Glastonbury 2000 diary – part three

In May and June 2000, ahead of his appearance at the Glastonbury Festival, David Bowie kept an eight-part diary which was published in Time Out magazine. Here is the third instalment.

We are invited to ‘The Wild Party’, a new production by George Wolfe. George is a friend and a director/producer that I have towering respect for. His direction of ‘Angels Over America’ was quite the most moving, epic time I have spent in a theatre. He also directed ‘Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk’ a riveting ‘Caucasian Chalk Circle’ and too many others to mention. Being written around a a light allusion to the Fatty Arbuckle scandal at the beginning of this century, this new piece had two bad marks against it from the off, in my eyes. It was a musical and it was a musical. Deceivingly saccharine for the first fifty minutes, it then heavies up alarmingly and drags the audience through a Gothic nightmare for the last twenty or so. I ended up respecting yet again Wolfe’s ability to really locate the nub of a play and focus the audience’s attention on that.

We eat early as I want to get a good night’s rest before tomorrow.

Other Glastonbury diary entries:

• Part one – 15 May 2000
• Part two – 19 May 2000
• Part four – 1 June 2000
• Part five – 6 June 2000
• Part six – 7 June 2000
• Part seven – 9 June 2000
• Part eight – 11 June 2000