Well it's happened! The press night was wonderful. Free glasses of cava all round, with some fab food and a great show. The place was pretty full and the actors rose to the occasion, so now it's just a case of waiting for the reviews to come out. Let's hope they will be kind.
Stratford-on-Avon also went really well, although the performance space is much more challenging. However, The audience absolutely loved it, and there were people standing to applaud at the end, so I think it was OK!
The journey to this point has been rocky, to say the least. Poor Dipo Katimba had her visa refused, so we were challenged at the very start, having to replace her with a UK based actress. Angella Ching'amba, who played Lady M in my African Macbeth, and Titania in An African Dream and is now based in Nottingham, stepped into the breach. This was great, because she was also a member of the team at the start of this project, developing and performing in After Mikuyu back in 2006.
In the mean time, I discovered that Misheck, who is playing Jack Mapanje, was committed to another project, and had performances booked right up to the day before we were due to open in Stratford. Some internet diplomacy ensued and we managed to get them to agree to release him a little early, to give us three full days of rehearsal before opening the show.
The next thing was having to find extra money when Nanzikambe's promised funding was delayed. Air tickets had to be bought whether the funds were in or not! So some borrowing from Peter to pay Paul was organised ...
So the project was still on! Hurrah! And then ... seven of the actors missed their flight. For a while there it was touch and go but after a day which took more than three years off my life, a plane took off from Kamuzu International Airport with all seven of them on board. It seems that Mphundu has a golden tongue and talked them into changing the flights at no extra cost. A miracle! But when they arrived their katundu (luggage and stuff) didn't. It was still in Addis Ababa. So we had the actors, but not the set or costumes.
So all in all, it's completely amazing that we have a show - and not just a show, a good show. Which just goes to show that Malawian performers are resilient, resourceful and pretty fabulous. Second night in London tonight ... fingers crossed.
