Time and Place

As we move through the last third of the rehearsals for The Mousetrap it's interesting to ponder the country manor murder canon to see how the scenario is cliched and what we need to make this work. The play is a period piece, costumes, furniture, accents are all of another time and place.

The current crew discussion is about the carpet sweeper. I am pretty sure there wouldn't be a vacuum cleaner. I don't believe it would be a plastic sweeper, and given the war that it is not likely to be metal one either, so the hunt is on for a wooden one.  I'm not sure they had bakelite even. Given it is carried through and referred to we do need to have it.

Other issues are the gun, the script says revolver and I think that's what we need, while currently we have a German or US automatic.

Getting the right couch has been a constant worry.  Would one of the characters be eating an apple in winter?  Is the manor on a sewerage system, prompted by the line about the downstairs water closet? When did rationing finish? Were there still travel issues and what papers were people carrying? How did phones work in those days? What music were they allowed to play on the radio?  All playlists were approved by the Ministry of something.

As well as this verisilimitude the crux for the show though is getting attitudes and behaviour right.
English stiff upper lip, the mores and customs are now quite foreign to us, whereas 25 years ago we knew the conventions and rules a lot better.  One of the issues is the rapid rise of US television here. I read recently children here see more American Tv than anywhere else in the world, including the US.  Downton Abbey is a welcome arrival.

The deference to the upper class and the class system are further from us than ever before.  We are rapidly creating a new class system but it is closer to Dallas than Agatha Christie.

The early discussions on men standing for women as they entered the room,  women not shaking hands with men, how to sit on a chair were just the start.

The younger cast members haven't seen a lot of the old murder mysteries. The whole issue of how people react and defer are all a little complicated.

If we are to succeed in this work we can't let the audience think... 'That's wrong'.

The characters, their attitudes and movements need to fit.  And this is a part of the work in the next 3 weeks.

The Posterous Failure

Originally this blog was on posterous.com but posterous are 'pursuing other opportunities' or somesuch euphemism for shutting down.  Since I wasn't paying I understand, but hey could have asked.

Hickory Dickory Dock

Rehearsals progress.

The big picture is good, stunning characterisation is appearing as the script becomes more familiar and the company develop the story. One or two stunning vibrant characters suddenly appeared last week, and in ways I wasn't expecting.  Today one even ramped up more. It's feeling very good.
I'm talking now about a company approach in my discussions with the cast.  In my mind, in a strong production, sections of the audience leave saying a different actor gave the best performance, so that all of them rank as producing excellence. It's not a contest but if all aspire to create a character in context that appeal to those that see it and is memorable and real, then you have created a  work of performance art.

Key challenges include, the onstage murder, making a badly written resolution to the play work,  the relationship of the couple in the play, not over doing the humour, getting the levels of emotion at the right pitch, making a long potentially turgid second act flow and drip with tension.

At the beginning it was clear for this play to work we have to achieve the spine tingling horror of a thriller, with a script that can sag into cliche and all the worst aspects of bad performance.
Oddly enough I nearly organised a showing of Jaws to focus on the menace of what you can't see as the terror is the suggestion plus the audiences imagination.  The modern cinematic approach is to show everyone everything as graphically as possible, theatre can't and nor should it try. 

Little challenges throw up as we go.  

- The lack of flats (standing panels used as walls etc... for the set) was one issue which has now proved to be a good thing, as more of the church will be the set.

- Getting all the actors assembled is a modern perennial now, work, illness and other activities get in the way. Easter may prove to be a problem.

- the vocal issues around accent, projection, and idiom- hardly a surprise with a 1950s English play in an era where microphones are used for everything.

We have less than a month before performance, the mice are going up the clock, and I'm confident as I can see how they run.  

The other actor II

Background:

Saint Michael and All Angels was the first church in Christchurch. the original building was a makeshift schoolroom-cum-church so small that people were likely to hit their heads on the beams. Its early history, closely connected with that of a young settlement, vividly illustrates the problems of colonial life. Yet, by the late nineteenth century, St Michael's with a fine new church in the heart of a growing town, was the leading Anglican parish in the Diocese of Christchurch, perhaps in New Zealand. Its worship and life were typical of those aspired to by many Anglican churches in New Zealand for the next fifty years. From 1910 however St Michael's diverged somewhat from this model. It became, and has remained, a sometimes notorious example of Anglo-Catholicism in New Zealand.

St Michael's is a Late Victorian Gothic building combining elements of the French fourteenth century gothic, and English Medieval styles. It was designed by William Fitzjohn Crisp and is one of the few buildings known to be designed solely by Crisp. The church is constructed entirely of Matai timber (native black pine) on rubble stone foundations. St Michael's is one of the largest timber churches of its style in the world and possesses a warmer atmosphere than one you would find in a stone building. Such a massive timber building requires an intricate framework, with pillars carved from single trees supporting nave arches and huge tie-beams in the roof structure. Structurally the church has changed little since completion in 1872, the only alteration being the 1896 removal of a tie-beam and secondary arch to give a better view of the east window.

Who are you?

And last week the actors all answered this for the characters.
It's a question that pops up in the play several times, but is never answered definitively.

Even in the case of the murderer(s) some details were still unknown.

What I found valuable was
a) the level of detail the actors had come up with, and how specific they could or couldn't be
b) what the specifics were.

The script goes so far ; it tell us who people are as far as the script goes.
Now the actors create the characters. It is their creative talent and craft that make this production: The Repertory Mousetrap April 2013 - the art form it is.

I'll ask the cast again to tell us some character background and add questions to find the bits we can't see, but may need to make this production truly authentic.

There is more to discover.  And the depth of the issues in the characters will take us closer to the truth.

Progress

It's nearly the time for scripts down.

The actors are making a great go at some rather fiddly bits of text.
There is a hint of some avoiding the nastiness of the play.

The next week will show how we are settling in as we'll be at a month till opening on Wednesday.

The media publicity has proved a struggle.
The advertising is looking very good.

The side of a bus