Wheeew. So here is a rather belated post for week 8 which seems now on Monday ancient history as we go jibbering into week 9 and the technical rehearsal of Dry Rot. Apologies for the lateness, but week 8 consisted of the collision of two shows in my head: Dry Rot by day & Bedroom Farce by night.
I definitely feel I know what it's like to be that guy spinning plates on sticks while 'hurry up' music plays frantically in the background! One play is as I've said before a ha ha comedy the other an oh-my-god comedy and the two are odd bedfellows ( no pun intended seriously), rendering this actor's brain more mush-like than usual and the default facial expression that of dazed bafflement. Yesterday I forgot where I'd parked my car. Again I feel compelled to acknowledge that this ain't rocket science or brain surgery- no lives are lost if an actor fluffs a line- but it is very, very special to experience this and to also remain calm. At times that 'special' means tired and emotional.. for some reason your brain takes a while to leave one show and get into the other, resulting in lots of cross-looking people cursing themselves for missing that line or 'dropping' that gag.
The effect of charging about in a rehearsal room for 6 hours can mean that the other show you thought was rock solid suddenly slips out of your grasp. Add to the mix the utterly extraordinary weather, resulting in temperatures up in the 30's in the rafters of TBTL or as we call it the rehearsal room and it's a wonder our amazing lead actors can remember their own names when it comes to 8 o'clock and curtain up! Again this is time to say what a champion job Stefan & Ian do casting people who can not only do the job but who get on with it and keep the off- stage dramas to a minimum. To say nothing of the production team who are also running several shows in their heads and having to deal with us lot.
Ok- I will admit that I should have been toiling over a hot computer yesterday but as a direct result of that aforementioned insane weather and the fact that my fellow actors are all such blastedly excellent company out of rehearsals and that Keswick is a little piece of heaven on earth, I spent all day eating & drinking by the lake and generally mucking about. Shoot me.!
Our first week of audiences for Bedroom Farce have been a great education, varying each night in their reactions, but always 'getting it'. It's a cheeky title for a play that contains so much anguish, but as we all know, often the funniest things happen to us all when life seems grimmest. Some characters are funny to listen to, some disasterous but their behaviour produces genuine situational comedy. We've had quite a few lovely comments as we've been busily acting away, from people all caught up in the action and excellent feedback from friendly folk in the bar. Whereas in Dry Rot, we are all busy finding funny things to do, in Bedroom Farce you sometimes have to resist any attempts at 'funny' or waving from the train as Stefan calls it. In Dry Rot we're all on that huge comedy train and waving for all we're worth. And in this instance it's just the thing to do! Buy a ticket and climb on board. You know you want to. We got to peek at the set today, which is absolutely perfect; a country house hotel of yesteryear. Now we get to climb into our lovely frocks and play on it and we can't wait!
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