Keith's blog

Up and Down, Up and Down
It's 10:35 on Saturday night as I motor away from Stratford, throttling up toward the M40; small dark clouds are silhouetted against the deep-ultramarine glow of the last of the day to the northwest on my left.
 

The moon is high and looks with a watery eye, balefully staring down at the earth, and the stars spark up one by one. The car lights of my fellow travellers form their own constellations that change shape with every second, bright red, flashing orange and white stars, comets and planets. We've just done A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is packed with celestial imagery, so I'm particularly alert to the contents of the sky as I speed along. This Saturday night pelt down to London is one that many actors do as most are based there and return to spend at least a day at home, before going back up to their respective theatres on Monday. Stratford is relatively near but right now there'll be hundreds of us thundering down the darkening corridor of night on motorways from all corners of the country. For me this is in reverse, now being based in Warwickshire, I'm going from my home to pick up some stuff from the room I rented in London; also I'm seeing my son for a mid-A-levels Sunday lunch.

I make good time and get back at 12:15 though of course I'm still buzzing from the journey so it's a glass of wine and the episode of Dr Who recorded earlier in the evening before going to bed.

Sunday morning, I'm up early-ish - for a Sunday - and have coffee and a chat with my housemates before loading the remnants of my London room into the car, which of course takes much longer than I thought it would. Finally it's done, I say my goodbyes (I'm not sure when I'll be back) and am off to meet Laurence. He's in good spirits, two exams down three to go. We go to a gourmet burger bar in North London where he lives, not exactly brain food but it's his call.

It's early evening, I'm in the car leaving the Big Smoke and returning home back up to Warwickshire. I don't mind driving in the day at least there's something to look at and I like to take the pretty route via Banbury over Edge Hill, the view of a vast, flat tract of Warwickshire from its top is stunning and you get but a fleeting glimpse as the road falls steeply down toward Stratford. Before I know it I'm back for a late dinner with Zoë and that's the weekend gone!

Monday, and we're now at what you could call the second stage of rehearsal. We've gone through the whole play as a group, had a cracking read-through on Friday (that interestingly, given the respective lengths of each play, was only 16 minutes longer than the A Midsummer Night's Dream read-through). Now we go through each scene just with the actors involved and talk in greater detail with each other, the director and assistant director, about how we may play them together. I play Marcellus who along with fellow-soldier Barnado, has seen the ghost of Hamlet's dead father appear on the battlements of Elsinore castle and brings Horatio to the battlements to witness its anticipated third appearance. We discuss exactly who these soldiers are, their relationship to Francisco, a third soldier, who we are replacing as the watch, whether he knows about the ghost, why we've brought Horatio and our relationship with him etc. And when The Ghost appears, what is it? What is its effect on us? How can we freak the audience out when we come to do the scene in the theatre? At this stage we are still somewhat rooted to our bottoms, but this forensic dissection of the scenes in such depth without worrying about where we move etc, will bear fruit and free us up to experiment and play when rehearsing in action on our feet next week.

For the first stage of the rehearsal period, the whole company were called practically all the time but now we're often free for some parts of the day, and Monday I've got all afternoon off so drive back home to Alcester where I live and will return to Stratford for the evening show; a sort of mini-London up and down. Similarly on Tuesday, in the morning down to Stratford, the afternoon back up home, then down again for the evening. Although I've indicated that I've had two afternoons off, that isn't quite true. I'm understudying Claudius, which seems to be a much bigger part than I remember, and am keen to get the lines under my belt asap so have spent a good few hours buried in my script, on both afternoons. The road to Alcester was once a Roman road, so it is quite narrow and straight, I really miss riding my bike - my main mode of transport in London - but the A46 is just too fast and dangerous for a wimp like me, let alone the daily challenge of Red Hill! Of course riding a bike in London isn't the pleasantest of experiences either (fumes, taxi drivers, bendy buses etc) but at least 9 miles to rehearsals in Clapham and back kept me fit and now I'm anxious to avoid the dreaded Stratford Spread. In mathematical terms:

18 miles round trip + cycle = fitness (London)

But:

0.5 mile round trip + cycle + snacks from the green room
+ numerous beers in the Dirty Duck = ginormous stomach

When in one season, I was living in Stratford itself, I put on so much weight that by June I could barely get into the costumes I'd been fitted with in April. It was really embarrassing and prompted by this humiliation I went on a radical diet and gym regime and by sheer willpower lost the excess flab pretty quickly. Chastened by that experience I'm quite careful about what I eat (or try to be), also as I have to drive home now numerous beers after the show are not really an option and now there's walkies with Milly the dog, that helps too.

   Respond to Keith's blog

Responses to Keith's blog

"Thanks for the blog, I love behind the scene narratives like that.

"... It's said that that which does not kill you makes you stronger. True enough, but nobody tells you that if you live, it sure does leave ya funny looking!..."
- stolen from TonysMerlin"

Rachel

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About blogger Keith

         

Likes: Music, cycling, food, theoretical physics

Dislikes: Queuing, flying, mice (and creatures of similar size), smoking