Rehearsals for Twelfth Night have got off to a flying start and I really enjoyed my second rehearsal last night. There are some superb characters and performances already, so it’s promising to be quite a show. Twelfth Night is one of the smallest casts I’ve been involved in for a while, so I feel very privileged and proud that I’ve made it onto the team.
Andrew is shaping up nicely. I find it intriguing that what I work on at home never seems quite right and yet at rehearsal it’s coming together wonderfully. I imagine in the company of my fellow actors and under the watchful eye of our director Caz, the often raucous ambience that’s generated must act as a kind of creative gel, filling in the gaps and smoothing over the rough edges of the character. Ok maybe a bit far with analogy there, but I’m sure you take the point; the positive, jovial atmosphere is definitely assisting the creative process.
I’m very pleased that this early in rehearsals Sir Andrew is already bedding in because it bodes well for what I might achieve by the time we finally get to perform.
The Minack Theatre, Porthcurno: Henry's home for a week.
The Minack Theatre is hacked spectacularly into the cliffs of Porthcurno bay a stone’s throw from Land’s End. What struck me about the theatre was the sense of tranquillity you experience as you wander around its nooks and crannies. I say wander, hike may be more appropriate and it’s probably far less elegant than that. More often than not I found myself gasping for breath and rubbing my splitting calves. Get-in was a new kind of hell. At the time I thought nothing of bounding up and down the steps carrying props, costumes and other assorted acting paraphernalia. “How fit as a fiddle am I?” I convinced myself, but waking the next morning my legs were barely functional. This, compounded with the resulting maelstrom in my head from the previous night’s revelries, made for an interesting day running the technical and dress rehearsals.
Backstage at the Minack the horizon feels like it envelops you. “Where else can you go out of the stage door for a cigarette and get a view like this?” said John, our production’s Warwick. Stage right exits and entrances are not a problem, but in order to make your entrances upstage and stage left you have to take a cliff side path. This runs parallel to the back of the stage, with the stage itself being on one side and a vertical drop onto the rocks and crashing spray on the other. Apparently at one time there was no railing and many a promising thesp was lost to the hungry ocean below. Maybe.
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In the early hours of Saturday morning I will be heading down to Cornwall to perform in Henry V at the Minack Theatre. I’m really looking forward to it and weather permitting it will be fantastic. I’ll blog about it when I get back, but in the meantime click on the image to see backstage photos from the shows at Derby Grammar School.
Fluellen - Angry about leeks or something
Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company frequently hire costumes from the Royal Shakespeare Company. More often than not there are labels inside and you can find out the production, actor and role the costume was used for previously. I was particularly excited to find out that my Montjoy costume belonged to Jonathan Slinger’s Richard II in the RSC’s recent histories cycle. If you click the link it’s the one he’s wearing in the photo, minus the jerkin.
If that wasn’t impressive enough our Fluellen Mat’s suit of armour belonged to Brian Blessed in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Tickets for Henry V are available from the Minack Theatre website.
Update: Henry V has been and gone, I hope you enjoyed the show.
Despite his best attempt to disguise it as a weather report, Andy Potter has given Henry V a lovely review in the Derby Evening Telegraph:
Shakespeare in the open air and a British summer - the recipe for a fine and relaxing night out. The British weather does its best to compound that idea, ensuring that in the lead-up to this latest production by the Derby Shakespeare Theatre company of Henry V, everyone was watching the skies, hoping that the battlefields of France wouldn’t become a sodden quagmire.
As it happened, we happy few, armed with umbrellas and warming refreshments, witnessed yet another excellent telling of the Bard’s work.
Chris Scott has to carry the full weight of this production on his shoulders as the King intending to fight for the lands of France. He has to be astute, grand, personable and a man whom we believe people would fight for.
Scott pulls this off with ease, cutting a swathe through the performance area at Derby Grammer School. So immersed is he in the character he also sports a rather serious haircut to add to the illusion.
Under long-term Derby Shakespeare member Ian Arnot’s direction, the introduction of the warring sides is handled with simple isolation. Scott aside, Helena Franklin as Princess Katherine enchants with her learning of English, and is coyly believable in the protracted finale.
The production is punctuated with fine performances, Matthew Shepherd, Joe O’Brien, Michael Gaunt, Eddy Chambers and Jack Bamford are just some of the people who provide them and when this production heads to the Minack Theatre in Cornwall at the end of the month it will be a fine advertisement for the talent we have in Derby.
Cry God for Harry! England and St George and look forward to another hundred years of Shakespeare in the City, with the sun shining and not an umbrella in sight!
(Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)
I had a terrific time at Henry V rehearsals last night. Andy our soundman made his first appearance and this meant much topping and tailing of scenes in order that he could work out the cues for sound effects. I spent most of my time standing around chatting or gabbling my lines when required in order to save time. It’s amazing how the rhythm of Shakespeare’s verse can allow you to deliver your lines at pace and how trickier it is to accomplish the same with prose. When speaking prose you have to stick to the cadences in order to maintain speed whereas with verse speaking once you lock into the iambic rhythm you can just whizz along.
Despite being in several of Shakespeare’s plays Henry V is the first I have done in traditional costume and it was the arrival of the costumes from Stratford that really made the rehearsal for me. AMAZING! I’ve been in a few productions, all with terrific outfits, but these are in a different league. Hanging banner-like from the greenroom walls were polythene bags containing the type of military wear that you would have expected to see running around the fields of Agincourt 600 years ago. The room was a melee of brigandines and tabards displaying the Lancastrian coat of arms, barbute helmets, plate armor, gauntlets, hauberks of chainmail and chausses for the legs. Apparently there is more coming from London. It’s all very exciting.
For more information about Henry V and booking tickets visit the Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company website.
Update: Henry V has been and gone, I hope you enjoyed the show.