Rehearsal Diary, third entry - 17 October 2005

'Hay Fever' by Noel Coward

By Liz Lucas

We have really got to grips this last week with lots of bits of this play. There are so many short scenes between two people that it makes rehearsing so much simpler and one doesn't have to call everyone at the same time.

I am beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel now. We have run Act One and I must say it's rather pleasing. I'm looking to run all three Acts next week, one after the other.

I find myself at home talking in what I now call 'the Bliss voice', which is rather dramatic and terribly posh. This voice makes any conversation fun, although it gets rather tiresome after a while. The same, I have to say applies to the play; after some time one gets very irritated with the accents of the protagonists. This makes it doubly important to ensure that the action, what little bit there is, is well choreographed, slick and engaging.

I'm enjoying the challenge of this play, where the manners of the time are somewhat removed from our own and where there were people like the Bliss family, living in indolence, cocooned in their own tiny world of inventive creativity. The actors playing the family are becoming very close and make an excellent team on stage. It is very important to see the Bliss family as a team and the visitors as outsiders, much of the comedy in this play stems from just that.

We have been worrying about rehearsing at Nick's warehouse in costume because it's so filthy but I think I have come up with a solution. I have an old but clean carpet in my house that I am intending to put away in the roof, but as yet have not done so. I will take that and we can rehearse on it. It will make the floor more accessible and help stop dirt getting on the costumes. Pauline will be pleased anyway.

We go on in three weeks!