Mistakes

Tuesday 4 December

After a talk about the company history, Reckless Sleepers do a work in progress of The Pilots for BA Theatre Arts students from New College Nottingham. It is a very different experience. We do the technical set up with an audience. Mole takes down a light. I plug in a laptop to play the music but forget to check if it's on mute. We don't check the levels of the mics or even if they're switched on. Again the audience are talking as Tim starts the show. One of the students turns to me and says 'Has it started yet?' There are so many accidents. It feels unready. Unsteady. Underprepared. There is a moment when Tim forgets to turn on Space Oddity but Mole waits until he finishes the sound check before asking him to start it again but this time with the music. He starts again and plays the music but nothing comes out because I forgot to turn off the mute. Mole says 'Sorry. Can we do that again? Honestly that was a mistake. That wasn't supposed to happen.' When Mole goes out for his Dr Zhivago walk he forgets to start the Dr Zhivago soundtrack. When he comes back bringing with him the smell of cigarette smoke he says 'I forgot to start the music'. After the show the students say they never doubted any of it was a mistake. Can we make any more mistakes?