Sneak Peak of the Week:

Actress Rachel Donovan takes time out to discuss her multiple roles in the play and experiences so far....


So Rach, how did you come to work for Original Theatre Company?

I first heard about Original when I was doing 'The Miser' at the Coventry Belgrade, with the actress Lin Blakley.  She had worked with Original on 'Vincent in Brixton' and mentioned what a wonderful experience it had been.  Ever since then they were on my radar, so when a breakdown came into my co-op agency looking for Irish actresses for their next production of 'Dancing at Lughnasa' I forwarded the details to a cracking actress, Siobhan O'Kelly.  She subsequently got the job, and so when their following tour for 'See How They Run/Twelfth Night' came in, Siobhan kindly returned the favour and submitted my name.
 


You play 3 roles in the play, including a hilarious scene stealing cameo as 'Shitty Meg'. Have you done a lot of comedy before?

I trained in Clown and Mask under John Wright.  This background seems to steer me towards seeking the 'funny bone' in any character I play.  Comedy is definitely what thrills me the most.  My worry with 'Shitty Meg' is that she's very easily played for laughs, so I consciously try to fight against this.  I want her to represent the 'lowest of the low', a convict who has reached a ripe old age by being manipulative, bold and opportunistic.
 



What was your favourite part of rehearsals?

Controversially I loved the early research period in the first week.  We studied individually then reported our findings back to the group, consequently it felt like a collective learning process.
 


The real-life Dabby Bryant's incredible escape from the Australian penal colony, and subsequent survival, has been well documented and dramatised. Were you able to practically feed any of this research into your playing of the Dabby we see in the play?

Ultimately the Dabby I'm playing has been informed by Timberlake's script.  Initially I was seduced by other 'versions' of this historical figure (because there are so many) and I foolishly thought I could incorporate them all into one mega Dabby!  I attempted to draw up a factual timeline - from her arrival on the colony to her daring escape - but this clashed with the chronology of the play.  Same thing happened when I collated a list of Dabby'swants/desires/needs (imagined from the 'historical fiction' books about her) but this just got in the way of trying to play the intentions of each scene.  However, what I have taken from all these Dabbys is the overriding sense that she was a survivor - someone who had bags of resolve and an inner resource of hope.  Someone who would employ a mixture of bullying and encouragement to achieve results.  
 

Do you have any pre-performance rituals which help you prepare each night?

I found a couple of folk songs about Dabby, so they are now on my ipod and I love listening to them while I'm warming up.
 

The complex 'friendship' between Dabby and Mary is initiated with Mary being 'pimped out' for food on the ship. But there's a real shift in their relationship throughout the play. Is it Mary that needs Dabby or vice versa?
This shift is nicely tweaked each time they appear.  On the face of things, Mary relies on Dabby to be her mouthpiece and to secure all her 'contracts'.  But the tide begins to turn by Act 1 Scene 8.  In which Mary finally speaks up, in turn Dabby suppresses her.  Dabby treads a delicate line of motherly manipulation for selfish gain, but it is Mary who has to 'spoon feed' her the lines.  Dabby is eventually left behind (literally, at the top of Act 2 when she doesn't appear in 'Visiting Hours') but is this because she has distanced herself - perhaps preparing physically and mentally for her escape.   
 

If Dabby had one item that she was allowed to bring to Australia, what would it be?

Unbelievably she did bring something back from Oz.  Despite being recaptured and subjected to the worst treatment of all on her return journey to England, Dabby clutched onto a parcel of dried sweet tea.  She had collected this before they embarked, and eventually gave it in thanks to her emancipator James Boswell.  But my choice item would be....well considering she had nothing, a piece of Plymouth rock - which would act as her Talisman. A little piece of home. 

http://www.originaltheatre.com/

Act Two, Scene Four. A tale of two towns.

Hello lovely readers, and firstly apologies for the lateness of this post. Carrying my poor mac book around the country in a suitcase appeared to have taken it's toll and I thought my little white baby had given up the ghost. Thankfully, what I thought was a dead computer turned out to be simply a broken power switch (very high tech). So it's now all been all fixed and ready for me to unleash my latest blog. Thanks for your patience!


A fleeting visit to Reading.

The Hexagon, Reading.

We began the week at the vast space that is the Hexagon Theatre in Reading, a large 950 seat venue built in the late 1970's. The Hexagon we are told due to it's size is more often used for music concerts and gigs so a visit by Original Theatre was a rare (and as later expressed by one audience member) relished opportunity to see some good drama at home.


