Iain Cameron's Diary
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2002-10-21 - 9:20 a.m.

Phhew � I have a band for the WATCH gig � French Horn, Clarinet and Keybds � plus whatever I may do � probably some mix of flute, Dhorn and guitars. Now it�s a matter of getting the parts together for some eight numbers. Maybe I will write an into � its possible that there may be two clarinets as well. I have also started the revenue generation process for Cleveland�s recital. �50 so far which will do for a start.

Last night�s play was by April De Angelis � A Laughing Matter. We went partly because we hand seen Caroline who lives next door acting in Playhouse Creatures by A De A and we had thought that the play was good � as well as C�s contribution. The author clearly has a good knowledge of the changing social situation of English theatre in C17 and C18. Creatures is set around the Restoration and looks at the marginal status of actresses. ALM continues the story in that it is about the career of David Garrick who took theatre to new levels of esteem and respectability. The issue is whether Goldsmith�s She Stoops To Conquer is going to be mounted by Garrick in his almost last year as actor-manager before retiring. The concern is that the play is not morally elevating and virtue is not rewarded. In the first scene Goldsmith, Dr Johnson, Joshua Reynolds and Edmund Burke are dining and debating in a pub in Drury Lane. To be honest that was another reason I went having spent a fair amount of time drinking playing bebop and maybe arguing a little in a pub in Drury lane during the 1970s and early 80s.

There is a theory that �modernism� dominated theatre more than any other medium � especially more than poetry. This play is obviously post � in that it starts naturalistically and then crashes into flashback without any warning before shifting quite rapidly into high farce. So it is a play which explores the past nature of the medium and some fundamental questions about the essence of the medium, while playing with genre and also being extremely funny at the same time. It should do very well.

I have put quite a lot of material down for Gilbert to play around with to see if anything catches his fancy. Possibly too much � we�ll see.

Vita and I went out and bought a new TV and DVD � something she has been lobbying for for months and months. We tried to buy a package from Dixons but it turned out that all the elements of the package weren�t available . This is not the first time we have had this trouble � anyway lets hope the hybrid package we ended up with isn�t any different in functional terms.

James and Yvonne have gone to Brighton for the day to find out more about his Moscow venture.

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