What I haven't failed at, on the strength of tonight's final rehearsal, is making this very difficult play work. I was delighted by what I saw tongith, in every scene. Characters were coming through, actors were bringing new things to moments, and scenes which had, frankly, been hard work were enjoyable to watch again for the first time in several weeks.
It wasn't always thus. When we reassembled last Sunday after a week without rehearsals, our attempt at a run-through did not bode well. Lines were all over the place, scenes were trudging along having not been rehearsed for a long time, and there were lots of distractions with the various bits of technical hardware that form a part of this show. The following two rehearsals saw me ringing in the changes for a few scenes that simply weren't working as theatre. These changes were not insignificant, and at the time I worried that too many alterations at such a late stage would serve only to confuse the cast, having been used to the original ideas. But I felt I had to bite the bullet and take action where I felt it was needed.
Personally, while I recognised the need for change, I felt I was running out of ideas. Fortunately two things came to my rescue. First, the cast. Rather than resisting such eleventh hour adjustments, they embraced the problem and offered interesting and workable solutions. Second, our exploratory work last year. As so often seems to be the case, we ended up reincorporating ideas that had emerged as early as the audition, but had been shelved for no real reason other than having moved beyond that point.
The result was some major changes to not only what the actors are doing but also the set design itself. After having a couple of days off, we met again tonight in the somewhat pokey environs of Bedhampton Arts Centre to have another crack at running the play.
Suffice to say, all the various elements came together for the first time, and suddenly I seemed to be watching a piece of theatre, rather than a series of sketches. Each scene worked on its own merit, and there were some wonderful moments. I can now look forward to the get-in confident that this production will work.
The only unknown quantity now if the technical stuff. We have been rehearsing with the camera and projector for a while, but haven't seen anything in the way of lighting or digital animations that form a major part of the show, and I've only been able to bring in sound at the last few rehearsals. These elements need to click, and fast. It is with excitement and no small amount of trepidation that I anticipate our scheduled mammoth 13-hour get-in Sunday, which will be the first time that any of us will see exactly what the audience is going to see in just a few days time.
As Sir Alex Ferguson said, it's squeaky bum time, but now I can see a decent end product on the horizon.
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