Dy 14: KEEEPIE UP-IES!!!!

Another day of staging - oh yes we are moving at pace people! Get ready!!! But obviously todays biggest news is that we achieved an ALL TIME RECORD SCORE OF 228 KEEPIE UP-IES (is that how we spell it?!?) - testimony to this fantastic ensemble of people coming together to work as one beating heart. The peaks of emotion are starting to be mapped, the joy, the desolation, the horror, the fear, the grief - it literally has EVERYTHING - as one would reasonably expect from a good ol Jacobean tragedy. Onwards.

Emma Wilkinson Wright (Vermandera)

Day 13: EYES

It is just UTTERLY joyous to see this play coming together!! Much fun and experimentation continues as we explore and dig in the process of staging this wonderfully rich play - who sees who? Who knows what? Who is watching who? Eyes, it seems are literally everywhere. And we are now in costume which just adds so much to the physical exploration of character. Exciting times!!

Emma Wilkinson Wright (Vermandera)

Day 14: PB!!!

Strong start to the day with a new keepy puppy PB - 233!!!

I spent the morning within the ensemble, observing the scene of Beatrice’s ‘undoing’ by Deflores from the Carousel of Doom. Bloody hell what a beast this scene is. There are so many deft little shifts as the pair worm and weasel their way onto the same page - it’s really complex. It was great to watch Jamie and Collette work with Ricky. A new layer of nuance was carved out with each go round until, as a spectator, I felt sympathy for both parties. There were some lovely semiotics emerging involving blood money and absent partners. There really is no going back for either of them after Alonzo is murdered. It’s possible their coupling is inevitable. This dawned on me today after hearing “You’re the deeds creature” in context. She is. They are.

In the afternoon, we rehearsed Tomazo’s quarrel with Alsemero. It went through several drafts with stakes ratcheting up each time until we discovered the right level. The following scenes became a lot simpler for me as a result of this quarrel now operating as a generous springboard into Alsemero’s ‘madness.’ There’s a worm in his wee brain. The worm entered at the beginning, stayed dormant, re-enters when Diaphanta requests B shags him in the dark, engorges with Tomazo’s threats, multiplies a second later with Jasperino’s suspicions, until poor Alsemero’s 'stoic' mind has been gobbled to shreds and all he can do is reach for a completely batshit solution to prove his wife’s chastity and exterminate the bastard worm once and for all. I realised today... this all happens F A S T.

I’m enjoying getting to grips with the traverse. I’m finding the addition of the massive table is making this play an exciting and unique challenge for me as an actor. It demands a constant re-shuffling of instincts when dealing with privacy, intimacy, violence, aggression; as well as practical things like passing props. Today I tossed a key across a table and it was agreed it was sexy. I tell you it’s the little things.

Mylo McDonald (Alsemero)