We played just 2 nights in Reading and the audiences on both nights were almost entirely made up of school groups. And I must say they were the sweetest, most audibly involved and responsive audience we've had yet. It's a real joy to perform this piece to young people. There was a definte sense that those watching had some understanding of the play and yet were completely open to coming along on a visual journey with us.
I was surprised looking through the theatre's programme to see that Our Country's Good was one of the only large scale 'straight plays' showing that season. Plenty of comedians and concerts and commercial events. But where was the drama? Undoubtedly the theatre knows it audience, and perhaps it's Reading's close proximity to London theatre-land that makes it a less desirable venue to visit for traditional plays. But it's a shame. I'm realising just how spoilt I was to growing up with the Bristol Old Vic and Tobacco Factory Theatre on my doorstep, both of which produced a varied and challenging body of wonderful work that kept me captivated and inspired throughout my teenage years. In fact my first steps on stage (aside from a few school plays) were with the Bristol Old Vic Youth Theatre, in a production of Our Country's Good no less. (I was 17 and made a rather hard, bristolian Duckling.)  I hope we've inspired some of the young people watching this week to seek out decent theatre and enjoy it as a regular part of their cultural lives.


"And I would walk 400 miles"...

Hiding Away in our little Berwick nook.

With fingers and toes crossed against another bout of snowfall, the latter half of the week saw us all trekking the 370 mile trip up to the beautiful Berwick-Upon-Tweed and The Maltings Theatre. And now the tour really begins! Jen had booked a number of us into the lovely little rabbit warren that is the Hideaway Hostel within minutes from the theatre. And as we checked in, spying the comfy communal lounge and gorgeous log fire, plans were made for a night in with copious bottles of wine and hi-jinx. AFTER the show. Of course.


The Maltings is a very sweet and ornate little theatre, well loved by it's local audience and equipped with a lovely cafe and spacious rehearsal room where the youth theatre regularly meet. There's a real sense of it's place within the community. The dressing room allocated to us ladies was unlike any other I've been in, a comfy little haven seemingly designed more for tea and lounging than pre-show preparations. The Maltings also has the kitchest of theatre bars plastered with theatre and film posters, ornate mismatched lampshades and trinkets, and old black and white movies streaming on a small screen above the bar. It's the kind of watering hole that wouldn't be out of place in shabby-chic Hoxton. But the beauty of this place is that it's unaware of the fact. And the best thing? It stays open! After the show! Till very late! (or at least until the last sodden actor stumbles out). More of that later. Back to the play in hand.

Our diminutive, cosy dressing room

Our first night at The Maltings played to a sadly small but warm audience. Alastair's decision for us to make a plea at the curtain call for those watching to spread the word worked a treat though, and the numbers did increase for the following night. The stage at The Maltings is the smallest we've been to yet (our set just about fitted on!) but with few small adjustments to exits and entrances we made it work. And after the large scale of our last two venues, what a treat it was to get back some real intimacy in the scenes and not have to worry about being heard on the back row. I was particularly happy to feel a sense of delicacy coming back and as a cast it was noticeable to see many of the others relaxing and playing again with the smaller moments. 

Jack and Sheun overjoyed to settle in as roomies.

It was great to spend some time with the actors and crew after the show. It's important to have a bit of non-work bonding time. I really do think it's reflected in the work done on stage and a number of us enjoyed for the first time being able to hang out together in the evening. It'd been a relentlessly busy few weeks getting the play up and running and as our rehearsal/playing venues up until this point had been within commuting distance, few of us had had the chance to really socialise together without dashing off to catch trains. Being right up on the Scottish border without a paddle meant there was no choice but to entertain ourselves after hours. Particular high-lights (or low-lights depending on your stance) include Jack's fearless whiskey and wine chasers, Alastair's late night dance show in the living room, dog-sitting for John's impossibly large yet tiny-bladdered furry friend, Adam and Ed's laptop DJ wars and bleary eyed breakfasts with Jen.


Preparing for Prison.
On the Friday a group of us met up with Alastair to discuss and draw up a plan for the Prison Worskhop we'll be running next week. Alongside performing the show at the Jersey Opera House we'll be running a drama session with a small group at Jersey's Le Moye Prison. I'm looking forward to being involved in the workshop. Max Stafford-Clark's company of actors did a fair bit of research talking to prisoners when creating their characters for Our Country's Good and some even watched a prison performance at Wormwood scrubs. It comes as second nature for actors to take an acute interest in people from all walks of life, to watch and study their attitudes and their behaviour. You never know when you might need to draw on it. But any insights we take away from working with the prisoners should really be secondary to our aim in delivering a fun, engaging and I hope creatively inspiring workshop, as well as passing on a knowledge and basic understanding of the play. A few actors in our company have been involved in running similar prison workshops before so they're suggestions as to what to expect have been useful. Although I've not worked within a prison environment before, I do have experience of performing and work-shopping with young people in a number of detention centres and pupil referral units. The experience was emotionally tough at times but extremely rewarding. Their engagement with the play we were doing was so funny, so moving, and occasionally truly inspiring.  I look forward to letting you know how we get on next week!


Conjuring Silvia's Shrewsbury.

Saturday in Berwick gave me the chance to explore a bit of the history of this Georgian market town and I discovered that Berwick has more than a few similarities to the picture of Shrewsbury painted by Farquar in The Recruiting Officer.
It was facinating to walk around the historic Town Walls, built in 1558 to keep out the marauding Scot's. And wouldn't you know Shrewsbury has a long history of fighting to keep out the Welsh!

