Sustainability

39 performances in - and how does a company maintain: the energy, a commitment, the sanity; the intellectual, emotional and physical rigour; a discipline and a concentration; to sustain a fresh, tight, engaging experience for a new audience 60 times over?

I don't know! I wish I knew!

Perhaps it has something to do with a discipline of approach, a care, a respect (all loaded and complicated), an awareness and an understanding of something...

Thank goodness there is an abundance of this within the Beauty and the Beast company at South Hill Park this Yuletide.

But perhaps there should never be this number of consecutive performances: 60!

Perhaps the delicacy of the theatre experience is destroyed after a certain number of performances?

Perhaps we can't sustain this level of concentration, commitment, interest, awareness.

What if we can't?

Norman Wisdom once said: it is not about luck and being in the right place at the right time; it is endeavoring to be in the right place at the right time.