Public Parts

We had a public online review yesterday which remarked that the actors "wander on at the beginning, looking bored and chatting" or words to that effect. It was very positive, mind you, and clearly thought that the preamble was deliberately contrived like that to provide a counterpoint to the rather serious subject matter of the drama.
Like kids, punters tend to cut to the chase with their assessments. Matt and I ran into a man just after the Oldham Wednesday matinee who said he'd see then show, but was rather lost what to say next. He settled for "I liked it more than I thought I would" which leaves you wondering why he went in the first place. And in Huddersfield open market a man said "You were one of the horses, weren't you? The one with the limp?" which suggests that my portrayal of Frank wasn't all it might have been that day.
It was here in Oldham that I made the mistake of reading the audience comment book during "Beauty Queen". There was an entry (also after the matinee) which said "Wonderful. Steve Dineen = English accent!!" which threw me into a maelstrom of self-doubt. If only it had been punctuated differently...

No Coli Wobbles

Last time I was in Oldham I was smooching it up as Pato Dooley, acting opposite the lovely Carol Dance, who plays Hester in "Equus". Back then they had closed the rail station (hilariously called The Mumps, I have no idea why) and there was all sorts of civil engineering and regeneration going on. And guess what? There still is. There's little discernible improvement in three years, and if the billboards are to be believed, there won't be before 2014. Things have bitten hard up here.
Yet despite this (and despite the local area resembling a demilitarised zone on a Saturday night) the Coliseum rides this out with relish. They just had a considerable hike in funding, there's a refurb just starting, the houses were fantastic and the response superb. Kevin Shaw needs to watch out he doesn't get poached by, oooh, England Rugby? The UN?