Berwick Barracks today

I also came across the town's army barracks, built in the early 18th century, which really established Berwick as important military town. Looking over the Barracks, the castle and town beyond I began to imagine what Silvia's life might have been like, living in a small sleepy town like this, so often shaken up by the coming and going of a military presence that happens to include the soldier she loves. How hard it must have been, with all the excitement and disruption these men brought with them to then be left behind. Only to wait and hope she'd see her Plume again, safe and sound returned. No wonder she became so "tired of her sex". 

A depiction of old Shrewsbury. Painting by Louise Rayner 

Something About Mary.
Having a week off before going to Jersey has meant that I've had the chance to go and watch some theatre while back in London - a real treat when you're in the middle of job as you never get the chance. Even though some theatres now do Sunday shows, spending your one day off in a dark auditorium is the last thing you want to do. So I was over the moon this week to bag myself a standing ticket for the entirely sold out run of The Recruiting Officer at The Donmar. 
And what a show it was. I could harp on about the wonderful casting, the hilarious energy and spirit of the performers and the beautiful live soundtrack. I could wax lyrical about Josie Rourke's clever salute to the Georgian theatre experience by flooding the stage with candles and embracing a real sense of restoration audience/actor interaction. But you can read the reviews. For me, it was just so exciting to see 'the play within the play' brought to life. Watching Nancy Carroll's bewitching portrayal of Silvia and Wilful I could see exactly why Ralph would have become so drawn Mary in her playing the part.
And how lovely for us that in a BBC Radio 2 interview this week, two of the stars of the show Mark Gatiss and Mackenzie Crook mentioned our production of Our Country's Good with a very kind plug! Thanks lads! I doff my cap.


Next week, we'll be flying to Jersey so stay tuned for the the low-down on our week abroad at the Opera House.


PS. Keep your eye's peeled for this week's cast sneak peek interview with Rachel Donovan coming soon!


Emily x

http://www.originaltheatre.com/

Act Two, Scene Three: Kingston for a stage.

Baptism of fire at The Rose.
After just 4 preview shows at The Haymarket, we arrived at The Rose in Kingston ready to launch into an eight show week in a completely new and unusual space. Alastair had made us all aware the week before that some adaptions to the staging would need to be made. Coming from a traditional proscenium arch theatre to the large open half-moon stage of the Rose, with its close up pit for audience on cushions, meant a little re-blocking was in order! We arrived early on the Monday to give ourselves time to check out the space and its rather more challenging acoustics. Our set is very open and as there are only cloth curtains enclosing the back of the stage (rather than lovely sound-bouncy, reverberating hard walls) I soon realised that diction and projection were going to be key. Once the cast had assembled we walked through a 'top and tail' of each scene working out where exits and entrances would be made and how to navigate all our quick costume changes and 'push and pull' business in the horseshoe like corridor of the backstage area. 


It was cold backstage. VERY cold. I was not surprised to see snow by the end of the week, even though I always think London might avoid it somehow. If you took a sneak peak behind the scenes you'd have been greeted with the sight of half dressed turns toasting their feet and mitts on a large electric heater, like giant 18th century Donner kebabs, primed with a marinade of glycerin water. That's the stage 'sweat' spray we use to make ourselves look like we're in sweltering Sydney. How ironic.


We had some lovely audiences at the Rose, a nice mix of students and regular 'punters' and perhaps due to the presence of the 'creative' types of Kingston we noticed that the references to theatrical traditions and Wisehammer's play-writing quips went down particularly well.  Being in London also meant that many of us city-dwellers were able to enjoy the attendance of friends and loved ones, as well as agents and casting directors - all very important in the world of 'self promotion'. Whether we enjoy it or not, it's something we actors need to keep on top of. As much as you can get sucked into the world of your current project, there's always a constant nag wondering how you're going to secure your next job....

Phil, playing Asrcott, playing Kite, on mic.

As well as performing in the evenings and matinees, there were various calls from Alastair to further tighten some of the scenes. We also had a final session with Tim Van Eyken who made some more musical adjustments to the songs in the piece, and taught us a strong warm-up routine to keep us all vocally tight  and sounding sweet once on the road. On Wednesday we were all asked to assist with the pre-recording of Arscott's final speech. Our Country's Good ends with the the opening of the Recruiting Officer with John Arscott playing Sargent Kite. As he begins the colony's first performance behind the makeshift curtain, we watch the actors hear the rowdy but positive response to the play. The play ends with the excitement and exhilaration of the convicts and Ralph as their show appears to be a success. It's a powerful theatrical device to end on, so it was important to get it right. In the previews we'd tried Phil speaking this closing speech live from behind the curtain accompanied by canned laughter and cheering. But the timing never seemed quite right and the live speech jarred with the recorded responses. So we decided to record our own versions of the convict and officer audience responses. The opportunity for some company rhubarbing didn't go amiss. We made a somewhat more rowdy, excited crowd. Phil then recorded his speech as well and the two were mixed together along with the closing strains of Beethoven's 5th symphony. The result is far clearer and cleaner and certainly helps punctuate the end of the show with a real fervour and oomph. And it's neat that we now play the entire first fleet of New South Wales.


