Once you have recognised the director miscast you
as Atlas in the school production of Fiddler, it is hard
to escape the burden of carrying the entire scenery
around on your back. I was holding billboards slapped
with paint by the Y9's, bits of fence used to disguise
where they'd missed and the MDF shone through.
The subject matter was heavy. Some Russian Jews
had been thrown out of their homes like rocks
chucked in the sea and I had to keep turning this way
and that to be certain the actors said their lines
in the right places. These were my responsibilities
that I shouldered alone. My parents were touring
in productions of Don't Look Back and Les Mis respectively.
I was cutting my teeth in the world of theatre,
though as I grew old I was typecast as Reb Nachum, the beggar
whom nobody listened to, who did not sing or dance,
just said a few lines to keep the whole thing moving.
This was who I was playing when I quit acting.
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