Review: Stage Rights Living Literature Walk, Scary Little Girls (Covent Garden)

A little while ago, actress and erstwhile PhD student Naomi Paxton put on an evening of suffragette plays entitled Knickerbocker Glories at the Union Theatre. Although she had come upon these pieces completely by accident, Naomi had realised the dramatic potential of these highly comic, incisive pieces and determined to bring them to the world's attention. A little while later, and Naomi is now studying for her PhD, focusing on this exact topic, and has now, with Scary Little Girls, brought the world of the suffragettes to life again with their Stage Rights Living Literature Walk.

This self-guided tour (you're in a group of varied number) takes you all around Covent Garden and down to the Strand. As you travel around the area, you learn all about the history of the suffragettes, and can pick out landmark buildings and areas where they spent time. You also bump into a variety of pro and anti suffrage workers, who perform pieces from the time, some poignant, some outright silly. You might have to shout for votes for women, or perhaps take a swig of brandy, in solidarity with the movement.

All involved are accomplished actors, all the pieces teach you something (in an interesting, captivating way!). You never know what's round the next corner and the time flies by. There's clearly a lot of heart, soul and passion in this production, and it would be lovely to see it return in a more regular form. It's a joyous afternoon, both educative and a great deal of fun. Not to be missed.

(Stage Rights Living Literature Walk can be enjoyed on April 27th 2013 - for more information, click here)

Getting my debut put on: the final performance (and the low after)

I'm still not quite over Monday night. Maybe I never will be! I went to work as normal on the day, leaving Ilinca to deal with the vagaries of the technical rehearsal, though a chunk of my heart desperately wanted to be there for every single moment of this experience. As soon as work was over, I headed to the theatre, a total bag of nerves - I'm sure I'll improve next time round (hoping there is one!) but your debut is a pretty huge thing. At this point, I must thank Theatre 503 for the opportunity and Desolate Heaven for providing inspiration - I took the running away and the fantastical elements from it!

I watched the actors and literary coordinator Graeme work on the transitions from piece to piece, glass of wine in hand (it was much needed), before I went to meet friends and family, though I found it hard to concentrate and focus. I was a complete flibbertigibbet, basically, and I’m sure the other writers had much more of a cool head about things. I did feel, as per usual, like the least cool person in the room! I am very lucky in my friends and family – about a dozen of them turned out, which was fantastic.

The piece itself was amazing. It was first on, so I could get over my nerves quickly. It went so, so well, emotionally ramped up hugely from the runthrough, the actors visibly responding to the energy in the room. Alex did a completely stunning job – I will never know how she learns all those lines – and was both funny and tragic. Lines got laughs that I never knew would get laughs – the Basingstoke/Southampton ones did, which makes sense, but the line about her hair got a huge one, mainly because Alex had brushed it out to a completely obscene degree. Ilinca had made a number of sound choices that I knew nothing about, which worked so well, especially a PJ Harvey song right at the end about a monster in the woods (perfect, right?), and her visual ending, though it tipped the balance towards guiding the audience one way of thinking, was totally right for the piece. I can’t sing her praises highly enough.

Ilinca is an MFA student at Birkbeck on the Directing course, about to start a placement at the Lyric Hammersmith. She is one of the most talented people I’ve ever had the privilege to work with, and someone I really want to work with again. She inspires me so much! As does Alex, whose enthusiasm and hard work was so fantastic to see, and who I know will achieve whatever she wants to. And Emily, who I knew beforehand, but had never seen act, a brilliant, committed actress and a good friend! I feel so lucky – Ilinca and I were randomly put together but it just worked, and while other pairings did about 4 hours rehearsal in total, we were lucky enough to manage 13, meaning we could start to really delve into the piece.

Now that it’s all over and life is back to normal, I feel a bit bereft, a bit inspired, but also determined to make writing work as something for me. I know I can do it, I know I’m good at it, and although by working in journalism and more recently marketing I’ve retained that in my work life, I don’t feel creatively satisfied, and that’s not enough now. Now I know that someone will pay to watch my writing, that people actually like my work, it motivates me to try and dive more deeply into this world. It might take time, but I can do it. I’ve faffed around the edges of theatre and the arts for a long time now – I wish I just had the gumption and the guts to go for it, but I never have, and I haven’t still. But I’m going to try and get there.

Getting my debut play put on: rehearsals and runthroughs

Well, the weekend pretty much slipped by. Sunday was our runthrough day – Ilinca managed to wangle a little more time at Theatre503, which was much needed, as it turned out! We turned up at 10am on the dot, freezing cold (actually, I was an overly eager beaver and turned up at just after half 9 and froze for twenty minutes). I’d brought pastries and fruit and juice, so we made tea and coffee and had a chat before getting onto the set. It’s the first time Alex and Emily have been able to put on their costumes – Alex has a full change in the middle of the play, so she really needed to figure out how it would work in reality. There were some funny moments, when she couldn’t get her hood on due to scarf drama, and we discovered that she could change while talking (I have no idea how she manages that).