Congrats in order!
It's been an exciting time for the company this week. Not only have we received some wonderful reviews for the show, including 4 Stars from Libby Purves in The Times, it's also been announced that Original Theatre Company have been nominated for the MEN Awards Best Touring Production for their recent show Dancing at Lughnasa. It's a fantastic achievement for the company to be recognised alongside some top-class theatrical institutions in the same category including the Donmar Warehouse and The National Theatre. Here's wishing Alastair and the team best of luck! 
And we have an award winner in our midst! On Sunday Aden Gillet (who plays Phillip and Wisehammer) won Best Actor in the Off-West End Awards for his previous showAccolade. 
How lovely to be working with such a talented team.

White Out 
During the performance of the final Kingston show, the snow began to fall rapidly. By the time the curtain had come down and we'd packed away our dressing rooms there was a thick layer of the white fluffy stuff coating the roads. We hurriedly said our goodbyes, anxiously heading off to trains and cars for icy cold and tentative journeys home. 


Next up on the touring schedule - it's the North/South hop where we begin the week at the Reading Hexagon Theatre and finish up at the Maltings Theatre in Berwick-upon-Tweed. Let's hope we thaw out in time and continue to get a warm reception!
That's me done for this week but in order to give you lovely readers out there a further insight into the play and our company, here's the first of my weekly interview's for a real peek behind the scenes.
Enjoy.


Emily x


SNEAK PEEK OF THE WEEK:  Chris Harper on playing Second Lieutenant Ralph Clark.


So Chris, how did you get the part?


"Well, two years ago I played Stanhope in Journey's End for Original Theatre Company. Then I assisted Alastair on Dancing at Lughnasa and went on to direct See How They Run last year, so this is my fourth project with the company. But I didn't expect to get cast in this one at all. Ralph has always been a mystery to me and there are elements to him that I'm still discovering every night in performance. And that was really what my audition was: I told Alastair that I was completely lost when it came to Ralph and although it's a part I've known of for a long time I no idea who he was. So I'm amazed I got cast."


You say you know about the part of Ralph before. When did you first come across the play?


"I played John Arscott in my Bristol Old Vic Theatre School production. I had long hair and a beard and tattoos all over my body for the part.  Ralph was played by a lovely actor called Bruce Godfrey, who was certainly very good at portraying uptight and 'pure as driven snow'. But upon reading Ralph's diaries this time round and reading the novel the play was set against, and the history in The Fatal Shore, I've realised there's a lot more to Ralph than I expected. The diary entries in the first act of the play I find particularly tricky because they're neither clear exposition or narrative as such, and they are taken verbatim from the diary entries of the real Ralph Clark (not even in sequential order). So I'm having to speak them out loud and they were written to be read, so that's an interesting theatrical question. I have to admit I've also been very aware of the fact the original Ralph was played by David Haig. He's such a distinctive actor so I've really wanted to make Ralph my own."


Would you say that's been the biggest challenge of rehearsing Ralph?


"Well aside from all that there's a far more internal, human challenge of finding someone who's desperately shy and desperately unhappy, who's having to lead a group of people he has very little respect for. And trying to find his core, his sense of humour, his attitude throughout scenes where he's very aware of he should be behaving. So there's a struggle there, and I find find he starts a very tangled web of an unhappy man."


What did you enjoy most about rehearsals?


"One of my favourite moments is when you see the first full run through and you see what everyone else has been doing. We have a fantastically strong cast, all of whom are deeply involved in their characters and have done some excellent work. And as well as enjoying watching them, I also only then really began to understand where Ralph sat in terms of his place in the team. The actor playing Ralph is the only actor who plays just one part, and I think of him very much as a continuous thread- we definitely see the play through him. So from from the outside I'm very aware that Ralph is the audience's way in to the play. I felt I understood Ralph better once I saw the world he was in come to life"


Have a you done a play set in this period before?


"I've got a big old period face and I tend to do a lot of stuff set in war-time Britain, but yes, actually just recently I was playing 3 parts in a production of Persuasion at Salisbury Playhouse for Kate Saxon. That's a Jane Austen so it's set a just a few years later than Our Country's Good."


What's been your a favourite role to date?


"I'm now beginning to really enjoy playing Ralph because he's been one of the most difficult I've ever attempted and the last few performances I've caught myself actually enjoying it at times! I found Stanhope in Journey's End incredibly rewarding. I think I had most fun playing Don Pedro in Much Ado. He's always played so urbane and formal, he's always so respectable. I think he's more like Oberon- he comes up with all the ideas, all the mischief, he's great fun.


What attracts you to Our Country's Good?


Every time we perform this I see something new in it. Something someone will do or say, some word will resonate differently. It gets funnier and it gets sadder. And everyday and it gets more pertinent. Whether you're thinking of the way society treats prisoners today, or the way a teacher tries to control a class, or the way a director may work with a cast today, or perhaps how a play is received by someone watching it today, this show echoes all of these. You can hear it in the audience, every page has something that makes you think "that happens now, to me". The audience hang on every word because of that.

http://www.originaltheatre.com/

Act Two, Scene One. All aboard!

