Just When You Think It's Safe

 

 

Turned up at the chapel on Wednesday to discover that a cast member was very ill and wouldn't be doing the show so the director was stepping in and reading the part. Drama at the chapel! Amazing how focused we all became! I lent him my script to peruse all his new lines. He hasn't performed onstage in 3 years. I salute his bravery. Another cast member offered to play the other character part at the beginning and we went thru the opening scene several times to get him up to scratch.

 

Got ready early and went through all the scenes with the director. He knew most of the blocking and the comedy business – mostly his ideas after all. Got him dressed, a few words of wisdom and we went on and did the show.

 

It was great. The audience had been informed of the circumstances and there was a good atmosphere to begin with. I've done one of these before when someone was sick and someone else stepped in and it makes it a great occasion. I think it makes the audience more involved – the night becomes a one-off for everyone.

 

The director was very very very good! He didn't need much prompting for blocking.  He did all the physical stuff and got the gags and the audience loved it. Though he was holding a book for all of it, apparently people didn't notice. It was a cracking show. We gave the director a special acknowledgement at the end. Then we ran to the nearest pub. I asked if there was any part of it he had enjoyed – he said: "The End."

 

I loved the excitement of the night. We all raised our game. Through fear perhaps. But it made the show zing. We need to bottle that excitement, that adventure, and release the cork every night. Anything that breaks us out of our comfort levels and makes us be uniquely involved in the drama of the show every single night. Then it becomes this wonderful one-off event each time we do it.

3rd Week

 

Somehow we've racked up 11 shows already. Dunno where the time goes.

 

This week started strangely. Had a really bad run personally on Monday. Out of sorts. Details were obscured and I wasn't comfortable. Overall energy was low and the show felt slow. The house was full but the audience never quite got into it – completely our fault and a shame we missed that opportunity. So we tweaked things, cut some lines and speeded up the play at the end. It hasn't felt like a fully presented play – rather a series of gags and physical comedy that doesn't build to any climax. We're trying to sort that. Last night was excellent. A good level from which to build further. Audience was fantastic. I had more energy to give and it paid off. It was a very strange evening all round but the show was great.

 

What do people do in their days? Some people work. People see shows. The Muppets show has gone down well with those of the cast who've seen em. As has "Black Watch" – an incredible piece of theatre and a brilliant advert for the new National Theatre. Going to see Peter Stein's "Troilus & Cressida" on Sunday. He's one of the greatest directors alive so am really looking forward to that.

 

I've been running and doing lots of exercise. And a lot of emailing. Roslin is a sunny place today and gives a lot of space for thinking and writing.

 

Middle of the 3rd Week and we may be losing energy so we need to galvanise ourselves and find ways to keep it fresh. A trick I've been using is to consvince myself its the last night I get to perform and this is the only opportunity I have to make it great. In a sense it is, as the audience only see it once and each night is a different, unique event. So far we've been fortunate with the weather and had 1 indoors performance. I like watching the audience outside. I think they have to work harder and are more involved with the scenes. Sitting down inside is more passive.

 

One thing about the Gala Show on Saturday was Bruce asked the audience how many had seen a Shakespeare show before. Most of them. Then he asked for how many this was the first time. A few put their hands up. So we have a responsibility. Hopefully after watching this people will want to go read his plays or see more shows. Its so important to make a good impression. Especially as people can be turned off his work at school, for whatever reason, be it poor, uninspired teaching, rebellion at authority, or simply boredom. It might be good to think of this as a first time for every member of the audience. And if we can present it in a fresh way to veterans of Shakespeare, so much the better.

Second Week of Run

 

 

Its Thursday. 3 down, 3 to go.

 

The Festival has started. Officially. Edinburgh is a mass of costumes, flyers, drunkenness and music.

 

Today's a birthday for one of the cast. Several people have birthdays around this time including the director. Its a sign we should all be working together. There may be a few drinks in town tonight after the show. And then a few more.

 

Show's in a good state. Audiences keep coming. My parents saw it on Saturday and liked it very much. My Mum said it was "a tour de force" and my Dad said it was "long". Fair enough, it is. But Mum saw it again last night and was more impressed. Said it has bedded in now and she enjoyed it more inside the the chapel – made for a more intense atmosphere, especially with the drama of the first scene.

 

Saw a programme about a guy who works in prisons in the US getting prisoners to perform Shakespeare plays. Amazing man of unbelievable compassion. And the process was the important thing, not the final performance. Very humbling to watch these guys looking deep in their souls for something of truth and hope. And of course they"get" Shakespeare. Their lives have only been fear and conflict and revenge and intolerance and love and loss and all the other themes no playwright but Shakespeare has been able to write about so clearly and beautifully. It sticks 2 fingers up to all that talk of the "relevance" of Shakespeare and (deeply-patronising) attempts to make it more "reachable" for "modern" audiences. Absolute crap. Just do the plays. And get on with it.

 

At one sticky point the prisoners got frustrated and the director had to calm them. He simple said: "All we do is we try and find the beauty and truth in the moment. And if we don't find it, we move on to the next and try and find it there."

 

Nothing more needs to be said.

End Of The First Week

 

We made it this far…

 

Got to the end of the first week of the show and it has been successful so far. The 3 shows we considered Previews – a time to get things settled and try things out. Now we have a platform to build the show upon. Celebrated by going out en masse and drinking until the wee early hours. Much jollity had by all.

 

Audiences have been very good. 60ish for Thurs/Fri and 70ish for Sat. A great start. Hopefully we can carry on at this rate. Tickets are selling well at the Fringe and most people are not local – they have to travel to get here. Which is a good sign. We wondered if they might be reticent to become audibly involved in the play since they are in a church and it is Shakespeare – both of which inspire a lot of reverence – but people have been warm and responsive so far. Though I think we have to do more to coax them into it.

 

Saturday was a good show. The best so far. Most involving and developed. It was hot too! Sweating buckets by the interval. Its good – it should cost us to do a play of the magnitude. The energy and excitement was great. I really enjoyed Demetrius for the first time. Quince is brilliant to do – a real treat – but Demetrius has been more elusive. Now I'm starting to find my/his feet. The first scene with Helena has been bugging me all through rehearsal and on the first night most of what I'd been working on went out the window because of the audience. They responded differently to how I'd ever imagined and it took the scene to a different level. A valuable lesson. Each scene is very different and its easier to concentrate solely on that moment rather than think of the play as a whole or this particular stage of his personal journey.

 

Now we have a full week ahead with 6 shows. Time to learn how to pace ourselves. Fridays and Saturdays are great to perform on because there is a freedom about the weekend. Audiences are livelier too. But the challenge is to live up to the standards we've laready set, and then better them.