuesday and six SIX down tonight. 

On the plus side, it meant we were treated to the delightful spectacle of Junior Caesar. 

We have ourselves a Caesar understudy.....