BTG online review

Tales From the Country

By Brian Viner, adapted by Nick Warburton
Pentabus Theatre Company
Pleasance Theatre

Review by Rachel Sheridan (2010)

Leaving the rat race and escaping to the countryside: it’s what all we Londoners fantasise about from time to time when the overcrowded tubes and unfriendly faces get too much. But for most us it remains a fantasy; realistically the idea of being woken by a cockerel from the local farm every morning secretly fills us with dread.

However journalist Brian Viner decided to take the plunge and move from Crouch End to the Herefordshire countryside. Pentabus Theatre Company, under the direction of Orla O’Loughlin, has taken Brian Viner’s weekly columns for the Independent, bringing to life his pursuit of the rural idyll.

Brian (Matthew Bates), his wife Jane (Sarah Stanley) and their four children (all played by the cheeky Iain Ridley) encounter the various characters that you’d expect to find in a small, quiet village and it turns out that stereotypes do actually exist! Viner’s tale is a hilarious account of a family as they struggle to deal with the loss of stylish coffee shops on every street corner and instead have to make do with the one local pub which is mourning the loss of their beloved snooker table.

Set in the local fete, Tales from the Country effortlessly jumps between the past and present, documenting the decision to move, the actual move and the process of acclimatising. Performed in an almost comic strip fashion, it’s hard to believe that there are only five cast members as characters pop up everywhere in charming cameos, switching between local farmers, children, obnoxious Australians and even to cats and dogs. Claire Vousen is particularly superb as the well-to-do lady in charge of the annual fete and one half of the couple who are devastated when the sale of their house to the Viner’s falls through.

Tales from the Country shows what it’s like when those rose tinted spectacles start to cloud up. But life is what you make it and despite the initial teething problems which are to be expected, a move to the countryside allows the Viners to experience and enjoy the simpler things in life such as the sheer unadulterated high of selling all their vegetables at the harvest festival auction. As a Londoner it’s very easy to look at life in the countryside in almost patronising fashion. It may not have the non-stop pace and excitement that London offers but each to their own, right?

Tales from the Country might not set a jaded Londoner’s heart on fire. As a performance it’s more akin to a cosy seat in front of the fire with a nice cup of tea but sometimes that is exactly what you need.

So we are coming to the end of the ‘Tales of the Country’ tour. I joined the company last week for their last show before  the big smoke-in the delightful Abergavenny. I arrived at tea time, perfect. The set was all up and ready to go and everyone was just off to get some food before the half. We sat in a lovely little Italian cafe (which had made the front page of the Abergavenny local paper to celebrate that they had been running for 38 years. A strange year to mark, but any excuse for a celebration I guess! The very same paper also had Sean’s face on the front cover, as he lives near Abergavenny and appears to be somewhat of a local celebrity and thus warranted a feature about him, and the show. Fame indeed!) and while the actors ate, I grilled them about the tour. What had been the best show? (everyone had a different answer, which was good-showed there had been lots of good shows!) Where was the nicest venue? Were they sick and tired of the get ins and get outs every night? (diplomatic answers all round!) Who had been the most hospitable? (People apparently had been extraordinarily welcoming, offering everything from drinks on the house, vast plates of sandwiches and quiches to quite a lot of home made lasagne before the show. Acting on a stomach full of lasagne must have been an interesting one.)  I had not seen them all since the second show, and I was really looking forward to seeing how things had evolved, as it inevitably would over the weeks, as they got to know each other, and the play, so much better.

Abergavenny Theatre was lovely, intimate, and welcoming, but what I didn’t really think about until later was that this was the first venue in a while that had not been a tiny village hall, packed to the rafters with the local community all out for a good evening’s entertainment. I was not able to get to a village hall show and I wished I had, as I understand that the atmosphere was something very special. However, Sean had some friends and family in, and they helped make up the most fantastic audience who seemed to really respond to the world of the play, and the journeys that these characters made. It was a joy to watch-since Shrewsbury, the play had become so much warmer, the characters fuller and the (plentiful) stage business smoother and totally second nature.

