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| The Cast having a breather |
The period from the first Preview through to press
night of any show is always fraught with activity and is an extremely valuable
period in a shows life. Last Saturday, with the tech and dress rehearsals out
of the way, the first batch of audience members arrived for preview number one
and us actors waiting to hear how they would respond. It went well but when we
arrived at 10am the next day Dominic had a list of things he wished to cut,
change and tighten up based on that previous evening’s performance. It is often
the case after four weeks of rehearsing the same jokes, tricks and moments over
and over again that you can become a bit immune to the punch lines or the
weight of certain moments. So, having a four hundred strong fresh eyed audience
view it in its entirety can allow everyone involved to see the show afresh and,
for a director, can be very telling.
A famous theatre director was once asked about the
key to directing. His reply was simple: “Kill your darlings!” He was referring
to the little gems found in rehearsal, or written into the script which may
seem either hilarious, beautiful or a moment of genius, but in terms of telling
the actual story that moment simply gets in the way. When this is the case, no
matter how genius said moment appears to be, get rid of it and get on with the
story! Such a moment of darling killing example was part of Dominic’s list of
cuts and things to tighten up before the Monday evening Preview. If you view
the production photo’s on flickr you’ll notice the following picture:
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| Photo by Keith Pattison |
However, if you come and see the show tonight you’ll
notice this moment in the play is nowhere to be seen. That’s because it has
been cut. Essentially, Colin Teevan had written a montage in the second half of
the show showing Faustus falling from celebrity and it was written that we
would hear over the tannoy a new star on the rise who had made the same deal Faustus
did: Colin wrote that this new celebrity would be Derren Brown. And he said
yes! He recorded lines for the show! We had a Derren Brown cameo in a show
about magic! THE Derren Brown! The guy who can do this: . But, alas, after
preview one Dominic decided that that montage was muddy storytelling and, in
actuality, we just needed to get on with Faustus’ story. So we murdered our
darling, but rightly so! If it doesn’t serve the story there’s no point. It is one
of many deleted scenes that you’ll find in the script but not on the stage.
Although this week has been extremely busy on stage,
back stage is a different story altogether. As the show gets into full swing our
dressing rooms have become our new home. The walls are covered with cards and
well wishes from press night; the girls’ dressing room has so many bouquets of
flowers it could be mistaken for a florists and Ollie, Chris and I have decided
to fill our free time with a wee tournament of Cards (above) which has become very
serious indeed! It has a rude name so I shall not utter it here.
The week ended with two very well deserved days off.
Sunday had a very clear remit: sleep and box sets, but on Monday I decided to be
the audience for a change and watch someone else do all the work while at Northern
Ballet’s The Great Gatsby. A lovely
show in a stunning theatre with some incredible dancers, however, for a story
that, in its own way, also deals with a type of damnation I would have liked it
a great deal more if it just had a bit more of a punch to it. But then again everyone’s
a critic!
‘Dr
Faustus’ is on at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, from 23 Feb to16 March,
and at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, from 5 Apr to 27 Apr. For all tickets
please contact the respective box office or book online at www.wyp.org.uk or www.citz.co.uk.
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