There's a lot of new work coming up in 2017. Over the next few weeks I'll write posts about each of the upcoming and ongoing projects.

In the meantime, though, in keeping with annual tradition, here's a somewhat delayed audit of last year.

Public performances given: 98
of which:
Tiny Heroes: 8
We're Stuck: 32
Error 404: 13
The Price of Everything: 4
Scratch performances towards the making of Safe House: 3
Miscellaneous collected short pieces: 1

Public performances of work I wrote but wasn't in: 5
of which:
Talking Statues: 1 (although this was an audio piece, so you could say it was as many performance as there were people who downloaded it. Unless they all listened to it at once.)
We're Here: 3
Nice Walls: 1

Panel discussions and that sort of thing: 7

Weeks of R&D on Thinner Blood (Dick Bonham's new show which I'll be directing this autumn): 4
Amount of material to show for it: a full draft in good working order

Weeks of R&D on Safe House (my own new show, which goes into rehearsal in a fortnight): 4
Amount of material to show for it: some decent ideas which don't hang together

New writing word counts:
Tiny Heroes (10837)
We're Here (1090)
Nice Walls (584)
Talking Statues (388)
Why I Don't Wear Shoes (1256)
Safe House (countless discarded drafts)
Plus a handful of short pieces that will never see the light of day and unquantifiable attempts that didn't come out.

Successful applications submitted: 3
Unsuccessful applications submitted: 13
​
Performances cancelled: 6
of which:
because of poor administration: 1
because of poor sales: 2
because my wife went into early labour: 2
because of rioting: 1

2016, not being a sentient being, didn't deliberately kill all those celebrities. Nor did it rig those elections or intentionally embolden the far right. So if you're expecting 2017 to swagger in with a whole different vibe, you're setting yourself up for a mighty disappointment. I can't remember a moment in the past when the onset of January arrested prevailing historical trends. That's on us.

You can't stop your favourite celebrities from dying. You're getting older. I expect the attrition rate of people who've been famous since the seventies and eighties to continue, if not to increase. (I don't imagine many 20-year-olds thought this an unusually bloody year, although of course I haven't asked any.)

The fascist drift, though, that we can affect. 2017 will be better, but only if everyone who wants it to be actually does something about it. Join your local antifa, support migrants' rights, campaign, organise, debate. Love. And, where necessary, fight.

Hoping 2017 will be better won't make it better, unless that hope gets you out of your chair. Fearing it will be worse won't have an effect either, unless that fear gets you out of your chair. The only effect you can have is positive. Get out of your chair.

Personally, 2016 has been a pretty amazing year. I became a dad. That's hard to top.

Professionally it's been pretty good, too. One new show and a lot of touring of existing work, including the last six weeks of the year in India. And if you think we've got it bad politically, you should take a trip to Modiland.

Politically of course the year has been awful. It's also been my most politically inactive year for quite a while. I wonder how many other people, depressed by prevailing trends, also let their energy slip this year?