Watching the get out after the show (I did offer to help on a few occasions, but the team had developed such a highly sophisticated system of who did what that I would have just got in the way. Honest.) was like watching another show-highly choreographed with everyone knowing their moves and the jobs they had to do, working brilliantly together. The incentive of lots of wine and a celebratory buffet in Sean’s local pub may have been a factor in their speed and efficiency, but they were done and out of the theatre in 50 minutes. bravo. We then spent a thoroughly enjoyable evening in the pub, who had very kindly layed on a buffet that was filled with the most incredible array of breads and meats (mostly unidentifiable, mostly wrapped in pastry or breadcrumbs).

The company then had a couple of days off before the get in at the Pleasance in London. I think it was safe to say that we were all a bit unsure as to what a London audience would be like, as the contrast from rural village hall to London theatre was pretty huge. The company had developed a good sense of what the local audiences would respond to, but the question was, would a London audience have the same connection? Well, yes and no. They seemed to really embrace the world, and the humour, but found entirely different moments of connection to the local audiences;  much of the humour in the play comes from audience recognising familiar situations and characters, which differed according to geography; rural references of course meant more to a rural audience, whereas London references  resonated more with a London audience. I’m sure I am vastly over simplifying things here, but it was just quite interesting to see the play suddenly from the two different perspectives.

Anyway. We have a few more shows left and then it is farewell. Nick Warburton is coming to see it on our final night, with just a few friends, so it is set to be a warm and happy final show I think! And then onwards, to plan what happens next at Pentabus. Watch this space…….

From Ludlow to the Pleasance

 

As Shropshire-based Pentabus brings its latest production to the capital, London-born artistic director Orla O’Loughlin tells Sam Marlowe what made her decamp to the country

 

You never know where a Pentabus production might pop up.  It might be on stage at the Royal Court or Dublin International Festival – but it could just as easily be in a pub, a village hall or even a cave 200 feet underground.  This year, the Ludlow-based company celebrates its thirty-fifth birthday – and with it, a history of making eclectic and innovative work that, while firmly rooted in the soil of its rural locale, branches out to embrace issues of national significance.

 

‘We’re not producing “The Archers” or “local plays for local people” ’ declares Orla O’Loughlin, who’s been the company’s artistic director since 2007.  After a year at the Donmar Warehouse as a resident assisntant director, first to Sam Mendes then to Michael Grandage, she landed a

post in the international department at the Royal Court.  She describes it as ‘the most fascinating time’ – and yet, a year later, she packed her bags and upped sticks for the historic market town on the Welsh border.  Why?

 

‘People thought I was completely bonkers!’ she admits.  ‘Everything was going so well and I was extremely happy.  But I suddenly got a very specific urge to live and work outside the capital.  I wanted a new challenge.  When the position came up at Pentabus, I did some research and I was very struck by the surprising output of this company.  It felt provocative and ambitious, and the variety of scale was really appealing.  There’s a different quality of time and space when working here.  There’s a sense of being able to draw people to come and work with us who feel that they are away from the pressures of an urban centre.’

 

Real country life is no golden idyll: previous Pentabus shows have tackled such knotty subjects as the working conditions of immigrant agricultural workers, and the all-white homogeneity of communities outside our cities.  It’s the schism between urban and rural that informs the company’s current touring production, ‘Tales of the Country’, which plays in London next week.

 

Adapted by Nick Warburton from journalist Brian Viner’s book and columns in The Independent, it tells of how Viner and his family left behind comfortable Crouch End to pursue their bucolic dream in Herefordshire – and the bumblings, blunders and well-meaning efforts to fit in of this set of pampered ‘buggers from off’, which were an exacting trial for the Viners and a source of enormous amusement to the locals.  The show is, admits O’Loughlin who directed it, unusually conventional for Pentabus – ‘but it’s just proved so popular.  Local audiences just love being able to laugh openly at incomers.’

