On Living On's staged reading

The rehearsed reading of Living On took place last Monday in front of a large crowd at SOAS in London, and was warmly received. It was followed by a discussion with the director and cast, but as time was short I said I'd put up a fresh posting to allow anyone who was there the chance to provide some feedback. Personally, I was delighted with the way the evening went. Director Robert Wolstenholme had assembled a fine cast. Joseph Marcell (remember the butler from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?) played Shalema, and brought a hugely moving presence to the role. Emma Swinn, Ben Crystal, and Scott Ainslie were really convincing in the roles of Miranda, Derek, and Jason, respectively. And four other actors - Karl Kelly, Simon Manyonda, Rhoda Ofori-Attah, Nick Oshikanlu - took on the various Tamasa people roles with great energy and enthusiasm. As they had only one day of rehearsals before the show, I was hugely impressed by the way they managed to get their tongues round the Tamasa language - an artificial language, which I had tried to create as naturistically as possible - and which they made sound as if it had always been on the planet. There was some further discussion after the play about its future, and some thought that we might aim for a fully staged production some time next year.