Sunday; rehearsal. James Pitchford, who is generally to be found modestly hiding behind the piano, discovers to his alarm that as Fedotik in Three Sisters, he has to dance onto the stage and exclaim, laughing, “Burnt” Burnt! Everything I have is completely burnt!”
But while sipping the birthday champagn
e he had so kindly brought to share with us, we discovered that James had indeed been burnt out of his home as a youth, so was able to engage in something very Stanislavskian. And we are quite sure the champagne helped with the dancing.