Sorry!

I am so sorry I haven’t been with you, blog, for such a long time. I have been very busy and by the time I finish rehearsals every day the office is shut where I write you! (Oy - don't blame us! Marketing Dept)

The past two weeks, surprisingly, have just been runs, runs and more runs. I say surprisingly as I don’t think anyone envisioned us doing runs in the fourth week with two more weeks of rehearsal to go, but being a short play, The Comedy of Errors enables this. Thus far it is running at one hour thirty four minutes unlike many Shakespeare plays which are usually cut to shreds to enable a modern day audience to stand it. I feel this is understandable, as I often find it painful to sit through three hours of Shakespeare, and I’m an actor! This means that Comedy of Errors is perfect for a first time Shakespeare-goer. The language is not too cryptic, the plot isn’t too emotionally heavy and you’re not required to use the same amount of brain power as a person sitting a very important exam.

We are now running everyday in the ‘module’ which is an experience in itself without the 750 bodies that will inhabit it next Wednesday. In some ways I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone and in others it feels like I’ve known the people I’ve been working with for years. We are a lucky company as from week one it has really felt like an ensemble. Everyone gets on and is incredibly supportive of one another and I tell you, I have really needed it this week.

This week and the last, I felt like I lost my whole ability to act and this, as you can imagine, is pretty devastating! I didn’t really know which direction I was going in, this time with the Courtesan, whose soliloquy I was having particular trouble with. I forgot the reason why I was saying what I was saying; my objective, this being to get my ring or the chain from Antipholus. I had a few sessions with Roxanna who completely steered me in the right direction and after a couple of sleepless hours a night of my going through the speech in my bed pretending that people were asking me questions, I felt like I was getting a sense of the speech being driven.

Costume fittings are happening regularly now, make-up and hair style is being discussed and the play looks more imminent. Seeing the costume helps with character particularly for the courtesan who is corseted up in an elaborate lacy design. I cannot comprehend how the costume people do what they do as it seems like such intricate work. This blog is probably going to be longer than the play, but it is two weeks of juice I had to dish.