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.

The desks arrived mid week.  The bulk of the action takes place in the front office of the Hospital and ERICH and LISA have their territories and activity defined by their desks.  ERICH’S desk has two drawers which contain all manner of medical equipment   plants and half empty schnapps bottles,  on top of LISA’S desk sits a switchboard- portal to the outside world and bearer of bad news.   Kevin the Designer has ensured that ERICH’S desk is reinforced to the extent of being able to bear the weight of a man standing on it-  which may well prove necessary-  and this sturdy beast took some effort to get in to the rehearsal room.  These specially built pieces of furniture look both magnificent and chilling,  reminiscent as they are of hospital beds and are also,  we discovered,  beautifully percussive.   LISA’S Perspex switchboard arrived later in the week,  containing a sea of wires which light up on incoming calls and a bell.  Next week the floor will arrive and all the stunning set elements will be in place.

Wednesday was a pivotal point in rehearsal,  we were able to run the entire play.  Ben was able to retain most of his-extensive- activity and barring the missed movement of a couple of chairs all stood up well.  There was a tangible sense of relief for all,  knowing that the shape of the production was in place,  that it worked,  and for all of the actors the first clear sense of journey through the two hours activity. 

On Thursday we continued to work again through the acts,  defining key flash points and Angus Deuchar,  the photographer,   came in to take rehearsal room shots.  The shoot went well,  and we look forward to seeing the result.

On Friday we had a full run.  The actors pulled out all the stops after a hard weeks work.  Key next week will be smartening up the movement sequences and developing and marking key moments.  Ben was terrific in the run,  he’s absorbed and worked on all of his activity and it’s shaping up to be a mesmeric performance.