Art versus Life.
After a whirlwind few days, a somewhat wobbly dress rehearsal and more technical tweaking, we boldly hurtled towards opening night. It's been a tense time and all praise goes to our director/producer Alastair, the technical team and indeed the cast for their hard work and dedication in making it happen. As Alastair writes in the programme notes, Art really does reflect Life and just as Our Country's Good shines a light on the social significance of theatre and importance of fighting for the arts, few watching the show will realise the financial struggles Alastair faced in getting this show on the road. The state of our Arts funding in the the UK right now is at a depressing low and my heartfelt admiration goes out to Original Theatre Company who, as yet without any state subsidy whatsoever, continue to strive tirelessly to create diverse, engaging and challenging theatre for everyone across the country and beyond.

Opening Night.
I'm pleased to say the show opened to a packed house at The Haymarket this week and we're already receiving fantastic feedback from the audiences so far. It's been satisfying to perform to a diverse crowd in Basingstoke that has included young students as well as the more usual older crowd who tend to be drawn to the theatre. And, who thank god for us, keep theatre in the regions alive. The response on opening night was wonderfully vocal reminding us that despite the grit and despair, this play is really rather funny too and has some gorgeous moments of light relief. Comedy can come from the bleakest situations and as a company so seriously engrossed in creating a truthful production you can quickly forget about the funny bits that we all laughed at on the first day. Our audiences certainly gave us a welcome reminder about the wonderful gallows humour that Timberlake gives us in this play.

There's a long standing tradition in the theatre of actors giving each other good luck cards or small momento's on the first night - a chance to reach out in acknowledgement of each other's hard work and make an occasion of communally taking the plunge together. I'd like to share with you my first night gift from Emma Gregory (the actress playing Liz Morden) - a scroll containing the following quote from English writer and free-thinking philosopher William Hazlitt: 

In Defence of Actors.


Actors have been accused, as a profession, of being extravagant and dissipated. While they are said to be so as a piece of common cant, they are likely to continue so. With respect to the extravagance of actors, as a traditional character, it is not to be wondered at. They live from hand to mouth: they plunge from want into luxury; they have no means of making money breed, and all professions that do not live by turning money into money, or have not a certainty of accumulating it in the end by parsimony, spend it. Uncertain of the future, they make sure of the present moment. This is not unwise. Chilled with poverty, steeped in contempt, they sometimes pass into the sunshine of fortune, and are lifted to the very pinnacle of public favour; yet even there cannot calculate on the continuance of success; but are, "like the giddy sailor on the mast, ready with every blast to topple down into the fatal bowels of the deep!"  With respect to the habit of convivial indulgence, an actor, to be a good one, must have a great spirit of enjoyment in himself, strong impulses, strong passions, and a strong sense of pleasure: for it is his business to imitate the passions, and to communicate pleasure to others. A man of genius is not a machine. The neglected actor may be excused if he drinks oblivion of his disappointments; the successful one if he quaffs the applause of the world, and enjoys the friendship of those who are the friends of the favourites of fortune, in draughts of nectar. There is no path so steep as that of fame: no labour so hard as the pursuit of excellence. If there is any tendency to dissipation beyond this in the profession of a player, it is owing to the prejudices entertained against them, to that cant of criticism, which slurs over their characters, while living, with a half-witted jest. Players are not only so respectful as a profession as they might be, because their profession is not respected as it ought to be.


William Hazlitt 1778-1830

Something About Mary. Off to pastures new...
I'm really looking forward to our next stop, The Rose Theatre in Kingston. I know a few actors who have performed there and I think it's going to be rather a unique space to work in. It's a new, purpose built theatre only opening in 2008 and the auditorium is based on the original Elizabethan Rose Theatre on the Southbank of London. There's even a 'pit' where the audience can chose to get up close to the action by siting on cushions right at the foot of the stage. It's going to be real joy to have such close interaction. A warts and all performance. No hiding! Erected in 1587, the original Bankside Rose Theatre eventually fell out of use and by 1606 was abandoned. Shame. I'm sure Sideway would have loved it.


Finally, in this rather brief post (I hope you'll forgive me, it's been a hell of a week!) I'd like to leave you with some more images of the production with thanks to our fantastic photographer Jack Ladenburg. I hope this whets the appetite. 

Come along if you can. And if you can't make Kingston, check out the other TOUR DATES here. We'd love your support. 


It's still early days and in each show I feel like we grow in confidence and become a tighter ensemble working together to tell a timeless story of humanity. A story based on an incredible part of our history. 

Sheun Shote as The Aborigine

Inside the Officers' Mess

Jenny Ogilvie and Phil Whitchurch: Harry and Duckling Go Rowing

http://www.originaltheatre.com/index.htm

Stay tuned next week where I'll be beginning a new feature of interviews with the cast! 


Emily x

Act One, Scene Four: Treading the boards and avoiding the gallows.

