Life with Warren

The first time I saw Warren was in a remount of the Arts Club's greatest hit,  Jacques Brel. My friend Bruce was the music director and he had alerted me to the fabulous new voice in town, and when he first sang, I was smitten. Bruce and I talked about Warren and I even made jokes about me having a crush on him—partly due to Warren's handsome face, but mostly because of that extraordinary voice.

Last year, when it came to casting my show though, I did not even put Warren's name on the "potential" list because I found him far too talented and experienced. But he was a friend of the director, Shawn, and so there he was on the first day of our rehearsals. And boy, was he there.

As I have written here before, what threw me completely about Warren was his ability to be on stage whilst seemingly, at the same time, seeing himself —well, all of us—onstage. It was like he could be onstage and at the back of the auditorium at the same time. And during our run, in almost every show, at some point I blanked on my lines and Warren was always there with a cue to keep me going—and he did it in a way that the audience thought was part of the show.

At the end of the show, I was hooked on him. So when he turned up in May of this year insisting we work together to convert my play into a screenplay I was giddy.

For a month, we worked together every day either side-by-side or over the phone. And then I submitted the script to the Praxis competition and he went to Europe. It was like quitting smoking.

Warren got back about three weeks ago. He called when he got back and then I never heard from him again. I sent emails and left voice messages but no reply came. I didn't worry really. He loves our project so much, I knew he was busy. But I felt what? Sad? I don't know. But I was aware of every day he did not call.

Suddenly, yesterday, he called and the world feels right again. For me, having a writing partner is a bit like having a boyfriend. I feel so incredibly rebalanced again because he called. And I am excited because we are going to go through the whole script again together and then he is going to pitch it to Out TV.