Rehearsals for the Royal Shakespeare Company Season were held
at 35 Clapham High Street a two minute walk from Clapham Tube. On the first day
I felt as nervous as I did before my driving test when I took beta blockers to
calm my nerves. I mean for goodness sake here I was a musical theatre actress
with one year of post graduate training at Mountview Theatre School with not a
jot of Shakespearean acting experience except for the good ole faithful
audition speech ‘I left no ring with her’ from Twelfth Night. However, I
thought as I tentatively approached the rehearsal rooms, I do have an English
degree and I did sit a six hour Shakespeare exam……..
My contract was as follows: Iras and understudy Charmian and
Octavia in Anthony and Cleopatra and Goddess and understudy Miranda in The
Tempest. Effectively I would be learning five parts in all. I was sick with
nerves, excitement and dread.
The next fourteen months were to be The Complete Works
Festival which meant that every known Shakespeare play or sonnet ever written
were to be performed in one year. The festival was the first time that all of
Shakespeare’s works have been staged at the same event. There were to be
twenty-three RSC shows, seventeen international productions and fourteen by UK
based visiting companies.
My fellow housemate and actor friend Minnie and I had a huge
party one evening at number 33 Waterside opposite the old RST where we lived in
Stratford to celebrate the end of all rehearsals. We had actors from all over
the world at that party: Cuba, America, India. It was extraordinary. You could
hardly move. We got very vey drunk.
So back to my first day where we began with a series of
brilliant workshops and read through Anthony and Cleopatra with Greg Doran. The
workshops consisted of flamenco dancing, African drumming, voice workshops,
sonnet study with the celebrated John Barton, work with voice coach Cicely
Berry and on and on. You would have paid good money for those few week. And I was being paid! Soon we moved to a studio up the road to begin rehearsing for
real.
We began with Anthony and Cleopatra and Julius Caesar. I
realised pretty quickly that this meant that I had loads of time off as both
plays had to be completed by the same date before we went up to Stratford in April.
It was only February and my time table looked empty. I had so little rehearsal
time that whenever there was a weekly Jon Barton tutorial I was free. I went
through my parts with him. I went through my understudy parts with him. I went
through my audition speeches. Then I ran out of ideas.
‘Hi John. Me again.’
He laughed with his crinkly eyes and popped another nicorette gum in his mouth.
‘When did you give up smoking?’ I piped up.
‘Oh. Years ago.’ He said.
‘Right’.
We became friendly. I
was invited to do some of his workshops in Stratford. I felt honoured.
It was a great company. I was nervous that I would not be
nearly as good as them so I reverted back to being a goody two shoes out of
fear. I bought note books and highlighters and wrote out all my parts
determined to commit everything to memory as quickly as possible. It was a
security blanket. Everyone appeared super bright but thankfully Greg had had us
all read through the play together line by line interpreting every word.
The weather was cold and February like and unbeknown to me I
was still dating my husband-to-be. The days were fun. That was going pretty
well apart from one minor detail which was that my husband-to be was in fact
already somebody else’s husband albeit with an absentee wife who skipped off
within two months of the getting spliced the previous year. That was an
underlying problem for me. I was never really comfortable with it. A divorce could not be allowed for another
year and a half if it was to be a matter of simple separation without
recrimination. I wasn’t entirely happy with the state of affairs. (Literally).
However, it was all too exciting with rehearsals and Valentine’s day and
getting ready to go to Stratford and sorting and digs. Minnie spotted me
looking at the notice board and offered me a room in her Waterside Cottage.
Immediately I was stunned and happy. The cottages were directly opposite the
theatres: The Swan and the old RST. I could get to work in thirty seconds! Of
course that meant I was destined to always be late. I could tell she would be a
fantastic flat mate. There were only four of us girls, not including Harriet
Walter, in the whole production and I felt that solidarity was in order. RSC
boys are most definitely a certain breed. Some would say of dog, but that would
be unkind or maybe even sour grapes.
Anyway, after eight weeks rehearsing we were ready to go up
to Stratford. I was buying a small ancient red Nissan Micra second hand from my
Dad’s dodgy garage men Tim and Barry. It would really help with going back and
forth from Stratford to London.
Stratford-Upon –Avon is a gorgeous town more like an
overgrown village. Our cottage was and still is miniscule but beautiful. Two
bedrooms upstairs and a bathroom. A tiny living room downstairs with through
kitchen and a door at the back to a patio garden. It was just right for the two
of us.
Arriving in Stratford was particularly fantastic as there
were celebrations organized for our arrival and the opening of Anthony and
Cleopatra and Julius Caesar plus celebrations for Shakespeare’s birthday. The
23rd April, two days before one. Walking into the Dirty Duck Pub
after the first day of rehearsal in the Swan theatre I had a feeling that I was
part of something utterly amazing that just doesn’t happen to many people. I
had been to the Dirty Duck pub once before visiting a friend and I never for a
million years thought that I would be part of such an amazing company sitting
legitimately in the pub that had served so many extraordinary actors over the
years.
