Lizzie is otherwise engaged today so just David and I meet to discuss my rewrites from last week. Again we read the script out loud and sometimes I play Fred and sometimes I play Sheila Dibnah. David multi-tasks as director/dramaturg and actor - but somehow never gets around to playing Sheila!
I am very pleased that David is very pleased with how the play is developing. He is a man for detail, which I really appreciate and his meticulous approach is helping me to spot the holes in the script, of which there are many more than I thought.
One of the big holes I identified previously in Act One I've now managed to fill, at the same time introducing a whole new strand in the script - about the importance of hands. But as we go through this draft line-by-line I realise it is a pepper-pot of a play. I determine to fill the minutest of holes.
Out of the blue, I come up with an idea for a whole new scene to replace one I've never been totally sold on. This is a breakthrough because the scene I am proposing to ditch is the only interior scene left. David is delighted, I guess, because it has been his wish all along to set the whole play in Fred's garden.
As we pack up at the end of the afternoon (we are about half way through reading the script now) David tells me I've written a love story - a love story between an unlikely couple - and not just a play about a famous son of Bolton.