 

There is, of course, a more serious side to the tension between town and country.  A recent project saw a group of writers working a shift in a high-end restaurant, spending an afternoon in an abattoir and exploring the concerns of local farmers, some of whom, says O’Loughlin, regarded them initially with suspicion.  She’s in no doubt that the rural-urban divide is ‘huge’ – and says it has rarely been more to the fore in Pentabus’s work than in a piece about fox-hunting.  ‘Our work on that project threw up all kinds of very strong feelings about who in the UK holds the power, and where that power is.  Britain is very Londoncentric.’  That metropolitan view, she says, is limiting.  ‘Market towns have a reputation as fantastic weekend getaways for nice middle-class couples – and they are,’ says O’Loughlin.  ‘But the people who actually live there, particularly working-class people, are not necessarily so well catered for.’  By way of illustration she cites the situation of Ludlow’s youngsters, priced out of many establishments tapping into the visitor trade, resorting to ‘sitting in groups of five around one coffee in Costa’ – an issue to be tackled by writer Tim Price in a Pentabus commission next year.

 

As for O’Loughlin herself, maybe she’ll always be an ‘incomer’, but she seems pretty settled, personally and professionally.  ‘It always boils down to people and place: where we are affecting who we are and how we are – that’s at the heart of everything.’

 

Time Out  May 6^th-12^th  2010

 

 

Life of Brian

From Country and Border Life 2010

Escape to the Country

A widely successful book charting one family’s move from the city to rural Herefordshire has been adapted for the stage by an acclaimed Shropshire theatre company – and it’s showing across Wales and the Borders

Words: Sally Themans

In 2002, Brian Viner left London with his wide and children in search of the rural idyll. As a senior features writer and columnist for The Independent, Brian’s interviews with sporting legends – Sir Bobby Robson, George Foreman, John McEnroe and Sir Roger Bannister, to name a few – have been essential reading in the newspaper’s pages since 1999, as have books such as The Football Interviews and Ali, Pele, Lillee and Me – his amusing account of the sport he watched on the telly as a boy during the ‘70s.

            But experiencing the “metropause” – a yearning, as he describes it, on the part of him and his wife, Jane, to seek out a different type of life for them and their three children, Eleanor, Joseph and Jacob – the “somewhat urban couple” found themselves in deepest Herefordshire. Here, the trials and triumphs of their new rural existence provided fertile ground for a fresh column, Tales of the Country, and subsequent book, which humorously chart the family’s move. Now, this account of their transition from Crouch End in North London to Docklow, a tiny village with about 100 inhabitants between Leominster and Bromyard, has been adapted for the stage. The play opens at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury this month.

            Ludlow-based Pentabus Theatre Company approached Brian with the idea for turning his tales into a play last year, and the award-winning playwright, scriptwriter and author Nick Warburton has produced the script. “I’ve had no creative input into the project apart from having written the book, which has been adapted brilliantly - by Nick Warburton” Says Brian. “Nick’s a hugely experienced writer for stage, screen and radio whose credits include episodes of Eastenders. That proves what a versatile fellow he is: murder, rape, abortion, adultery, armed robbery, incest – and now cowpats.”

            Versatile is also a description that fits Brian and Jane Viner. They met at the Hampstead and Highgate Gazette and enjoyed a typically “media-orientated” life – he as an award-winning sports and TV columnist with the Daily Mail and then The Independent, she as a producer on the BBC’s Woman’s Hour. The move to Herefordshire kindled a new phase in Brian’s career, with the weekly Tales of the Country column appearing in The Independent alongside Brian’s sporting interviews. “The irony is that, professionally, I was concerned about the move but actually it’s been the best thing I could have done,” Says Brian.

            Such was the popularity of his refreshing and humorous look at his family adapting to country life that it led to the book of the same title, chronicling the Viners’ first year in Herefordshire. Tales of the Country was first published in 2005 and has sold 40,000 copies. A second book – The Pheasants’ Revolt – followed in 2007.

