The End of Week One... (for me, at least)

The seven year old that I play, Adrian (Wise Frankinsence), speaks with a lisp and therefore says as little as possible. Having stormed off after being teased by Sophie (Shepherd), he's not seen again until early in Act Two. So, I'm not needed for rehearsals today!

Instead I'm sitting in Fudges cafe on Princes Avenue. Rina, who plays Angel, recommended this as a venue for company breakfasts once we get into the run. Whilst writing my diary, I'm testing out the coffee!


Yesterday (Thursday) was our first day of detailed work on the short scenes that begin to emerge halfway through the first act. This is the point in rehearsals when we begin to get called into the rehearsal room in two and threes and the green room begins to feel a bit like an airport lounge, with lots of comings and goings.


In the airport lounge yesterday, Neil (Narrator), pioneered a game of 'celebrity look-alike', which involved using the internet in the green room to discover the image of a celebrity alias for each company member. We've got a Sigourney Weaver, a Ricky Gervais, an Anne Franks and an Anthony Hopkins, to name but four.


This was mine:

Eliott Gould

I'm reminded of the mid-nineteen nineties, when I played a Moroccan toy boy in Coronation Street and was part of a big Christmas story-line that included my marriage to Deirdre Barlow. At that time Granada TV were keen to respond to criticisms about their inclusion of ethnic minorities in the show. Hence the appearance of my character, Samir Rachid. Because I'm half English and half Algerian, I'm wasn't really dark enough for their purposes, so the make-up department always smothered me in brown foundation before I filmed anything! I seem to remember a rather damning review that described me as 'Eliott Gould with jaundice', so there's clearly a similarity, albeit without the brown paint.

Samir Rachid & Deirdre Barlow

Staggered calls mean that when one returns to the rehearsal room, progress has miraculously happened during one's absence. The company reassembled after Matthew and Gavin had worked the carols involving Dale who plays Innkeeper, Frazer who plays Star and Elaine and James who play Mary and Herod. I love that thrilling moment when you witness something that has been worked on and that suddenly resembles a performance.


The carols themselves are wonderfully witty. The challenge for the actors offend involves trying to subvert the musical structure of the carols to reflect the narrative of the invented lyrics of child or children singing them.


Last night we went for a company drink and some food. This is such an important part of a rehearsal process. Because we have only three weeks before we open, the structure of rehearsals is necessarily functional and pragmatic. So, there hasn't been much time to get to know each other by doing more general theatre games and improvisations.


So I was lovely to socialise with everybody and begin to feel a company spirit emerging. Laura (Shepherd) took us to Walters, a bar in the older part of town, and Lucy (Wise Gold) then moved us on to a Chinese restaurant. Around the dinner table, Elaine told about witnessing a hugh spider giving birth to millions of offspring on her hotel room wall in Bali. And Lucy told about being stung by a hornet that had crawled into her t-shirt during a rehearsal.