David Cumming

A birthday card reads “Happy Birthday Charles Cholmondeley” next to a photo of Charles, a yellow butterfly, and blueprints

A photo of David Cumming as Charles Cholmondeley in Operation Mincemeat next to Polaroids of the company backstage, a Boy Scout badge with a fish, and a note that reads this quote from David: “There are many different people in the world and to not reflect that in our art is ignoring the multiplicity of experiences that there are, to be human.”

Happy Birthday Charles Cholmondeley, you clever chap! 🦎

We’re living it up tonight in honour of the brilliant brain that helped hatch #OperationMincemeat, born this day in 1917.

Agent @daveycumming.bsky.social will be bringing this trout discoverer to Broadway in a few short weeks 💛

Just dropped a piece of bread on the floor then proceeded to tell it off because it is, and I quote, “better than that”, in case anyone was wondering how my mental health is holding up

We are now a quarter of the way into the new millennium and I still haven’t been fucked by a robot.

I demand a refund.

💕💕👍👍

Things I hope you have in your life right now.

Things I hope you cherish dearly.

Cos, I guarantee, you’d miss them if they were gone.

xoxo

And I encourage you, next time you compare yourself negatively to someone “more successful” than you, to take a moment and consider all the people, all the life and all the love that person has missed out on to achieve what they have.

The things they have had to sacrifice.

So, whilst I sit here giddy with excitement about what my life may gain by going to NYC, I will also (if you will allow it) take a second to mourn what I will lose: loving time spent with the people who make me who I am.

I think success can also look and feel like friends, family, community, laughter and love and I think we would all do well to remember that in chasing the Big Things, you often have to sacrifice the more meaningful Little Ones.

Capitalism thrives off a dog-eat-dog mindset. As such, we are taught that Success™️ means dominating your field, being Mister Number One Alpha Billy Big Bollocks who devotes his life to smashing the competition and reaping the rewards.

But I’m not so sure.

I was convinced that professional success is the way to achieve real happiness. And it certainly is one way to achieve one specific form of contentment, but there are many others. They may be quieter but they are often more profound and mercifully lie a lot closer than you think.

Like all my lovers, my career has always come first (DMs are open, lads 😉) and, Broadway willing, it will likely need to for a while yet. But my focus on my profession has frankly been myopic and, I am beginning to realise, at the expense of everything else.

But that isn’t actually how pain and sadness works. Someone else feeling greater pain does not, in fact, reduce the sting of your own.

Grief is personal and we all feel our losses deeply. And these just happen to be mine.

And, for once, I’m going to acknowledge them.

And like, yeah, fair. That’s right.

I am lucky and I do feel blessed.

And right now, to many, I probably sound like a privileged little shit whining about a fly in my Don Pérignon.

Cos most of the world definitely does have it far worse than me (and, chances are, far worse than you too)

But we don’t talk about that.

Cos I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve got all I wanted. What could I possibly have to complain about? It’s actually quite rude to even think like that when others are truly struggling.

So shut my mouth, smile at the cameras and be happy, huh?

For every big ‘pinch me’ moment, there will also be many many small but equally important things forgone.

Birthdays missed. Hugs not given. Tickle fights not fought. Laughs not shared. Love that must be put on pause.

All the ‘little’ things that actually make life worth living.

But there is another side to the coin.

A side I rarely hear mentioned.

Because whilst I’m on my dream-come-true Broadway adventure (which, to be clear, I would not change for the world) the fact is that the rest of life will continue without me.

Not that I could hold it lightly however.

It carries weight. It carries pressure. Not intentionally of course, but that pressure exists all the same. And in the face of such overwhelming joyful support it feels churlish and ungrateful to express anything other than pure elation.

This is, of course, wonderful.

Collective joy is beautiful and I shall never tire of seeing people’s faces light up as they express their happiness for us. It truly is a gift that I feel very lucky to experience every time and something that I do not hold lightly

Also, with the journey of Operation Mincemeat in particular, people have been following our adventure and championing the show for years so they quite rightly feel some ownership in our wins and pride in our success.

GO TEAM!

Because this industry is so competitive and opportunities are so very rare, conversations around achievements are often entirely focused on congratulatory excitement. It’s understandable. People want to share in the joy and the happiness - that’s just human nature.

SACRIFICE AND SUCCESS: A 🧵

Just said goodbye to my whole family/friends up North, most of whom I won’t see before I soon move across the world for potentially over a year & it has got me thinking about how little we talk about sacrifice vs success - esp in the performing arts.

Ur #SpotifyWrapped called you a f*ggot? That’s cute. Mine bound me, gagged me and made me host a no-loads-refused party on Sniffies.

We are not the same.

gay culture is constantly cracking the most heinously-horny graphically-detailed sexual jokes with your mates but barely saying three words to a man you are literally about to be inside

just saw a newborn yawning and it’s like wtf do *you* have to be tried about bro?! get real

A news notification with picture of a strange barbed slug-like entity part-submerged in wet sand alongside a headline reading: BBC Wildlife Magazine "Large furry creature unlike anything else in the sea" filmed crawling along English beach”

God forbid a man has hobbies jeez

pret no sleep bus pret another pret

It’s always TED Talks about this or TED Talks about that.

What I wanna know is when is TED gonna fucking LISTEN for once, you know?

This Monday! Come listen to some very interesting, clever people and me talk about what it means to put the Past on the Proscenium @newdiorama.bsky.social

omg no way i also had two older sisters growing up! so how is therapy?