mostly david ephgrave

Today saw my first visit to Winchester, since I injured myself there twelve years ago, while rehearsing for panto at the Theatre Royal. As ailments go, it was pretty niche: I slipped a disc in my back while doing a one-man Chinese Dragon dance. Who hasn't done this? EVERYONE. Thankfully, today was cartilaginous disc displacement-free (at time of going to press). It felt good to satiate the demon (not a euphemism). While the method with with I sustained the injury was amusing, it was terrifying at the time, as I wasn't sure how badly I'd hurt myself. I could barely stand, let alone walk, and spent the rest of the day laying on the rehearsal room floor in agony, until someone could take me to A&E.  Once we'd ascertained the nature of my injury, I stayed on in Winchester until the day before the show opened, receiving regular physio in the hope I'd be fit enough to do the run, until the director decided at the eleventh hour (quite rightly) that it would be too mu...

Frustratingly, I’ve had to pull out of a gig I was doing in Winchester tomorrow night, due to an evil engineering work / rail replacement bus service situation on the line back to London. This is annoying on three counts: firstly, I could do with the stage time so I can cement some new material; secondly, I don’t like to be unreliable; thirdly – and most importantly – I was looking forward to exorcising the demons of my last visit to the city, back in 2004, when I slipped a disc in my back whilst doing a one-man Chinese Dragon dance. My oriental undulations had a point. They weren’t just for recreation. I was rehearsing for a pantomime at the Theatre Royal Winchester at the time, and was loving every minute until my spine threw a spanner in the works; so much so that for a while I fooled myself into thinking I could still do the show, despite the fact I could barely walk, let alone give anything approaching a performance. If only I'd had more e...