What a story! Thanks for telling it so clearly. I think it resonates with what Derrick Jensen calls the 'myth of human supremacy', and many other critiques of our left-brain world (like Iain McGilchrist's 'The Master and His Emissary'). I'll be forwarding this muchly!!!

Fodase

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Major Lazer - Be Together(TIN Remix)

Some Brazilian Vibes...
Free Download tho, BAIXA AE

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TIN - Lábios

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TIN - REQUIEM

30 years ago today, on 11th August 1990, I performed my first solo show in Edinburgh.  I lost my shirt but it was a magical summer.  The Berlin Wall had fallen a few months earlier, and the Cold War, with its promise of a Nuclear annihilation was, unbelievably, over.  The weather was hot.  The reviews for my show were amazing.  The world seemed full of hope. 

But on 2nd August Sadam Hussein invaded Kuwait, leading to the first Gulf War and apocalypic images on TV of burning oil wells.  Just when human history seemed finally to be moving in a positive direction, the inevitability of our ultimate stupid self-destruction returned with a vengeance.  

Though written more than a hundred years ago, Dostoevsky's short story, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, is about all this and more.  It is a timeless parable of human nature, a lament for our follies and our fate.  It is also paradoxically uplifting, starting slowly, but accelerating - a roller-coaster of optimism and pessimism - to a stunning conclusion.

I loved performing this story and kept reviving it, returning to Edinburgh (and losing my shirt again) four more times, most recently in 2016.

This year, 2020, is the year of pandemic. The Coronavirus, Covid-19, has infected all the nations of the world, mercilessly exploiting weaknesses in the human body and in the body politic. Some enlightened nations with wise leaders have pulled together to meet the challenge. Others, so-called advanced civilisations but governed by narcisistic fools, have descended into benighted division and brought upon their people not only death, but also financial and social ruin.

Under lockdown in London, with my three sources of income (performing, giving workshops and teaching English) all cancelled for the foreseeable future, I began to think about launching a career as a voiceover artist. A chat over the fence with my next-door-neighbour led to an invitation to voice a track on his new album. This, plus a massive nudge from an old friend, Zim, decided me to go for it, and I started building a soundbooth in my room (which sounds fancy, but is basically a 110cm mdf cube lined with acoustic foam which sits over me and my desk).  I had ordered the materials and was waiting for their delivery when the most astonishing confirmation happened.

On the 1st of July, totally out of the blue, I received an email from Paypal with the subject line "Notification of donation received". Of course my first thought was that it was a scam and I nearly deleted it before even reading it.  But when I had built my website, 20 years ago, I had put on it a 'Donate' button linked to a Paypal account, imagining the world was full of drive-by benefactors of the arts who might bung me the occasional tenner. It never happened, and I never used that Paypal account again, although fortunately I still had the password stored somewhere, because this is what the email said:

    Dear George Dillon,

    This email confirms that you have received a donation of £1,000 GBP from xxxxx xxxxx.

    "Please accept this donation as a token of my appreciation of your work, your performance of Dream of a Ridiculous Man at Edinburgh in 1990 had a profound spiritually transformative effect on me, showing me the power of drama and love. Times sound bleak in theatre at the moment, hope you are surviving and thriving and performing again soon. All the best"

The injection of cash not only covered the money I had spent building my booth, but also enabled me to upgrade my recording equipment to a professional level.

And so... here is my first test project from my 'home studio' - a recording of 'The Dream of a Ridiculous Man' - the Dostoevsky story which launched my solo acting career in 1990 and which stayed in my 'angel's memory, prompting his wonderful donation thirty years later.

The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man

George Dillon

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