Two days after Five Minute Theatre was done, (one day after it aired), I held the first audition (sweep up) for Festen. Real auditions start on Thursday.

So I'm sucking up the script. Hoovering. Gobbling. He's such a great writer, Mr David Eldridge. I very much admire how he's grasped the nettle of the original film, condensed character and plot horror into something like an hour and a half and simultaneously managed to create something very funny.

(Which the film sort of does too but the laughs are mostly choked in slow misery so don't have quite the same cathartic properties.)

I'm aware that I should be studying the script, exploring nuances, character peccadillos, quirks. But I keep getting sucked in to the story and marvelling at his clever staging rather than having more intellectual thoughts.

It's not one of the most beautiful scripts I've ever worked with but man, it is elegant. I'm looking forward to diving in.