An Early End to Week Three...

It's Saturday afternoon and, unexpectedly, here I am in the living room of my flat in London cosily wrapped in a duvet! We were due to rehearse today, but Matthew decided that the show is in very a healthy state and that we should therefore have the whole weekend to rest.

Yesterday we ended our third week with yet another run-through and some detailed work in the afternoon. The run went very well indeed, despite many of us feeling as though our performances were tired and lacked an edge.

Afterwards Matthew said he felt we've each made a strong connection with our characters, that we are therefore making stronger choices in terms of how they behave, and, correspondingly, that the dynamic world of the classroom is reading very clearly.

Amongst other things, the afternoon included more work on scenes involving Elaine's characters.

Because Jenny Bennet is the child who 'knows everything' and is chosen by the teaching to do everything, Elaine has lots of stage business. 

Similarly, Jenny Bennet's mother (also played by Elaine) is the busy-body chair of the PTA. So, she's the one who organises the wine and mince-pies for the parents (the final scene) and flies around the stage organising and involved in multiple-conversations.

Consequently, Elaine has a very complex technical route through the show, which requires incredible focus and lots of practice. And, of course, all of this technical detail must be executed in character. It's just as well that Elaine is an excellent actor and a cool and capable all-rounder.

For me, yesterday was another day of discoveries. Some were specific discoveries, like how to say a particular line so as to express a richer meaning with the words.

But I also made some broader discoveries. I'm becoming more relaxed with my adult character, and despite having had no distinct break-through in terms of my understanding of him, he feels more real and more grounded as a result of this relative relaxation.

I also learned something about the rhythm of my child character; namely that he rarely runs; somehow, he's too self-conscious. Hitherto, I'd been running away from Peter Crouch (the classroom's Praying Mantis), in order to satisfy some notion that it would be more comic. Yesterday, I allowed myself to walk away and this felt far more expressive.

Walking down the road at lunchtime, it occurred to me that I'm doing a lot of talking at the moment! That might not sound so surprising, but I'm usually very reserved and speak very little.

In Hull I've been gassing in a way that I can't remember doing for years! I can only suppose that this is because I'm very happy in this town, with this group of people, doing this play.