Yesterday I performed The Customer in a windswept park in South London. To add to the atmosphere there was a brief but heavy shower 30 minutes before I was due to start. And when I saw windswept I really mean it, the forecast said that it was 20mph standard with gusts up to 42mph. Unsurprisingly the public was not great in numbers. The park-wide arts event, organised by Wandsworth Council, could potentially have been a very pleasant afternoon but as it was, it was a case of putting a brave face on it and soldiering through. Why is it that I have this sort of luck when performing outdoors? First Xiamen was unseasonably cold and gray, Portsmouth was damp and cool and now London inclement.
The one very positive thing to emerge from yesterday’s performance however was working with a new person (Jeremy) in the translator role and now having a second very competent person to call upon. He corrected my Chinese mistakes in a nice way which added something to the event. This inclines me believe that I should try to work with a live translator when performing in a theatre type space sometime. The subtitles are effective and they work as a strategy albeit a rather ‘cool’ one but there is also a good quality to the live voice. Hopefully I will find the opportunity.
I recently restarted language exchanges as I realise that if I do not continue with these I will slowly forget how to pronounce the script and it will become empty sounds. Besides, having got my foot in the door of the language, I want to now go further. That said, I will start work on a new project in mid-June so I will have to go easy on it.
