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History ensemble member Nick Asbury on keeping everyone on their toes - a line here, a line there...
The men in black
Just towards the end of the Temple Garden scene in Henry VI Part I on Thursday night, Clive as Richard Plantagenet says to me as Somerset, 'For your partaker, Pole, and you yourself/ I'll note you in my book of memory/ To scourge you for this apprehension/ Look to it well and say you are well warned.'
 Now, whether it was just because we'd just had three days off (an unaccustomed and strange feeling - like bears waking too early from hibernation), or whether it was the prospect of doing three shows the next day and another three shows the day after that and finishing off with a quick Henry V on Sunday, I don't know, but instead of replying with: 'Ah, thou shalt find us ready for thee still....', I actually started saying Clive's final line - my understudy lines, lest ye not forget - before he did. Odd. Very alarming. I was there, I was in the scene, it was going well, I was in character and then suddenly out of nowhere I start saying my arch enemy's lines.
As it was, my brain kicked in again and thought 'Heyup, something a tad wrong there'; my butt tightened a little; and I ended up just making a strange noise like someone with a bad cold and a dodgy stomach. Which, as regular readers will know, is neither uncommon or unusual in my world. Off I shot in my own lines with a faintly quizzical look from Geoffrey who was at the time clutching me by the shirt collar and was within earshot, and I was back on it. Combine that with cutting the same Geoffrey off at the start of the scene - to which he responded with a hurt look and the fingering of his knife - and which, incidentally, he has not let me forget for the last five shows, this mad 'eight different shows in four days' business is all going rather well for me.
It's certainly a great ride. As I write, it's Henry IV Part I on Saturday (our second Trilogy Day in a row), and it's my play off. I can hear through the tinny tannoy the shouts and claps and laughs and thrills of Gadshill unfolding and reverberating through the corridors backstage. Matt Costain has just run past, panting and sweating, having just thrown himself off the lighting rig on a bungee rope. The nutter. Zoe the Stage Manager's voice echoes as she quietly puts out calls for people to stand by for their entrances; for stage staff to ready themselves for a cue; for Wigs to standby with blood, for Wardrobe to get ready for a quick change. The hushed, ready, busy, breathless sound of a theatre backstage.
So many people are working back here. All for one end - to get the show(s) on. For the 35 actors that swan about on the stage there are 30 or 40 backstage staff working very, very hard. At the end of each show there is a huge press into action of all the technical staff in order to set up for the next show. All the lights are checked, the sound is levelled, the ropes get checked for safety, the trapezes tested. The props are changed, the blood is set, the wigs removed from their boxes and combed, the costumes wheeled in and out, the props and socks and shirts of every actor set in their place. They were here till 1am last night changing around and were in again at 8 am this morning to set up for the three shows today. They are all as much a part of this ensemble as any actor that struts and frets his hour upon the stage. They are the best at what they do, and they very, very rarely make a mistake. They're brilliant. As actors, not only do we have to trust them and rely on them - but we literally in some cases have to trust them with our lives. When you're fifty feet up clipped onto a ladder, covered in blood, sweating and confused about which way is up because you're tumbling upside down, then the smiley face of Dave looming out the darkness (horrific visions in any other situations), ready with carabinas and safety is a welcome sight. And I'm sure no one's ever said that about Dave before.... And I think it shows how closely we all work together that some of the guys performed in the Cabaret we did a couple of weeks ago despite being as knackered as we were.
Geoffrey's just come off stage and sauntered past me wondering whether I might like to go on stage and cut a few of his lines again. But before I could reply, Zoe's put the call out to standby for the interval, so the backstage world will change for fifteen minutes. I'm off, I say. Have a good second half. See you for Part II.
Already, stage crew all dressed in black are rushing past ready to sweep the stage or set a prop. This is my world and I love it. I can hear the seashell sound of the audience clapping.
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About blogger Nick
Likes: Cricket and music. Fields and dark pubs with no music
Dislikes: Lager, crowded streets and light bars with music |
