Turns out mounting a production at the Soho and juggling a six month old baby is quite hard work. Who knew? But the show is up (and selling out) and Noah is still alive (and currently asleep) – win win!
The somewhat ludicrous highlights of the last month then – crowd-sourcing our childcare through Facebook for the first week of Arab Nights rehearsals at ETT – every three hours another willing volunteer (although I think we may have exhausted our supply of free childcare now). Breastfeeding through an interview for the Metro and a recorded interview for Theatre Voice – if you listen carefully towards the end you can hear Noah snoring softly. A late night meeting with our Sound Designer which I spent pumping the milk from my breasts, much to his amusement. And then tech and production week where Noah got handed round more people than he’d probably ever met in his short life – hilariously the venue, ever mindful of health and safety – also made us fill out a risk assessment especially for him!
Every lunch break being filled with production meetings, marketing meetings and press interviews while simultaneously breastfeeding was quite a strain. As was the averaging 4 hours of sleep, and the great decision to build the set – consisting of 1001 shoeboxes – in our flat. But we got there in the end and I have never been more proud of a project and my team before.
Finally press night on Thursday where – decked out in his new Metta branded babygro – Noah flirted outrageously with Libby Purves from The Times – finger’s crossed that equates to a good review, watch this space…
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