Flying high
February 17, 2012
Ariel went aerial. Last night a bunch of us went off to Circus Space in Hoxton to be hung. Circus Space is in a wonderful Victorian red brick building that once housed an electric light station driven by burning waste. Now it houses amazing people burning calories and defying the natural laws of physics.
The RSC love hanging people from the flies. It was Michael Boyd who first exploited this untapped third dimension in his Histories.
Sandy, Sarah, Amie and I all needed to be introduced to our harnesses and get an idea of what it will be like to be suspended above the RST stage. My full body harness is, I think, more comfortable than the one worn by he others which goes round their legs and hips so that they can be suspended from a 'coat hanger' by two wires, enabling them to flip over backwards and forwards very impressively.
I have to be hanging, seemingly bound, for a good ten minutes. Hopefully I can bribe my colleagues to speak a bit faster in the last scene, before I'm lowered to the floor, because the harness tends to bite into one's flesh a bit. I'll leave you to imagine which bits suffer the most. But everybody involved on this stuff technically is thoroughly expert and will ensure that we are as comfortable as possible, and come down to earth undamaged.
It's funny, after what I was blogging the other day, that the RSC has found a way to get my performance off the ground!
by Nick Day
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