            “Moving was a big step into the unknown and everyone was waiting eagerly to see what was going to happen,” explains Brian. “We’d met in London and had no idea how we would function as a couple, or indeed as a family, in this new environment. It’s a seismic move – it would have been easier to move to Barcelona or Munich than to move from London to Herefordshire.

            “We had in our minds a house on the edge of a small market town or village – the key criteria for location choice being ‘The Cappuccino Test’,” chuckles Brian. “I wanted to be able to walk from my house and be able to get a decent cappuccino as had been my habit in Crouch End. But oh no. The house we found and fell fairly instantly in love with was a far cry from a cappuccino. From Docklow, it would take about half a day’s brisk hiking to get anywhere near a decent cup of coffee.

“Urban living is different from rural living; everything involves a car journey and some degree of planning. We suddenly found ourselves in a much larger, grander house than we’d ever expected to live in; we’d been used to a limp cabbage patch of a garden and now have five acres to contend with. And we also found ourselves the object of a mixture of fascination and suspicion from local people, which I’m told is typical – especially if you move into ‘The Big House’ and especially if you write for a newspaper.”

            The Viners remain humble about their surroundings: “It’s extraordinary from our modest backgrounds to be living here, and we feel very grateful for being in this lovely house in this lovely part of the world.”

            An unexpected consequence of the move to the country was what it revealed about friendship and diversity. “One of the big worries of moving the children from an urban environment was that they wouldn’t get to experience the multi-ethnic, diverse make-up of people we were surrounded by in London. However, when we really looked at ourselves, the truth was that actually all our friends were our age, white, middle-class professionals. What moving to the country has taught is that with a smaller pool from which to choose your friends – you begin to choose those whom you like, rather than those whom you are like. In London it was unthinkable to have friends in their seventies; here, in Herefordshire, it’s a different story and completely acceptable – nay, enriching – to have friends of different ages and social backgrounds. That has changed our view of the world and given us the true meaning of diversity”.

            Local theatre-lovers will be able to witness the family’s transition for themselves when Tales of the Country opens on 8^th April. Following its date at theatre Severn it will tour Shropshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and the Borders before ending up on the London stage in May. “I come out of it a bit of a pillock,” grins Brian. “I’m tickled it’s going to be a play and I hope people enjoy it.”

SHIRE DELIGHT DESERVES TO BE FETED

Reviewed by Lynne Walker
Tuesday, 20 April 2010

Nearly eight years ago, as Independent readers will know, Brian Viner and his family left Crouch End for Docklow Grange, a Victorian manor in Hereford-shire. No-one forced them out of north London; it was merely a bad dose of what he drolly calls “metropause”. Out of this exodus came the column “Country Life” and a book, Tales of the Country. Viner – with a townie’s experience of country dwelling – found inspiration flowing even when the septic tank was blocked.

Now, on a tiny set and with a large bundle of props, a handful of costumes and a babble of sound effects, life chez Viner is vividly dramatised by the resourceful Pentabus Theatre. In which other venue except homely Shifnal Village Hall, by the way, could local produce on stage be supplemented by coffee and homemade cake for the audience?

Viner is given a plausible portrayal by Matthew Bates. Whether enduring the frosty silences and putdowns that Viner, a “bugger from off” encountered in the King’s Head or tending his magically sprouting magnolia, Bates brings Viner and his “twazzocky” humour to waggish life.

Sarah Stanley, as Viner’s wife, Jane, is just the sort of sparky character to complement Viner’s whimsical disposition. Embodying the pathos of exile to the country after much metropolitan soul-searching, Jane is the wife for whom the term “long-suffering” might have been coined. When she traps her foot in a heavy antique door the agony brings to the boil her frustration at their lack of money and excess of chicken shit.