The Duck, as it was fondly called, was a two minute walk from
number 33 Waterside where I lived for six amazing months. The river was
opposite our house and endless swans roamed the water day and night, up and
down, silent and beautiful, elegant and faithful. I loved sitting by the river
bank walk man in hand listening to
music, script in front of me, sun blaring down as it turned out to be one of
the hottest summers since ’76. It was so hot I got sunburned on my shoulders
whilst learning Miranda by the river. They went hot and red to touch. Mind you,
I was out there for three hours at midday. Mad dogs and Englishmen and all
that…….
The first show to go up was Anthony and Cleopatra but at the
same time most of the cast were rehearsing Julius Caesar which I wasn’t in. The
Tempest was the third play to go up. This meant that I had copius amounts of
hours to drink in my surroundings and most importantly become the proud owner
of a bike and cycle along the fabulous pathways out of Stratford along disused
railway lines passed a café in an old train run by a lovely couple. It was
incredibly romantic to ride along with music blaring in your head in the summer
heat and end up in the café supping sweet tea and muttering lines in my head
belonging to Miranda, Charmian and Octavia.
Once the main show was up and running to fantastic reviews
the second cast was called upon to rehearse the play again but in their
understudy roles. Charmian was a similar role to Iras in that she flanked the
queen so blocking wise I didn’t have too much to change, however, character
wise there was a world of difference. Iras is younger and says very few words
whereas Charmian is opinionated and the queen’s right hand woman. Octavia as
Caesar’s sister, who married Anthony after he left Cleopatra, is a dour and
straight character devoted to a man whose affections we are led to believe lie
elsewhere but to whom she bore two children. She finds herself torn between her
allegiance to her husband Anthony and her brother Caesar played in our
production with a strong incestuous link on behalf of Caesar. Octavia was to be
changed into from Charmian and back again in our understudy run so I was
certainly very busy. I loved it.
The Tempest was an entirely different experience. I had been
chosen by the director principally for my voice as the three Goddesses were
required to sing. This I understood. What I was unclear about was the
director’s vision for the play. As rehearsals finally got underway once Julius
Caesar had also opened it was already June and biting hot. I was raring to go
having had more time off than most and itching to know which Goddess I was to
play. Juno, Ceres or Iris? A couple of weeks into rehearsals and we still
didn’t know! We goddesses were getting a little bit twitchy. Then one day we were
called in for a chat.
‘So’ began the director, ‘What are these Goddesses actually
saying then?’ Duly the three of us began to explain the text with me referring
to my highlighted notes. It was clearly
not going to plan.
‘Mmm’ he mused. ‘But I mean really what does it all mean? Do
you think the average audience I going to get it?’
Well yes. The average
audience who has come all the way to Stratford to watch The Tempest is
absolutely going to get it.
‘No, no!’ Says our director. ‘It’s too difficult. I think we
should simplify it and that’s why we’re going to come up with our own language.
Our Goddesses are going to be inuits.’
And so Lana, Gala, Sala duly followed.
The strange inuit language created by Adam with his eerie
atonal music was joyous to sing. In addition I got to learn the lines for
Miranda and once we had opened I performed a wonderful show as Miranda in the
RST for the visiting companies. Hurrah hurrah for life’s funny twists and
turns! I started out in T.I.E and here I was in the R.S.C a with the chance to play a romantic
lead.
Sadly or possibly inevitably I chose to end the relationship
with husband-to-be. A few weeks later I ended up embroiled in a ridiculous
farce like affair with The Rogue from the season who wooed and shooed with the
practised ease of an early thirties womaniser. Thankfully it ended almost as
soon as it had begun and I spent the rest of the run a sorry singleton though
excited about my travels. After Stratford first stop Michigan. Then Newcastle
and then a five week break during which Minnie and I flew to my parent’s house
in Dominica. It’s a hard life.
The Tempest was a huge success. I adored the beautiful
snow-capped set complete with rocks and real snowflakes as we three made
ourselves known. Julian Bleach made a phenomenal Ariel and chose to move slowly
and deliberately round the stage in stark contrast to flitting and floaty
Ariels who have gone before and after. As he said, Ariel was supposed to move like
air but whoever said that air moved fast? I looked forward to every performance
and was especially pleased when it was announced that The Tempest and Anthony
and Cleopatra would both be performing in Michigan in October and that just The
Tempest would perform for a week in November when we got back.
Despite my confused and disconcerting love life I was having
an amazingly cultured and exotic time of it in my career. It was odd though.
Financially I was still finding being an actor tricky as I had to keep paying
my mortgage on my London flat and also pay for expenses in Stratford. Lots of
people had given up their flats or subleted them if they were renting but I
still wanted the London bolt hole at weekends so as not to go stir crazy in
Stratford. As a result I was still spending every penny. Still I was looking
forward to Michigan immensely and after a fun packed summer with first night
parties abounding I was ready come September to move on. Especially since The
Rogue suddenly acquired a new girlfriend who was at Bristol Old
Vic with my sister Antonia. I needed a week off to
recharge before flying to the US of A.
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