Rehearsal diary, week 2

'Cloud Nine' by Caryl Churchill

By Aggi Gunstone

Well, in the true spirit of the arts we have found a patron. Nick Peel from Stokes of Lincoln has lent us his coffee warehouse again for rehearsal this week. Thanks Mate. If anyone saw Hayfever, they may remember Nick´s hilarious fork breaking antics and fantastic charades playing ability. Nick is this week´s saviour.

So we assembled on a street corner at 7pm on Monday night, looking for all the world like we were about to engage in the oldest profession. It was fantastic going back into the warehouse as we rehearsed Hayfever there and it felt like coming home. If walls have memories and building do really absorb the acts which take place inside them, as some people believe, then that warehouse has some great stories to tell. In a frightfully posh accent.

It is a great space to work in and we really went for it on the first night, despite the absence of a cast member. The first act is set in Victorian colonial Africa, and introduces the family who also appear in the second half. Churchill has made some very obvious points in the casting of the first half which I won´t spoil for you but are very interesting to play with. We leapt straight into action and blitzed through a couple of scenes. Mainly we were working out logistics, but there was some great interaction and discussion about what was actually going on, which is after all what the play is supposed to provoke. By the second night we had a full cast and had blocked and run Act One. Crikey, in the words of the late, great Steve Urwin (RIP). Things were really cracking on. We have been exploring the set design which Kev has come up with and it feels very natural. We haven´t done a production in the round yet, so it was a new experience for everyone. The first half seems to flow really easily, despite a lot of exits and entrances from all the cast. This really keeps the energy up onstage. Of course the fact that we already had our exits and entrances in our books due to some serious forward planning from our glorious leader helped immensely. Lindsey´s accent is fabulous and his rendition of In The Bleak Midwinter is mightily impressive. Everyone is working really hard and really pulling the stops out and Simon is doing an fantastic impression of a young Lady Di, he and Jo are clearly going to be vying for lookalike status by the end. Keep growing the hair Jo.

We ended the week by beginning to look at Act two. We got through about half of it but at 9.30 it was decided unanimously that we had worked hard this week and deserved a break, so off to the pub for much quaffing of ale, tomfoolery and high-fluted literary debate. Well, discussion of Terry Pratchett at least.