Inspiration...

Being inspired is the most energizing, affirming thing and it’s happened twice this week in such ridiculously diverse ways.

The first serving of inspiration came from a trip to the theatre. I booked tickets last year to go and see Me and My Girl as my first theatre experience of 2011 for a number of reasons: I hoped for a perfect theatrical pick me up in early January, Miriam Margoyles was in it - who I have admired for a long time and I’d just read Stephen Fry’s latest biography and discovered that he was responsible for rewriting the book of the musical. Little did I know at the time of booking that I would come out of the theatre having seen it entirely re-energised and raving about the joyous spectacle I’d witnessed. The production was simply magical, a classic example of the magic created when every single person in the cast, company and crew apply their creative talents to excellent effect. There wasn’t one person on stage who wasn’t entirely in the moment, every moment of the performance. Every single element conspired to delight…from the casting to the set, from the choreography to the band. That’s before you even begin to consider the leads, who employed every aspect of their bodies, voices and imagination to delight the audiences as they told their characters stories through the play.

The second source of inspiration had infinitely more depth and was entirely more sobering. I read “Must You Go” Antonia Fraser’s account of Harold Pinter’s life. It’s worth saying that before I picked it up my admiration of Pinter knew no bounds. I am, in every way, humbly admiring of every aspect of his art – as a director, actor and possibly most of all as a writer. This inside account of his art, his life, his love and his death which included in poignant detail his suffering in the last years of his life left me both inspired and in tears. It was both intimate and matter of fact and only made me admire him more.

So at the end of a weekend full of inspiration I am ready to take on the world, even in this climate of cuts and crisis, even though the prognosis is bleak I’m going to hold on to the belief that with the right balance of optimism, play, intellectual rigour, grim determination, integrity and inspiration magic is made…this is to be my bedrock of faith and from this brilliant things will happen…