Sailing in at The Haymarket.
Here we go! The arrival at the theatre for our final rehearsals and 'tech' week. I'm told the building that houses the Haymarket dates back to the 1860's but the recently renovated theatre inside is a modern proscenium arch theatre with a horseshoe auditorium that feels spacious but nicely intimate when standing on stage. 

I feel the change of scene this week is good for us. Moving out of the rehearsal room in London and just being in a theatre building makes it seem all the more real - by next Wednesday we'll be on the Haymarket stage entering a whole new phase; learning about how the play the works in front of an audience. I can't wait. It's easy at this point in rehearsals to become insular and over critical of oneself and elements of the production that once seemed straightforward seem difficult. The first night date looms overhead, omnipresent, and it feels like suddenly every second counts. As the stress creeps in I've occasionally found myself 'end- gaming', rushing through to achieve an end result of what I think a scene needs to be rather than keeping relaxed and playing and being open to new discoveries. 


I was having a chat about the scene, "Brenham and Wisehammer Exchange Words" with John (aka Aden Gillett who plays Wisehammer). We were talking about the timing within the scene, and I was asking something a bit technical about whether it's better for him if I start speaking a certain line when he's downstage of me rather than upstage, and rather wisely he suggested that we just keep changing it up as he can get bored rather quickly once anything is set in stone. It's a good point. It's going to be a long tour, and as much as it's important to have a clear map in your head of your character's journey and a strong base in the overall decisions made with the director, a show will become stale and deaden if the sense of 'play' is lost. So i'll be aiming to keep myself and others on their toes!

Captain Birdseye and his Fish Fingers

The section of the play John and I were discussing is one of my favourite of Mary's in the first act. It's a gentle and poignant scene where we see two convicts making a real connection, not through the very physical convict currency of sex or violence but though an appreciation words. The lucidity and ambivalence of the English language aptly fits Wisehammer and Mary's attempts to communicate the complexity and uncertainty of their feelings and experiences. In the scene Wisehammer is working but wants to engage with Mary, whilst Mary is desperately trying to finish copying out the play before nightfall. We decided to play with a silence at the beginning of the scene, a chance to see two people busy in their own worlds, comfortable in each others company, and certainly in Mary's case indifferent to the presence of the other. It might be nice to establish this initial silence at the beginning so that when Mary finally does engage with Wisehammer we see that he has really earned it.  
Stepping Up.

On Wednesday the set was fully up and ready for us to take our first tentative steps on stage. Alastair guided us through a walk around set where we are  shown the various exits and entrances. We walked through the journey underneath the stage that we will need to make (occasionally at speed!) to get from stage left to stage right. We were also made aware of any practicalities or pitfalls of the set (ie - there's a step there, or be aware of walking face first into that branch etc...)
We were also allocated our dressing rooms, and Rachel Donovan (Dabby) and I are settling in nicely as roomies in our new part time home. The morning was dedicated to more costume fittings with Ed and hair and make up calls with Jo. It won't be a glamorous show for us ladies - it's all about tattoos, grubby feet and greasy hair rather than hairspray and lippie!


After an afternoon of 'Push and Pull' rehearsal (practising our scene changes and making notes on our individual crate and prop moving responsibilities), Friday and Saturday was allocated to the Tech.

Phil, Gareth and Jenny create Harry's row boat 

'Arry was good to his oars

Some love 'em, some hate 'em. The technical rehearsal is the period where you become mole-like, burrowing yourself away in a dark theatre for about 48 hours or more. We go through the play at a snail's pace, continuously stopping and starting while sound and lights are plotted around you. Costumes are tweaked, props are tested, scene changes are dissected and every technical aspect (other than the performance) is distilled to a point which will enable the first dress rehearsal to run as smoothly as possible. I'm one of the sad few who enjoys the tech. It's the first chance that you get to be in costume and on the set and because the focus in not on the acting, and you go back and repeat sections over and over, you can really use the time to solidify lines, play about with the text a bit and get used to the environment and the acoustics of the space without the pressure of needing to perform.


Something about Mary.

SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END OF THE PLAY, LOOK AWAY NOW!

The final scene titled Backstage, where we see the convicts getting ready for their performance of The Recruiting Officer, presents to us a very different Mary. The shrinking and shameful young convict woman has become an assertive leading lady; she boldly gives the temperamental Arscott notes on his performance, gives a gift to a fellow actress, and takes centre stage for the curtain call. She also defiantly stands up to Dabby when she realises her plan to escape could jeopardise the play and subsequently Ralph's position. At this point, as far as Mary is concerned, her 'love contract' with Ralph and new position within the colony has been sealed. With the performance about to start  I feel that Mary, bedecked as the beautiful and rich Silvia, is really getting into character - in an intimate moment with Ralph, she tells him of a dream where she sees herself with "a necklace of pearls and three children". 
Is the role giving Mary idea's above her station? Perhaps not. In "Letters to George" Max Stafford-Clark describes the potency and sexual excitement of seeing women on stage for the first time, and how the theatre had enabled some leading ladies to climb into the social stratosphere. It's said that George Farquhar had an affair with Anne Oldfield the actress who played 'Silvia' in the first production of the Recruiting Officer. "Nell Gwynne, a comedienne rated highly by Samuel Pepys, climbed the highest social pinnacle - into the kings' bed - while Lavinia Fenton, the first Polly Peachum, became Duchess of Bolton". Climbing out of poverty in Georgian England whether through criminal or legal means was practically impossible so this kind of social mobility was an incredible feat. It's quite likely that Mary would have heard about these famous actresses, and so perhaps the vision of herself as a be-jewelled gentlewoman and devoted wife and mother really does seem in that moment excitingly tangible.  

