tuesday

I've been very useful today. So I give myself a point!

And we've got an awesome awesome Tuesday planned! (Since it is my last official day. OH. MY. F*CK.)

AEM and I are gonna get up at 7AM and go to town for breakfast. We've got a table for 8.30 at this place http://www.gordonramsay.com/bread-street/
And I'm so going to have eggs benedict. Ahhh, eggy B, my old friend. (And probably some pink grapefruit.)





Then we're meeting J. at the Barbican tube station around half 9 to go to the Barbican for the Rain Room installation.
Rain Room is a hundred square metre field of falling water through which it is possible to walk, trusting that a path can be navigated, without being drenched in the process.
http://random-international.com/work/rainroom/
It looks absolutely incredible. Apparently the queues are like crazy (3-4 hours) so we're getting there an hour and a half before it opens. We're going armed with boardgames (connect-4 and battleship which I love) and I'll need a can of Sprite I think.
And then AJ is joining us a bit later.

Once we've seen the Rain Room and got our minds blown to particles AEM and I have some errands to run, after which it's PANCAKE DAY!
Since it's Shrove Tuesay it's time for some Pancakes. For the 5th year in a row I'll be making the pancakes. The thing is I don't really like eating them, but gosh, do I love making them.
And then we're going to the cinema to see Django.

And then I'm going to sleep, think some good thoughts and not freak out.
I keep swinging from loving everything and everyone to being so scared and anxious to back to this total sentimental love again. It's much like a rollercoaster, honestly.

But this is where I have to give credit to the girls at home, E., the pretty one, K. for their unfaltering excitement at my return and being so positive. Otherwise I just couldn't go through with this. So I'm just taking a moment to be grateful.
And of course, A. who's like a brother, a sister, a pet, and a grandad all rolled into one.

Here's to shifting yourself.
All my love.
M.

robert lepage

Sometimes I just forget how brilliant some people are.
Like Robert Lepage. He must be "Maria's Inspirational Man no.100".
He's a theatre director/writer, actor, film director, installation artist and just an absolute genius. And I don't use this term very often.

He's from Quebec and was born in 1957. At the age of 5, he was diagnosed with alopecia, a rare disease which caused all his hair to fall off. As a teenager he struggled with depression, and then turned to drama classes to climb out of his protective, somewhat tortured shell.
And then from the age 25 onwards he has just been writing and putting on the most amazing theatre.

There are 3 reasons why I love him and his work to such a ridiculous extent.

Number 1. He is the most exquisite story-teller and I respect this a lot. I think that societies have always been built on the skills of storytelling, from bringing up your kids, to deciding where to build the next village, down to politicians - I mean, it is all storytelling, all of it. And Lepage is so creative and so so imaginative with his storytelling.
Number 2. The way he uses visual stuff (whether it's costume, objects, installations, or other multimedia, and music too actually) is just phenomenal. He just manages to tap into something, to see the core of the story, and then tie it together with something else, so seamless. He believes that theatre was born when the early early humans realised they can manipulate their own shadows and therefore create something "larger than life".
Number 3. He lost all his hair when he was 5. Now then. Let's think about this for one second. All of his hair. Eyebrows, eyelashes. You lose all the hair on your body. Also, having pubic hair is SUCH a rite of passage for boys when growing up. So, he had no hair, at all. And as opposed to let this other-ness consume him he channeled it, to become an absolute visionary theatre-maker. Hats off. Absolutely hats off.

And so, I forget sometimes, how much I truly love his work and what he stands for as a person.
One of his shows, "Playing Cards 1: SPADES", is coming to London in a week or so. And I really want to go see it. I want to go and witness him and his company bring together parts of the world, the current and the forgotten, the lost and the found, the painful and the beautiful, add some absolutely incredible music, and I want to see this. I want to see this and feel this and go, yes, thanks, Robert, for making theatre.

Lepage.
M.