A Year in Provence this is not but with such a sterling cast and so many comic vignettes there is plenty to engage the audience in Orla O’Loughlin’s smartly paced production. Claire Vousden’s role as Capable Woman takes her from middle-class Crouch Ender and church fête organiser to hilarious policeman. Particularly good as an aggressive dog-trainer and racist thug, as well as Owen, an inscrutable rustic with a touching tale to tell, Sean Carlsen shows his versatility. Iain Ridley is expected to play all three Viner children and 14 other roles – he does so with great enthusiasm.

The framework of Nick Warburton’s deft adaptation may be a fête at which the Viners preside over the white elephant stall, but this show is far from a load of old junk. It’s rather collectible, actually. Tales of the Country certainly won’t do the Viners’ rural break business any harm. Walkers intent on conquering Myarth or sitting atop Lord Hereford’s Knob will be queuing up to rent their cottages. And this despite the alarming prospect of finding the dodgy dice game “Hands, thighs and bottoms”, introduced by two happy-slappy holidaymakers, left alongside the welcome hamper. Not to mention the risk of being shagged by the dog.

Touring 16 May; Pleasance Theatre, London N7, (020 7609 1800) 11-16 May

Back from a restorative Easter break at home, and it finally looks like Spring has arrived in Ludlow. The lambs are gambolling in the fields, the company are building a chocolate egg mountain in the kitchen, and suddenly we’re in tech week. After a month of creating the characters, finding the style and discovering how to play the fast-paced scenes of this new work, we’re into the business end of putting on the production. Costumes are adjusted for quick changes, props (and there are plenty) that were previously mimed now arrive in abundance, and we even have to learn how to pack our touring set of half a marquee, lighting rig and stage rostra into the back of a sprinter van. Oh, and remember to do some acting, too.

Last week we tried our first ‘stagger through’ of the entire show with props and costume. I love this term, used for the initial attempt to run a play still in rehearsal. Actors are always nervous and a little vulnerable at this stage, like Edward Scissorhands looking forlornly at his Black and Decker digits and saying “I’m not finished!” Our handling of objects is about as adept as his - in fact it’s no coincidence that a ‘stagger through’ sounds like a cross between teaching an infant to walk and watching a drunk negotiate his way to the toilet. The results are very similar: limbs are flung about awkwardly, words spill out of us with little regard to the script or even the English language, and occasionally we find ourselves halfway through a scene with no idea how we got there, or why.

Fortunately, unlike an inebriate trying to make toast in a microwave, it gets better with practice. Soon we know roughly what’s happening when, with whom, and occasionally why – and that’s when we begin, during our many audience asides, actually addressing our director, associate director, stage manager, and whoever else has been dragged in to watch.

If there’s one rule onstage it’s that in a crowd of beaming faces your gaze will always land on the one who looks like you’ve just peed all over their daffodils… That face is all you see, and very quickly you can become paranoid, or if you’re a comedian, inappropriately aggressive. I’ve witnessed several very experienced stand-ups alienate an entire audience because they were fixated by the ‘wrong’ reaction of a punter in the back row – it’s a sensitivity that comics share with teachers and brutal military dictators. Anyway, as our lines are written for us, we just get quietly and hysterically neurotic, mouthing the words as our eyeline drifts up over their heads as we plan a swift exit before the Theatre Police SWAT team burst in through the windows with flash bangs and, presumably, a much funnier replacement cast.

It turns out that some people don’t constantly smile when they’re listening, others have faces that ‘just fall like that’ in repose, and talking to an imaginary audience eight feet above the real one doesn’t make them feel terribly involved. Other than that we’re pretty good shape, according to Orla. Ah well, you live and learn.

