I keep having panic dreams about the show.

At the weekend, I dreamt that we assembled a choir but it was ramshackle, awful - and oddly (but now awfully) I was very happy to find Alan Richardson joining it. (That will mean something to only 50% of my readership.)

Last night, I dreamt that work "gave me the opportunity" (told me I had) to come up with a show about World War Two that could be performed as the dramatic climax to a full day of festivities. It was a very detailed dream and, before I woke, I figured out an excellent site-specific solution. But it was very alarming at the time. 

Roll on the start of rehearsals. 

So I think I have a bit of a cast which is exciting. 

For obscure and not even clear to me reasons, I find it hard to keep track of them all. There is some doubling which I guess muddies the waters.

But we seem to have ended up with seventeen 'actors' who may also sing and a bonus three people to swell the ranks of the choir. 

It's been as shoogly as casting a big show always is. And the rehearsal schedule is even more of a nightmare. But it's filling up my otherwise dull February nights so for that, I should certainly be grateful.

Now I'm frantically reading because I'm terrified that the actors (or singers) will ask me a complicated historical question that I can't answer. This was great fun though he necessarily only devoted about four pages to Joan. I felt compelled (interested enough)  to read the whole thing nonetheless. 

And then I have Caitlin to thank for podcasts. How Do You Explain Joan of Arc? was great fun and nicely potted.  Ive just started a terrifying thing which consists of four episodes that are two hours long each. I wonder how long this would be in book terms. Anyway, the guy has just considerately explained to me why the French persist in calling their princes dolphins (dauphins). This has been puzzling me for a long time so for that alone, I am hooked and endebted.

Manipulate this week.

This was wonderfully fantastic. 

Then I expected to love this and didn't quite. Maybe the clue's in the picture. 

But don't let that put you off going to see many other wonderful things. The photos up in the Trav foyer look great. 

A huge portion of the reason why I now blog so sporadically is because I can no longer use the app on my phone for some reason. It's too "old", I expect. So this morning, for example, bus to work, laptop on my lap, one glove on and the other - an ice block - tapping away like a pincer. Much of the countery is beset by snow. We just have ice and minus temperatures. So far.

Anyway, Oscar season approaches so the cinemas are spoilt. I loved Stan and Ollie. I saw The Favourite last night and can see why Olivia got the prize. It looks gorgeous and is funny and surprising but I do not see what would draw someone to put all the effort into making it. I'm still debating Mary Queen of Scots.

And this, though not cinema, is incredible.