Now try it without the interpreter....

The day started with a music rehearsal, which gave us a chance to go over the events of the last few days with Nishidasan, [the Japanese writer] who is back from Tokyo. She has to teach a class on Tuesdays, and can only miss so many, which is why she flew back on Sunday. It was good to have her back, and her perspective on some of the thorny issues of time she missed was wise and valuable.

There was no English translation today, because Deong Myon has a civil service exam on Saturday and needs to prepare. So the photocall was a little chaotic, with contradictory discussions in a range of languages. But we had the run of a theatre which gave Simon a chance to do his first lighting in Korea, and we posed the actors in a range of positions, which will be photoshopped onto images of building sites.

After lunch we had a costume discussion, which was also slow, but very valuable. When So Young spoke, she spoke in Italian, which Judy translated into English, which Nishida translated to Korean, and Jagyoung put into Korean This was the best way of getting English into the equation. You can see why it takes a while though. We had this meeting in the wonderful Mindellae Coffee House, which is like a collection of Wendy Houses for hire for meetings, with pastel-painted wood panel rooms and frilly curtains. In these eccentric circumstances we made further progress towards the costumes. So Young will I think be glad when Yoghurt rolls out of town, although she is resolutely cheerful through all the twists and turns of the evolution of the costumes.

While this was going on, Minato was working on the Brazil scene, and some suggestions for the end of the play. We were going to have a run, but the energy level was low after the translation free day, and we had a writers meeting instead, although the actors stayed and in fact did a walk-through which turned into a run.

Tonight Byung Ho took everyone for Ssam Gyeop Ssal , the famous Korean Barbecue. Even among many glorious evenings this was a good one, with the thought that we are very lucky to be working with such a great collection of people constantly coming back to mind.