That’s a rather bold opening hook to this second blog of our US adventure.  But I’ll explain shortly.  

April 4th – Day 2 – Jet-lag.  And a heating system in my otherwise lovely Airbnb that keeps erupting into life just when you least expect it – just when I’ve reached deep-state sleep.  Will earplugs keep the noise out? No chance.  

Okay.  So I head out on my first morning in Chicago for a big breakfast at a highly recommended cafe – Lula’s in Logan Square. That helps.  A cardamom bun to die for. Then a day full of nothing much – acclimatising, checking out where I can buy fruit, and reminding myself I’m not a tourist.

Day 3 – I’m a tourist.  Heading for the wonderful Art Institute – wanting to see the famous Seurat painting that inspired Sondheim’s Sunday In The Park With George.  On the L train, it’s rammed – jam-packed with hundreds of people. Are they also heading for the Seurat? No!  There are placards and banners galore – it’s a ‘Hands Off’ (our democracy) protest downtown and it’s going to be really big, someone on the train tells me.  We’re tempted to join them but our time is limited, so we wish them well when they all get off two stops before the Art Institute, leaving the train empty.

But the Art Institute isn’t empty. Justifiably.

We stand for the best part of an hour in front of the Seurat painting.  Magical.  Later, some stunning Chagall windows.  Then the wonderful painting ‘American Gothic’ – about which Riko suggests I could play the man.  Hmm.  

Not sure about the pitchfork.  Also a beautiful 12th century Buddha – standing in front of which helps calm my pre-‘US premiere’ nerves a little.  

Because I haven’t forgotten.  I’m not here as a tourist.  And the Martin Luther King connection?  Oh yes, I’m coming to that.

Day 4 – a three hour Sunday afternoon drive to the peaceful little town of North Manchester, Indiana and its University – where I will give a ‘peace lecture’ the next morning and the day after that we will perform The Mistake.  The town is so quiet that three cars in its Main Street signifies a rush hour.  The  evening we arrive we run the play, just the lines, in one of our student hall guest rooms.  I then go back to my own room to run through my talk, my TED Talk- well, my Mike Talk. ‘The role of arts and culture in promoting peace and opposing war’.

Day 5 – On campus there is a charming bell-tower.  The bells are rung at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. – the start and end of the day’s lessons – but they are also rung just before guest speakers give their talks – these particular talks always taking place on a Monday morning at 11 a.m.  ‘Ask not for whom the bell tolls’ this Monday morning.  I can tell you – it tolls for me!  Gulp. No pressure then.  

But thankfully the Mike Talk (and yes, I do use a mic) seems to go down well – though I keep reminding myself that the main reason we’re here is to perform The Mistake.  And now I’ve got butterflies – even with all my years of experience. Not helped by the fact that in the evening we have a rehearsal in the performance space which doesn’t exactly go smoothly.

At least our props and set pieces look good on the Recital Hall stage.

Day 6 – today’s the day – our US premiere.  The afternoon dress rehearsal goes much better – but the air con and heating in our guest rooms and in the auditorium is making my voice incredibly dry.  I spoon honey down my throat, I spoon it into my tea, I drink so much water that when I relieve myself it’s like an elephant peeing – it just goes on and on and on…

But the performance?  Phew. That goes really well.  The butterflies subside.  Manchester University hosts the oldest Peace Studies course in the world – 1948 – the same year the UN was established – and so it therefore feels right that this is the first stop on our tour.  

There is a wide range of ages in our audience… from a 90-year-old lady who remembers air-raid drills in Indiana when she was ten, to a 22-year-old student who says that seeing the play has changed her.  

Afterwards, Katy Gray Brown, professor of Religious Studies and director of the Peace Studies Institute and her husband David, plus Libby, the peace studies coordinator, treat us to cheese, fruit and many other tasty goodies in the little campus chapel!  A very relaxed and informal first night ‘party’.  Until the name of Martin Luther King enters the conversation.  

Katy tells us that Manchester was the last university MLK visited to talk to students: just two months before he was assassinated in April 1968.  We are pretty much speechless.  Fifty years later, she continues, in 2018, those same students had an alumni reunion to remember MLK and his visit.  And at that reunion they decided to set up a Peace and Justice Fund in MLK’s memory – to enable speakers, performers and other peace-related events to be hosted at the University.  I was only slowly making sense of this.  Katy spelled it out – ‘So that fund is the reason we were able to host The Mistake and your visit.  You could say Martin Luther King is the reason you were performing here today.’  Myself, Riko and Maria immediately all have the same physical reaction – not butterflies but goosebumps. 

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