Of course, after four weeks it’s hard to find the same joke funny, but sometimes a new element will inject the fun back into proceedings. Brian Viner is a great storyteller, and does an excellent line in anecdotes with slightly smutty double entendres in his book. One of the true tales we recount is of a terribly straight academic couple who stayed in the holiday cottage and left behind their bedroom game dice with actions and body parts. In the play the faces read “Hands, thigh, bottom”, but the dice we use are less coy, and the first run with them last week resulted in Sarah and I speechless … Well, you try saying the word ‘stomach’ while the anatomical name for the male appendage stares at you in proud gold lettering, daring you to read it aloud.

First Night: From playing to an audience of five at Pentabus, we find ourselves in the capacious 250 seat Walker Studio at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury. Seeing our little set on the floor is quite intimidating. This will be the largest venue on the tour, and it is sold out for the World Premiere. Yikes! We need to hit the ground running, or rather, the rostra – since a sightline issue required several hours rebuild by our tireless stage management and crew. How will a real audience respond, will they respond at all? Will they like the stage Brian? More to the point, will the real Brian (attending with the whole family) like his stage alter ego? As Capable Woman in the play would wisely say “Only time will tell, Mr Viner.”

In the event Nick, who adapted the book into the play, seemed very pleased with our efforts, which was a relief, as he and his wife had generously given us all wonderful first night gifts, as well as an edible farmyard of foam pigs and chocolate tractors. Then the man himself shook us firmly by the hand and professed himself really impressed. Jane and the kids were there too, apparently Sarah’s rendition of her swearing was absolutely spot on, and the kids were all remarkably at ease with yet another incarnation of their lives 8 years ago being played out. Iain, who plays all three children using indicative bits of costume, chatted to them about their reactions. The only one not completely taken with their doppelganger was Eleanor, and I have to say that in her place I wouldn’t be thrilled to be portrayed by an actor in his 20’s wearing a flowery hair band. Though to be fair, he did remove it for the after show drinks.

End of Week 1: Following Theatre Severn we played our smallest venue (57) at Clee St Margaret, and Clun. Both venues were packed to the rafters with a warm audience, vindicating the decision to take this show to the people rather than expecting them to drive to a central theatre, and in both our hosts made us very welcome and fed us some delicious homemade dinner (if soldiers march on their stomachs, actors perform on whatever free scraps of food they’re offered, and so far we’ve been spoiled rotten). Now all we have to do is take our portable marquee into the various village halls of the region and see how audiences there take to the stories of a ‘bugger from off’, and improve on our get-out time of dismantling and packing the set. With luck we won’t have Saturday’s setback again, when the sprinter van got stuck in the mud outside the hall and required 3 burly men (me, Iain and Simon the SM) plus the prop rope from the set to tow it out. It’s lucky that Sean, Iain and I had done a proper physical workout before the show. Incidentally, if anyone happened to see three grown men on a roundabout at about 6.30pm in the adventure playground at Clun, that’s what it was – the very serious process of an actor’s warm up….

Matthew Bates - Brian Viner in Tales of the Country

With the show now up & running it’s getting like I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, as every day we seem to bid an emotional farewell to another departing & much loved member of our team. I’m pleased to say all the actors are still alive & well but with their work done, we’ve had to say good bye to members of our production team including Lighting Guru & all round top bloke Alex. Next it was the turn of set builder Rob Hill. Rob isn’t just wise & greatly talented he’s also a real calming influence; it’s like being in the company of a Zen Master, a sort of Yoda-like figure if you can imagine Yoda with dreadlocks & smoking roll-ups. Perhaps the biggest loss for us was saying goodbye to Associate Director Kate Budgen. Together with our brilliant Director Orla, Kate has helped shape this play into a production to be proud of. Anyway, with regular blogster Kate gone off to the big smoke I thought I’d better write this blog. Until the other week I’d never written a blog before, I wasn’t entirely sure what a blog was. I only started emailing a few years ago & until recently I thought Modem & Hard Drive were adult magazines.

