Finally after months of anticipation we are about to land in Beijing for what may amount to the final performances of Home of the Wriggler. We have had to do a bit of recasting as both Amanda and Heather are unavailable. Bharti, who previously deputised for Bernadette now plays alongside her in Amanda’s role and following auditions Amy steps in for Heather who for some time had a glorious history of stepping in for other people.

Spread amongst our personal luggage are costumes and various items of props and lighting. Tomorrow we get introduced to the machinery which as been built to replicate or original machinery, photographs show they look eerily familiar, hopefully they will function as well. On Wednesday we do our get in, the first show and conduct a post show discussion. Months ago we sent a script over to be turned into surtitles. Those who are familiar with the show’s fulsome, rapid and colloquial text will share our intrigue as to how this will work and our current joke that the acting could easily finish 15 minutes before the surtitles. We shall see.