Last night was perhaps the first time that our opening night anxiety has been more focused on whether the venue would be finished than whether the show would be finished. Two Snowhill is a huge new office development, the biggest to open outside London this year, so there is little surprise there have remained many snags to iron out. We probably haven’t helped the snagging process as increasing numbers of builders have been popping in with their mates to visit the show as it has been prepared. (more…)

The first get-in day was very productive. From the sixth floor of Two Snowhill we have spectacular views over north Birmingham and these have helped inspire the statistics we are using. The show is going to look very beautiful. All is well.

The globe has been taken out of storage and is being smartened up for its next public appearance, at Two Snow Hill.

If you get to see the next edition of OK! Magazine turn to the section containing photographs of celebrities arriving at the Private Viewing of the V&A’s Bowie Is exhibition and you find the shot of Noel Gallagher and partner. There heavily cropped out in the background may be my arm or Ana’s head.

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Filmed last week at the Perth Festival. There is also an interview with Jack Trow speaking about the show on ABC.

One of the many peculiarities about Of All The People In All The World is that it can easily feel as if you are making a show that must be ready for the opening night. This is because you come without a script or a stage plan and have to make it all up. I find myself growing anxious that we won’t be finished in time, however this is the wrong way to think about the situation. We are doing a ‘Bump In’, the race is to be ready to start not finish the show. The problems that have to be solved are, what cues do we want to start improvising from and where should the props (rice) go. The challenge is to open in a state that is already a satisfying balanced piece but has space enough to develop for three weeks. (more…)

It was a good steady day down at the Perth GPO hall today. The foundations are laid for a good show, our local team seem well up for it and the floor hasn’t collapsed beneath us, which is always an advantage.

Having purchased local newspapers and current affairs magazines I spent most of the day getting back into Of All The People In All The World and the goings on in Perth, Western Australia, Australia and the World, it has been a focused and engrossing time. The only break was a visit to our spectacular venue. (more…)

It is now approximately a decade since the idea for Of All The People In All The World started forming in my mind. Around that time I had been reading about the relative numbers of men and women in jail, how the offenses for which they are jailed are markedly different and the fate of children with mothers in jail. This was therefore the story which prompted me to think that many piles of rice comparing related sociological facts would make a more interesting show than a single huge pile of rice simply representing everyone in the country. For this reason it was arresting to see The Independent running this same prison story on its front page. I am due to lead on a big version of the show in Australia early next year. In recent years other members of the team have led more often than me, so I am anxious to get my head back into statistics and keen to feed Stat Centre some more. It will be interesting to reflect on who much or little has changed in the course of a decade.

After an extraordinarily long and successful run at the R.S.C. in Stratford-Upon-Avon Of All The People In All The World is packed up tomorrow evening.

The low-light was the piece being vandalised early on during a private function. The highlight was all the brilliant audience feedback. The most curious moment was Prince Charles visiting the piece with none of us being allowed in whilst he was there – a view so private the performers aren’t even allowed to be there – fortunately the same was not true of Julius Caesar.