Back to the play; well to rewind a bit, after a very tiring few days teching & doing dress rehearsals, we opened at the Severn Theatre, Shrewsbury & what a wonderful new venue it was. We were sold out for this opening night weeks ago which made it all the more exciting & we were Lyn Gardener’s Pick of the Week in The Guardian newspaper which is quite an honour in itself so no pressure there! It seemed to be a very successful first night, the audience were very warm & receptive & once we got out there on stage I personally had a great time & absolutely loved doing the show. Actors often get asked “Why do you do it?” I suppose that’s why, because we love it. Sorry to name drop but Derek Jacobi once said to me, “It’s a calling, a vocation & if it’s not then you’re in it for the wrong reasons.”

After opening at the Severn Theatre we then embarked on the community leg of the tour, taking the show to village halls across Shropshire & Herefordshire before returning to theatre venues later in the tour. The village halls are wonderful places to play; you really are in the heart of the community & will always be welcomed so warmly it really is quite touching. Such was the case in Clee St. Margaret’s & Clun where we enjoyed some wonderful hospitality, lovely food & great audiences.

Having had a few days off it’s been lovely to return to Wales, spend some time with the family & enjoy the sunshine. Tomorrow we play Farlow & Oreton Hall & although it’s lovely being home I can’t wait to get back to the show; that’s got to be a good sign. There’s nothing worse than doing a show where you can’t wait for it to be over, but I really do love this play. Let’s just hope the sun keeps shining.

Sean Carlsen – Owen in Tales of the Country

Sean’s blog has pretty much covered this week, thank you Sean! We are about to go into our final week of rehearsals, and tech the show as much as we can before Easter, because after Easter we head straight to Shrewsbury for our sold out first show! Eek. Lots to do, but so much progress was made this week that I’m certain we will get there. We have been working through the play in immense detail, making sure every beat of the story is clear, and every movement clean, sharp and precise. James spent a great many hours creating the most incredible ‘growing’ magnolia and then we spent a few more hours plotting when it ‘grows’ and how we integrate it into the action. It is a beautiful thing and is almost a character in its own right! For a touring show, I think we might just break some kind of record for how many props we use, stage management are doing a marvelous job keeping track of what is what and where is where. We have up til now been working on the floor, but from Monday we will be working again on our raised stage, to get used to the height and exactly what backstage space we will have.

Friday: Whilst searching for one of our Stage Managers today, the wonderfully named Titch MacLeod, I wandered into a back room at Pentabus HQ & there hanging on a clothes rail amongst assorted old costumes was a battered old tunic I’d worn in a Pentabus show 14 years ago. It was a strangely emotional moment, I suppose because it made me reflect on how life has changed over the last 10 years, having got married, had kids & like our protagonist Brian Viner, moved to the country. Which brings me back to Tales of the Country. I love this book & if our production can be as funny & engaging as the book I’ll be a happy man. At the end of week 2 there seems to be a general air of quiet confidence in the rehearsal space. We know we have a great script thanks to the wonderful Nick Warburton. We’ve also roughly blocked the play from start to finish & even managed a decent run on Thursday as opposed to the stagger through we anticipated. Now all we have to do is get off book over the weekend. Not an easy thing to do with 3 kids to help look after & the concluding 6 Nations matches to watch!

Monday: Even in the theatre you can get the Monday morning blues but it was smiles all round in the rehearsal room this morning. Possibly because our writer Nick had returned to the fold after a 2 week absence or perhaps it was due to Sarah Stanley’s happy news. ‘Stan’ as she is now known, turned up wearing a gorgeous antique diamond ring & announced her engagement (the lucky chap is called Ju by the way so congratulations to them both). The happy bug stayed with us as we enjoyed another productive day, with everyone off book & that evening had dinner at the King’s Head in Docklow (once again in the name of research!). Brian Viner joined us & presented Nick with a bottle of red wine with a picture of W.G. Grace on the label (Nick is a big cricket fan). Following Stan’s engagement, Brian & the ladies talked weddings while we tucked into some lovely, hearty food served up by the equally lovely Paula. That evening I sat in my room listening to some of the music we’ll be using in the show, composed by the very talented Benet Walsh. I was trying to imagine what the finished play would be like. As Benet’s rich, warm, evocative & slightly mournful music drifted around my room I felt quite uplifted. The music is so important to any production & this music is perfect.

