Changing The Script

I have this dream a lot: I'm on stage or leading a church service and I don't what the hell I'm about. I haven't learned the lines, I can't find the place in the book. Mercifully the dream ends before the audience or congregation starts throwing things or walking out.

Last night there was a significant variation or development. I had been cast as Torwald in a production of A Doll's House. I'd learned my lines, but none of them had stuck. My part was a huge blank to me. Normally I'd have gone on stage and improvised desperately, but this time I did the sensible thing. I went up to the director (who happened to be Peter Hall) and told him frankly, "Look, I don't know my lines. And I'm never going to. I think you need to get somone else."

Maybe I'm learning to live with my limitations.