I'm quite used to spending my summers doing anything but relaxing; typically I teach all year and then spend August at the Edinburgh Fringe, performing somewhere between 4-8 shows a day, having the best, most creatively fulfilling time ever and often making myself a little ill in the process when I typically "overdo it" (nothing serious, the worst was shingles back in 2018). This year, for a second year running, I wasn't at the fringe. Mostly for pandemic-based reasons (I had a late offer this year for a run but still wasn't convinced the festival would go ahead, from what I can see it did, albeit smaller) but also because we had the small matter of making a feature movie. This all actually came about in my preparations for the 2019 Edinburgh run, when, in a preview, director Jonnie watched and liked my play, Harvey Greenfield is Running Late, and we soon entered discussions about making it into a film. It was supposed to happen last year, but there's only so many times I can bang on about how the pandemic has got in the way of such big ideas.
Fresh from the most intense run of teaching you could possibly imagine (12 hour days, 6 days a week - but I honestly love all of it), my summer break actually started with, for the first time in as long as I can remember, an actual proper holiday. Technically our honeymoon, seven months after the wedding, my wife and I got a last minute flight over to Antiguea. It was a bit hot, as you can imagine, and it felt like we were constantly at the mercy of PCR tests, but it was still as gloriously beautiful as a honeymoon should be. Lovely still beaches, great food, great drink, great music. I got a little bored after three days and wrote a new show, but it was still a pretty cool place to serve as a writing retreat. I also tried, several times, to learn my lines for the film. All 101 pages of it. Bit of a struggle, but there was no going back...
Four days later, I was back in the UK and on the film set. I was cast to reprise the leading role of Harvey. There's two ways of looking at this: a) I am not really an actor, despite 14 years of Edinburgh fringes, but b) I *am* Harvey...a clumsy, bumbling, very fast-talking, awkward man. I don't always like that, sometimes I yearn to be more confident and...well, break fewer things, but from a film point of view it was certainly authentic. We had what felt like a big crew and the organisation was top notch - multiple locations, multiple complications, an ambitiously tight schedule, we were a team - an incredibly hardworking, kind, caring team. I honestly have so much respect for everyone involved in this project and I feel like I've made a lot of good friends in the process. Making a feature movie is tough; trying to make one in 14 days is madness. We so nearly got there, we've just got a few pick-ups to do, but it's not far off. This is the hardest I've ever worked, the most exhausted I've ever been. The character (as you may have guessed from the title) runs a lot, and with multiple takes, I had to run a lot more than my jaded 40-year-old body was used to. Through Ely, through Cambridge, down the sides of rivers, in parks, into Cathedrals. Lots of strange looks, despite the cameras, but after a while you stop caring. So many guest stars, our biggest guest (who we are not allowed to reveal, but he's from a huge British sitcom) said of me, "I like him, he's different, he's like a puppy." I'm adding that to my CV. I was out of my comfort zone throughout, I ruined a costume on the first day with a coffee-based incident, I've shouted more than ever - my character has quite a few very loud, breakdown moments. I've been slapped by a former Blue Peter presenter (turns out Liz, who plays my girlfriend in this, can't do 'fake slaps' and kept catching me by accident), I've wrestled a live lobster and I've hung out with Howard from the Halifax adverts. The team, all of them, are bloody amazing. I can't believe this little play, which I wrote at the tail end of 2018, is now going to be an actual proper movie. I'm still having anxiety dreams about not knowing my lines properly. Every night. That just means I care, yeah?
I went straight from this into a little teaching, and then a 3-night run in London of my original play version. Cracking venue, great audiences, everything is how it should be. From there, I was back with the band with festivals in Worcestershire and Wokingham, both of which I enjoyed. Today is my second of two days off (mostly catching up on admin and tidying the garage) before I go back to teaching full time.
I hope your summer was equally as fun in whatever it was you chose to do. I also hope, though, for the sake of your sanity, it was a little calmer and involved a lot less Red Bull!