Wednesday: In rehearsals we’re now using the set almost in its entirety & it looks fantastic thanks to our designer James Humphrey. Most of the day was spent working on the technical side of things, the mechanics of the play. We’re very fortunate to have rehearsals led by directors like Orla & Associate Director Kate Budgen. It really is a privilege to be working with them. However this detailed work can be a headache & the week 3 blues seemed to be setting in. It was lovely therefore to join some of the team last night in The Wheatsheaf for a much needed couple of beers.

Thursday: The morning was spent working the magnolia in to the play. This complex & very impressive prop literally takes centre stage in our production & this morning will be remembered as ‘magnoliagate’. However, before lunch we ran the first half of Act 1 & I think it was the best we’ve done it. Perhaps we’ve turned a corner.

I think the reason I got a bit soppy over a piece of old costume last week was because as well as making me think of family & home (both major themes in our story), it also reminded me that Pentabus is a company close to my heart. Over the years I’ve been fortunate to work in Ludlow quite a few times both with Pentabus & the Shakespeare Festival & Ludlow really has become a home from home. It’s good to be back.

Sean Carlson
Owen in ‘Tales of the Country’.

So, we are about to go into week three. Week two has been productive and exciting, as we have got much more of an idea of the nature and playing style of the world of the play. As well as experimenting with the visual storytelling, this week has seen characters and their relationships deepening and evolving. I think a lot of the charm and humour of the piece comes from really investing in Brian and Jane and their family’s journey. The more we understand who they are, hopefully the more their experiences will be recognizable to an audience.

The set is also getting more realized, we now have the sides of the marquee and the coconut matting on the floor, so it is really started to feel like an actual fete! Titch has been collecting props from all over the place, every so often delivering exciting boxes filled with stuff you might find at a fete; records, books, ornaments, stuffed toys….. The play features a magnolia tree, which grows throughout the play as the family adjust to being in the country. This week saw the arrival of this tree, which is a thing of beauty, but enormous, and cost rather more than one would expect of a fake magnolia tree. James immediately set about hacking it into bits with a saw (obviously with a careful and strategic plan as there is little room for error!) so that he can design it to allow for bits to be added by the company to represent its growth.

Wednesday afternoon saw a photo shoot with Ed Collier, which involved the company going out into the fields around Pentabus, in costume, armed with props that included a spade, a bottle of wine, a laptop, rubber gloves and of course an Independent. A couple of hours was spent placing the characters in fields, perched on stiles, sitting under trees, leaning on gates, in order to capture some excellent shots for the local press. Meanwhile, stage management had set up an actual white elephant stall outside Pentabus, with bunting and everything, so more brilliant photo opportunities there.

We are trying to keep all sound effects live, which feels in keeping with the authenticity of the design-to have recorded sound effects would potentially pull us out of the intimate world of the Docklow fete. Experimenting with ‘home made’ sound effects has revealed some hidden talents within the company, who have it seems, all mastered the art of dog barking, chicken clucking, mice squeaking, fly buzzing……and the competition was on to find the most authentic cock crow (Iain reigning champion so far, but all could change next week, I know that Simon was a close second and with some private rehearsal time over the weekend, who knows what might happen).

Friday saw our first stagger through, just to get an idea of the structure of the whole thing, which was immensely beneficial for all I think and a great way to end a busy week. Nick, who wrote the adaptation, is coming into rehearsal on Monday, to check in and see where we are at. Drinks and dinner at the Kings Head are planned after rehearsal. Last time we went to the Kings Head, we were doing a bit of star gazing as we left and very nearly got run over by an enormous tractor pulling into the pub car park (I could almost hear the driver muttering the word ‘twazzocks’). Hopefully this will not happen again.