 Anne Oldfield was acknowledged as one of the best actresses of her time.

"Engaging Oldfield, who, with grace and ease, Could join the arts to ruin and to please." Alexander Pope

And it's not just Mary whose ambitions have been tapped through the play. Sideway now aspires to set up his own theatre company (something the real-life Robert Sideway did achieve). And Wisehammer, the once ignored and alienated Jew, now aspires to become a famous writer. Timberlake however doesn't let us off quite so easily. There's a sting in the tail when Ralph declares their first born should be named after his wife and the crashing reality of Mary as the convict mistress is bravely swallowed.

And so we head into show week with the usual excitement, aphrension and anticipation. I can't wait to share it....


Emily x

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Act One, Scene Three: A Play for Now

Manning Up.
Our final week in Hackney has been a haze of coughs, sniffs and wheezes. I've been trying to fight off a persistent and rather pathetic cold, striving to clear the fug in my head enough to see Mary and the Rev. J in a sharper focus. As we continued to work through the play, I've been making discoveries about both my characters. Trying to find a physical and vocal quality for the Reverend is a nice parallel I have with Mary. She talks about the difficulties of trying to play a man, Jack Wilful in the Recruiting Officer, perfecting the walk and way you men 'hold your head'. The difference being of course that Silvia is a woman pretending to be a man, whereas in Our Country's Good, I'm actually supposed to be the Reverend Richard Johnson....
Or am I?

It's something we've been discussing a lot in rehearsals - how naturalistic do we go with women playing male officers? It's not a film, there's no time for elaborate changes between scenes where the women don prosthetic features, false beards and jock straps. And even if we did - do we really expect the audience to believe we're men?! In my head the Reverend is a 40 something, jowly fellow, slightly ruddy faced from a love of dark red wine and time outside tending to his vegetable patch in the hot Australian sun. But no matter how well I act, I'll never look like the image in my head. It seems that the way to go would be to embrace the 'theatricality' so passionately expressed in the play, by not hiding the fact that we are actors playing a multitude of characters. The design supports this, and there's been talk of the women donning military jackets over their dresses in full view of the audience - nothing hidden. Women playing men, playing women playing men. Just as in Shakespeare's day, it would be have been the norm to see men playing women playing men. Geddit?!

Mark Rylance, one of my favourite actors, as Olivia in Twelfth Night

I only get to play the Reverend for one scene, so it's a tricky task trying to feel like I'm creating a real and well-rounded person. 
There's not a huge amount of information given about him in the play. I don't think an impression of Tom Hollander will suffice! What I'm given are his limited views about theatre (something he doesn't seem to have much first hand experience of), his disapproval of 'co-habitation' and sex outside of marriage, (interestingly a disapproval which applies equally to convicts and officers alike) and the importance he places on teaching morals and encouraging holy matrimony. We also know he is married and one of the few men permitted to have brought his wife with him. During the debate his opinion waivers, and I've been struggling to find his status with the other officers. There's something interesting about the dutiful, perhaps in some cases even grudging respect paid to a religious figure: the man Collins refers to as 'our moral guide'. And I feel as well as his own motives for making sure this convict play does more good than harm, there's also a sense of social politics at play. Does he decide to go along with the idea of putting on a play because he has been convinced, or because the man whose idea it is just happens to be the Governor in Chief of New South Wales? What's in it for the Reverend if he stays on side with Phillip? 
Perhaps rather than focusing on what gender I'm playing, I simply need to find what the Reverend wants and play his objectives to the full - then can I really start getting to grips with who this man is.


Why Our Country's Good? Why Now?
"It doesn't matter when the play is set, it's better if it's set in the past. It's clearer." Wisehammer Act 2, Sc.7


Our Country's Good was written in 1988. The Tories were in power, it was the height of Thatcher's Britain, and Max Stafford Clark describes in Letters to George how theatrical subsidy had taken a huge battering and the gap between rich and poor seemed to be larger than ever. (Ring any bells?)
However Timberlake decided to set her play in the late 18th century and I think Wisehammer has a good point.


I went to see the new play The Riots at the Tricycle Theatre recently, which couldn't be anymore 'current' if it tried. It's verbatim theatre so everything spoken in the play is a direct quote from real people: from MP's, to angry shop workers, to young looters. It's 100% a play for right now. It was a deeply moving, affecting and rousing piece - many people in the audience around me vocalised their response to what was being said, not something that's standard in usual polite British theatre. The subject of the play was something I and many of the other Londoners watching had been personally affected by. There was something so deeply personal and raw about watching the piece that my heart pounded throughout and my response was emotional and heated - so much so that I couldn't see any hope, I was despondent and unable to be quite so objective about the issues being raised.

