So. Week four is almost upon us. Already. Can anyone tell me where July has gone? And also, where on earth the sun has gone? Please? The heatwave we experienced in the first week feels like a distant memory as we rehearse to the sounds of torrential rain, wind and if we are lucky the occasional clap of thunder and bolt of lightening. Actually, this is quite a blessing as our rehearsal room transforms into a sauna in the sunshine and the show is so physical that it would be totally unbearable for the actors to work in. Am hoping that this rain does not follow us up to Edinburgh. Fat chance.

Anyway. Enough weather chat. Far more interesting things have been going on in the rehearsal room. It has been a busy ol week, (but still managed to find time to work through some amazing lunch deals that a nearby Japanese restaurant offers) beginning with a pretty intense Monday. We began the day going over everything we worked on last week, then Mark from Blind Summit took the actors, particularly Harry (who plays Charles) through their puppeteer-ing paces. While some of the cast have had some experience of puppetry, for others this is a completely new skill to learn and I am amazed at how quickly they have gotten to grips with the basics. Having built an understanding of the key ingredients of working as a puppeteer, the challenge was now to really invest in the puppet as a character; as Charles Darwin. Keeping the discipline of the movements, the next stage is finding ways of making him stronger and more active within the scenes. What is our young Charles Darwin like? Mark worked with Harry away from the text of the play and took him through a serious of exercises and improvisations to help him connect with the puppet. It was a really tough session actually, there is such an incredible amount of skill and patience that goes into puppetry, but also courage. Courage to kind of go outside of yourself and into the puppet. It sounds a bit weird, but true. Otherwise all we see is a human standing there manipulating a puppet, as opposed to believing that the impulses and thoughts come from the puppet itself.

To allow the puppet Charles to travel, 3 people need to be on him, so Mark then worked with them to ensure that each component of movement (eg the head, body and feet) are all connected to the same thought. Incredibly difficult, but progress was definitely made this afternoon. And this progression manifested itself in a pretty wonderful moment later on in the week, when Mark was in rehearsal again. We had just come back from lunch and were waiting to begin the afternoon. Harry was sitting with puppet Charles next to Max (who plays his grandfather)and they began quietly having a conversation. Away from the text, the play, and the pressure of having to perform, the puppet Charles began to emerge as a real little boy. They just kept chatting, in character and gradually everyone in the rehearsal room tuned in, and began to listen. It was quietly exciting to watch the puppet come to the fore and engage on a real level with Erasmus. Harry was nowhere to be seen. It felt like a really significant moment in Harry’s journey with the puppet Charles, and as a result, things really moved forward when we returned to the scene work.

Tweaks and cuts continue to be made to the script as we discover more and more what this play is. Both Steven and John are happy for the script to continue evolving and trust that any changes that are made are because we have found a clearer way of telling the story. We did our first run through on Wednesday, which was epic, to say the least! Everyone did such an amazing job to remember all 39 scenes and it was great to get a sense of the structure of the play of a whole and what kind of journey it took us on. We are still working mostly with rehearsal props, while James, Joni, Spenser and Sydney peg it around the country gathering various props, costumes and the odd stuffed animal or two. (The arrival of a peacock headpiece caused much hilarity. It is literally a peacock. On a headband. Delightfully modelled by Max, a photo will accompany this entry very soon.)
Everyone just about knows the broad outline of their journeys, but what with explosions, flowers changing colour, seasons changing, millions of costume changes, and the rest, the true test will be when we get into tech as to whether things will work how we need them to.

Now that the physical shape of each scene has been outlined, the challenge is to find the balance between playing the comedy and allowing for beauty, wonderment, discovery, and even subtlety! As the actors grow more confident in the physical elements of the show, more room can be given to character detail, and emotional truth. To look for laughs is the death of comedy, and laughs have to be earnt.

As well as lots of hard work, lots of laughs have been had this week,(a good sign for a comedy), as well as a few bursts of the frog chorus, and a short moonwalk competition (neither in the show. Yet.) But what we have to be careful of is assuming that what we find absolutely hilarious in the rehearsal room, will also be appreciated by an audience. Such a tricky thing to measure until you actually get the show in front of people. Will an audience find things like calling the poor and needy of Shrewsbury ‘herim’ (mixture of her and him. As they are both male and female. Lets see whether it makes it to the press night….!), drawing worms reproductive organs and worms with smiley faces on blackboards, funny? Not long to wait now…..