They aren’t all like this

Recently I have finished working on a production in Sheffield. Nothing new then, except this did feel new, it felt different and every day the director said “They aren’t all like this.” in his pre-show talk, which got me thinking. Yes, this was unique, but so are all shows, surely? Almost no show is going to be remounted with the same cast and crew and design and venue, and even if they were, the timing would be different, which might make all the difference to the show. Then I thought some more and puzzled on why I love what I do so much. And then it hit me. I love what I do so much because it wont ever be repeated. Every night is unique, even over a run of the same show different things happen that impact performance and can utterly change it, a completely new audience being just one of them.
The show in question was Camelot: The Shining City. It was a co-production between Slung Low and The Sheffield Peoples Theatre. It had a company of 150. It was delivered on headphones. It had a diesel bomb, pyrotechnics, a flaming sword and a Land Rover. And a flame-throwing-steel-clad-jeep-dragon. So it was pretty full on and unique. Which is awesome. But they were not the things that made it special. Not what gets you out of bed to work on it, its not what drives you to be better and be ten foot tall every single day. What was that thing? It was the feeling, the knowledge, that the show wouldn’t be re-staged in the same way ever again. We were the first, the last and the only. That was special.
For some people involved it will be the only show they do this year, for a lot it will be the only world premier they ever work on and be the only time they have their names published in a script. For some people working on the show it was one of many of those things and for many of the Crucible staff it was another show in a busy season. And yet from all these people, some who work in this every day, this was special. All shows have something unique about them, but this was different. Maybe it was the size of the cast, its diversity of age, experience and race that made it so, but we were a company and each day we came together to form something that won’t be repeated.
Maybe in rather a roundabout way I have said that all shows are special and unique, but some are more special and unique than others. Or maybe my attitude on making theatre has shifted. Or maybe I have found the work I want to make. I don’t know, but I know I love what I do because it exists for a moment and then passes. They aren’t all like this and I am more than okay with that.