Yet with Our Country's Good, because it's set in the past, it's not any less powerful or moving but it seems to bring our current day issues into a sharper focus. Some of the social views the play raises on crime and punishment and how to deal with the 'criminal classes' seem eerily familiar when considering the recent riots and how the perpetrators have been spoken about and dealt with.


The more I read and re-read Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore (also published in the late 1980s), the more this becomes glaringly apparent...


Fear of gangs:
NOW:

"Days after the disturbances in August, David Cameron said gangs were "at the heart" of the trouble and announced he was calling in the US "supercop" Bill Bratton to advise on tackling gangs. Only three weeks ago Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, claimed that gang members had played a "significant part" in the unrest.

But the Home Office found that only one in eight (13 per cent) of those arrested were gang members, rising to 19 per cent in London, but well below that in other parts of the country. It added: "Most [police] forces perceived that where gang members were involved, they did not play a pivotal role." [The Independent]

THEN:

"The perception of organised crime would not go away and in time it became more frightening to property owners. A single criminal could be singly met. The householder, armed with blunderbuss and paired horse pistols...could drive him away. But a collective of thugs and thieves, a united 'criminal class' working together in gangs - that was quite another matter. It was largely a fantastical notion, exaggerated by deep rooted territorial instincts. Gangs certainly existed in Georgian England but they were only responsible for a fraction of the deeds that the law defined as criminal... The failure of language - the tyranny of moral generalisation over social inspection - fed the ruling class's belief that it was endangered from below." [Hughes]


Punishment:

THEN:

In Georgian times, punishment for crimes against property and theft were severe due to the the fear of 'the mob'. The vast majority of convicts (431 out of 733 transported in the first fleet of the convicts transported for 7 years or more were for crimes of minor theft.


- Elizabeth Beckford, 70, got 7 years transportation for stealing 12lbs of Gloucester cheese.
- Elizabeth Powley, 22 and unemployed, was to be hanged for raiding a kitchen in Norfolk for a few shillings' worth of raisins, flour and bacon, but was reprieved and sent to Australia for life.
- James Grace, 11, was shipped off for taking 10 yards of ribbon and a pair of silk stockings. [Hughes]


NOW: 
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We cannot have people being frightened in their beds, frightened in their own homes for their public safety.

"That is why these kind of exemplary sentences are necessary. I think people would be rightly alarmed if that incitement to riot got off with just a slap on the wrist."

- Nicolas Robinson, 23, of Borough, south-east London, was jailed for six months for stealing a £3.50 case of water from Lidl supermarket.

- Mother-of-two Ursula Nevin, from Manchester, was jailed for five months for receiving a pair of shorts given to her after they had been looted from a city centre store.

"A Criminal Class"

NOW: 
"The justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, has blamed the riots ... on a 'broken penal system' that has failed to rehabilitate a group of hardcore offenders he describes as the "criminal classes". Clarke said the civil unrest had laid bare an urgent need for penal reform to stop re-offending among 'a feral underclass, cut off from the mainstream in everything but its materialism'..." [Guardian]


THEN: 
Belief in a criminal class was self-fulfilling...mainly because it made rehabilitation so difficult. Once off the edge it was not easy to find another respectable job. From 1800 onward literature [...] sought to describe the causes of crime; poverty, lack of work, dislocation, vile housing, addiction, the death of hope. But the official enquiries [...] tended to hold the view that its class nature mattered more than its causes. [Hughes]

Riot police in Tottenham

Gordon Riots. Painting by Seymor Lucas.

Something About Mary:
On a lighter note, one of the the highlights of the week was finding the real buzz and excitement Mary experiences in the scene 'The Meaning of Plays'. It is one of the last Recruiting Officer rehearsal scenes we see towards the end of the play. It's been liberating to find that at this point, Mary's objective with the rehearsals are becoming less about getting it right, impressing Ralph and being a good student, and more about letting go and enjoying herself with Ralph. It's fun to feel the sense of release that acting gives Mary; the confidence and forthrightness she can unashamedly exploit being 'Jack Wilful'; and the licence it gives her to flirt her socks off with Ralph, under the protective coat of playing Silvia. Silvia's lines echo Mary's feelings and concerns about falling in love with Ralph so potently. Art really is beginning to reflect life. I'm relishing the way Mary can use Farqhuar's lines to express her true feelings. If it wasn't for her role in the play, perhaps she'd never be able to articulate herself so well.


Goodbye Hackney, Hello Basingstoke.

Sunny Bethnal Green

And so- after a heartening run of act one, and getting to see everyone else's (fantastic) work - it was time to bid farewell to our Bethnal Green home. We trundled off, cross country, to pastures new - The Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke for our final week of rehearsals and (dare I say it?) imminent opening night....
Better dose up on those vitamins. Pass the sprouts.

Emily x

Graffiti on the wall at our rehearsal studios




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