The loveliness of laughter...

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Anyone who knows me knows that I find comedy tricky.  Firstly I’m not a funny person…I find small talk tricky which is a measure how comedically challenged I am.  Secondly as I have explained on numerous occasions if you imagine a spectrum of humour that encompasses all the comedy in the world I only find a very small bit of it funny.  All of that adds up to a challenging relationship between me and comedy.

This week at Yew Tree Youth Theatre however I have laughed and laughed and laughed…and what’s made it better is that I’ve been laughing with some of the funniest people I know.  The first delightful laughter-filled experience was on Thursday at Black Company where we had the read through for the plays we’ve been developing over the last few weeks...I have been somewhat up against it writing six ten minute plays in a fortnight alongside writing a research report, facilitating Connections at Kendal, having a foot with sprained ligaments and all the other things that happen in a Yew Tree/Osborne family week.  Consequently the sense of satisfaction I got when they were done was more than significant…but then I had to prepare myself for sending them out into the world.  Always a precarious moment for a writer.  When I wrote the plays I wanted them to be light and humorous, not a familiar domain for me and so although I’m rarely nervous in a rehearsal room (I leave that to actors) this Thursday I was really, really nervous.  Happily I didn’t need to be.  I’ve said this before but it bears repeating, the feeling you have as a writer when people are laughing at your words because they’re entertained is one of the best you’ll ever get.  On Thursday night I got that feeling in gratifyingly large amounts and I’m now very excited about the rehearsals that will take us up to performance on June the 26th.

The other rich well of laughter came in the form of the wonderful Gold Company.  They’re a joy on an average week and this week was above average.  We started rehearsals on our A to Z of Shakespeare…our sequel to The History of Theatre…turns out there is to be no difficult second album for Gold as the odds are in our favour that this show is going to be just as excellent as the last one was…June 22nd at the Wakefield Theatre Royal.  Just in case we hadn’t shared enough laughter in rehearsals Emma set up a couple of laughing snakes…a ridiculous but strangely companionable thing to do…

Thank you YTYT this week for allowing me to feel something more than a write off in terms of comedy…it was a lovely gift…looking forward, as ever, to seeing what next week at Yew Tree Youth Theatre brings…

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