On Monday morning we had a play in essence in the rehearsal room, the aim was to have a full two hour production incorporating sound,  set, costume and lighting by Wednesday evening.

A charge of nervous tension was tangible on Monday morning.  Alison the Stage Manager left the rehearsal room to oversee the get in of the floor into the auditorium and we had a final rehearsal room run.  Kevin the Designer arrived and I went downstairs to look at the floor being laid.  This was an exciting moment,  several months previously the floor had only been a concept and meticulous attention to detail had finally resulted in a an extraordinary piece of craft-  containing a theatrical conceit- which was being carried into the theatre in six weighty chunks.  Kevin looked on nervously but was ultimately pleased by its look and perfect fit into the playing area on the stage.

Upstairs in the rehearsal room the actors began packing away the play’s environment (furniture, costume and props) and started to get in to the theatre.  Coming into a theatre for the first time in production week is always a mixture of thrill and terror and the auditorium and backstage area was abuzz with actors getting a feel for the space.  After this moving in period the actors were released as the rest of the day was about preparation for technical rehearsals.

At FB&TV after two weeks into a three week rehearsal period it is inevitable that the final week will be about dynamics,  obstacles and revelations;  with an indeterminable outcome.   The outcome is excellent  …And exceptional.

Ben has been ‘on song’- sometimes literally- this week.  The process is familiar and exciting to him and his performance has developed brilliantly.   He’s found key moments of interaction with Faye/LISA and Margaret/FRAU POPPENDICK and works generously,  takes his space,  connects; always listens-and reacts- moment to moment; Relationships with Johnny/KATSCHER and Bradley/ERICH are complex to play:  at key points KATSCHER tells OSKAR what to do and Ben has worked hard to create movements and impulses related to vehement antipathy.  In his interactions with ERICH there is a similar reluctance but more familiarity- ERICH’S the  angry Boss and  OSKAR the weary cleaner.   The non FB&TV cast have engaged with a process which is not usual.  In many rehearsal rooms props and moments with them involve discussion and dissection; for FB&TV these conversations arrest forward momentum and there have been times this week where the Director has wanted to throttle the writer for the opportunity objects present for ‘realism stasis’.  We inhabit a world where a broom can become a lover and a gun-  for a stethoscope and blood pump pressure pump to be just what they are is a hurdle;  That being said the actors involved have solved the ‘business’ wonderfully and it’s full steam ahead.

Alison Willcox, our new Stage Manager,  started on Monday.  Picking up the role a week into the rehearsal process Alison was pitched immediately into a world of sound cues - intrinsic to the action - and barked orders for lines.  This weekend Alison is buried deep in prop work, making authentic 1940 German letterheads and beer labels and putting together a cover for a typewriter.  We’ve all been really happy to welcome her to the team and the actors are very relieved not to have my inept attempts at picking up the role to contend with.

On Monday we continued to work through Act 2.  The movement of the play towards the climactic sequence is relentless and pacy and it was a challenge to sit in moments rather than following the momentum and driving through to the end.  Faye,  playing LISA,  has the task of typing up a record of events on stage during the course of the action and working with an authentic typewriter from the period demands a different technique - and digital muscularity - much removed from that required for a PC keyboard.   Frequently the keys would mash up together as they struck the paper and the decision was hastily made that LISA is in fact not a very good typist (!).  Bradley and I reminisced about our early writing days when manual and electric typewriters were the only tool available.  The script becomes very choppy and difficult to learn at the high point of the act and the cast patiently worked through the dialogue while secretly cursing the writer.   Ben developed some terrific movement work for the top of the second half and came up with some wonderful spontaneous reactions in Margaret’s scene. Johnny’s physical work at the end of the play took everybody’s breath away.  By Tuesday-  still a day ahead of schedule-  we were ready to run the act.

Days 2, 3, 4 and 5

Flew by.  In the FB&TV office Lynda and Sally (Creative Assistant)- alongside other company activity- organised mail outs and got to grips with the huge workload mounting a major production inevitably involves.  My periods in the office are necessarily fleeting and always come with guilt attached;  while I engage in the exciting creative process in the rehearsal room next door the FB&TV team are doing the hard graft. 

How do you change the wrong time on a rehearsal room clock which stands three metres above the floor without a ladder or any other means of feasible access?  Engage actor Johnny Vivash to lift actor Faye Billing to whip the dial around.  

Energy,  creativity and adaptability have been watchwords on and off set during week one of rehearsals.   We’re one day ahead of schedule,  committed, inspired and satisfyingly tired.

In order to best explain the weeks activities it’s necessary to introduce our cast of characters-  in and out of the play-  who battled into day 1 of rehearsal on a very snowy morning.

How do you re-create a frozen landscape in which breath freezes on the lips and bodies ache for the warmth of kindness?  Step outside for more than five minutes would be the current answer anywhere in the UK but here at Full Body and the Voice we’re been working to create that landscape through script,  design and music in readiness for a rehearsal process that begins next Monday. For HYPOTHERMIA,  a next Monday that has been anticipated and prepared for for a very long time…And here it comes… Real.  Exciting.  Known and unknown. All has been preparation and pregnancy-  now it’s the crucial three weeks before birth.  The hope for the collective conception that is HYPOTHERMIA is for the infant to grow into an early walker, a co-operative child,   a mild show off in adolescence and an adult who is funny,  popular,  sexy,  mysterious,  with flashes of tantalising danger yet rooted in an underlying humanity and generosity.   But that’s the usual hope…isn’t it?