So I’m back in the office – which office? Oh, any, could be MI5 for all I know – after a too, too brief hiatus doing some….ACTING!!!! Hoorah hooray yippeekiyay. It’s amazing the sense of jubilation I got when I left the temp job I was doing that I abandoned for…ACTING!…as if this was a life I could now say ta-tah to and I was off to nail boards into my feet, so determined to tread the boards and stay on them. Of course I didn’t really think a little sniff of a theatre would change my current standing forever more, but such is the devil burning an arse print on your shoulder whilst whispering sweet nothings. Just maybe…?

Anyway, it was a glorious week and, oh, how we laughed and spread out our dusty theatrical wares and wit upon the (actual) dressing room with (actual) posh chairs and (actual) mirrors that lit up. This is terra firma, yes, this feels right, doesn’t it? We’re hooome! It is at moments like that – when a cast takes a collective deep intake of breath so as to remember the sight, the sound, the smell of the stage and all its workings, that I feel an overwhelming sense of love and stinging admiration for everyone clawing on to this profession. Call it a disease, an addiction, an obsession, an affliction; at times like these when you’re putting your make-up on or placing your props, it is simply a quiet, honest, private and unconditional connection (albeit with an untamed beast). And those are the moments I find it overwhelming, and those are the moments I know why I need to carry on going. Not for the applause but for the deep, quiet connection – to something inexplicable.