Hello. Just a small update. It is the end of the week. Casting for ‘Tales of the Country’ has been in full swing. The wonderful Jenny and Thomasina in the office had arranged a couple of jam packed days for us in London, where we saw over 40 people for the roles of Brian’s wife Jane, and for the children, who will be played by a single actor. No mean feat to play not one, but three children, and also another 15 parts on top of that! With very little time, we had to assess how comfortably actors could switch from playing a laconic Herefordshire Policeman to an intelligent 10 year old girl asking for a puppy! Orla and I were joined by Nick on the first day, who sat in on the afternoon session, and then by Brian on the second day. After spending months reading his columns, his books and of course the different drafts of the play, it was so great to finally meet Brian in the flesh, making him more than just a character on a page! I couldn’t stop thinking as we heard actors read scenes with Brian and his children how utterly surreal this must be for Brian; to watch his life transmute into something that he kind of has no control over, but that ultimately aims to represent his experiences over the last 7 years.

Not only did Brian join us to observe who we might be casting in the play, but he wanted to write about the experience in his weekly column. It kind of makes my brain hurt to think about it, but his book is being adapted by a writer, which is then being interpreted onto the stage by the company, which is being written about by Brian in his column, which is in turn being written about by me on this blog! We waited on tenterhooks until yesterday, when his article about our auditions was published. What would he say? Did he enjoy it? I’ll put the link to it here so that you can see for yourself, along with links to previous articles which give Pentabus a mention……

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/brian-viner/

We saw some fantastic people and next week sees our hunt for Brian Viner himself.

Yesterday we had our first production meeting in London, where we all got to say hello to each other, and begin to discuss the nature of the project. James, who was the fabulous designer on ‘Origins’ has created another cracker for ‘Tales’, with a simple but beautiful set that can be put into the various spaces that the play will travel to. Along with Alex, the lighting designer, they have to work to create an interesting playing space that can be adapted to play in both tiny village halls and a 400 seater studios. Everyone seemed really focused on getting things going, which is very exciting, and plans have been made to begin props buying and set building… watch this space!

We go into rehearsal in 6 weeks or so, much to be done between now and then and a great team to do it. Maybe Brian will pop along to casting next week to catch some people reading to play himself…or maybe that will prove too weird for him, who knows!