and so it begins....

This year, well technically next year, but...this year I am directing the Slip of the Tongue Shakespeare at the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival.We're doing The Tempest, 'cos it's one of my favourites and that's as good a reason as any, right?

It's going to have a broken down old circusy (it's a word spellcheck, leave me alone!) kind of feel...strings of lights...yellowed lace...red tail coat and the like, crossed with a steampunk thing going on for the shipwrecked ones. Well, that's the idea anyway.

I have already had my first fail. My Oxford Shakespeare was too fat for the copy machine so I had to be rescued by a man who, by the end of this process, is going to be more than deserving of a nice bottle of thank you whiskey from me.

This weekend is the first read through... it begins...