Howard and Mimi is play I'd been trying to stage for ten years. Various attempts to do this previously had fallen foul of casting problems or amateur dramatics politics, and when I saw an opportunity to do this for the launch of the inaugural Durham Fringe, this almost suffered a similar fate. One drop-out due to catching Coronavirus, a recasting, and then my other actor also testing positive and having to self-isolate for most of the remaining period, we were left with days to put something on. But my actors rallied together and we somehow managed to get to a near-professional standard in a week and a half.