We managed to run through the piece twice, as well as talk through all the ‘goods’ and ‘bads’ (Ilinca’s really good about making sure the actors are happy with what they’re doing, and addressing any concerns they might have) and I was so impressed with both of them – Alex has learnt the piece magnificently and plays off against Emily so well – even though they don’t have any scenes together (they’re both in their own world), there are these great moments of almost connection. What a team! I was so excited that I filmed the run-throughs, so I now have a memory for the future (hopefully more plays to come in that future – though I need to write one first).

It turns out that the play runs at twenty minutes, once you factor in actual acting, whereas I thought it was ten minutes when I wrote it (probably should have noticed the page long monologues kind of slow things down…). We left things with the ending still not finalised – that’s something that they will have worked on in the tech rehearsal today – but I trust them to make it work. I am so excited and so nervous, totally thrilled that this is happening but sick with tension. I know it’s silly, but that’s just me and theatre – and when it’s literally, really ME and theatre, it makes it so much worse! And then there’s tonight…

Getting my debut play put on: rehearsals begin

Yesterday was the first day of rehearsals, which Ilinca spent doing character work with the cast. I popped in and out - I think it's good to be there if they need you, but at the same time, you have to give actors and directors room to breathe. Sounds really wanky to say it when it's only the first thing I've had put on, but it feels like a bit of a universal truth. It's so weird to hear people talking about the world you made up in your head (only two weeks ago!) and having serious discussions about it, in order to help character development. It's thrilling and addictive - you can see why so many people want to write!

Today will be blocking, runthroughs etc. I'm going to come in later, once they've had a chance to do it. We've got rehearsal space for the day, and I think there's about six hours of work scheduled in - interestingly, I met one of the other play's directors yesterday, and he said he was doing about four hours rehearsal in total. We're doing 13! He was surprised, but I am quite pleased that it's getting so much - it's quite a complex piece layers and language wise (not difficult in terms of the words, just the fact there are lots of them!) and it's probably beneficial for the actors to get so much time to work with it.

We want it to be the best it can be, and for us that means rehearsing all day yesterday, today and a bit on Sunday! (I say we, I am not very much involved in this!) We've changed a few lines (one of which I have had mega problems finding a replacement for, while the other came easily) and I'm looking forward to seeing how they sound when the actors get to start putting the piece together later.

The show itself has sold out, and our piece is on first. I am really pleased about that - it means we get it out of the way, and all of our nerves can dissipate quickly! Ilinca and I seem to think similarly about the benefits of wine in this situation. So you know where to find us afterwards...

Getting my debut play put on: quiet times

We've entered the weird period between meeting each other and the play being put on. I no longer have very much to do, apart from dropping in on rehearsals to See How These Things Work (who,, very sweetly, says 'whenever you want, for however long you want. Would love to have you there') and worry about it all going well. Which isn't really very much fun. I'm trying to keep my mind off it and had a busy day at work today, which I will also do on the day of the show, in order not to disturb the tech and let the actors get into whatever headspace they need to to perform it.

I noticed one of the other writers saying to a friend today (who couldn't make it) not to worry, and that it was 'just a little thing'. I'm sure it is for him, but for me it's huge! It's the first thing I've ever had put on, only the second thing I've written in this genre (not that anything else I've written has ever been put out there or had any success - barring my composing win at the Ernest Read Music Awards at the precocious age of 8... Okay, so it's only a short play, but I really care about the piece, and it's a 'start' for me in this area, I suppose.

We start rehearsals at Theatre503 tomorrow, which I hope to pop in on, and then at London Bubble in Surrey Quays on Saturday - they have very kindly given us some space for the day, which is amazing - and which we really appreciate. I don't know whether I'll be around then, I'm quite keen to let them get on with it, but I'll see what the director thinks tomorrow. I also received a tech schedule from the literary coordinator at 503, which shows that our piece will be on first. I don't know whether that's a good or bad thing! I suppose it's good to get it out of the way quickly...

For now, I'm crashing out and trying not to let it prey on my mind! Ridiculous to even think it might, but that's the world of writing...

Three Kingdoms: Thoughts

The things I loved about Three Kingdoms, but which will probably remain inexplicable to those who have not seen it:

The symbolism of the deer and the wolf heads

The Trickster in drag as the prostitute who had been there 40 years

'My name is Steffen Dresner'

The gravity flip

'I think I am English'

'Do you like music, Tommy?'

The constant throwing of bodies out of the window

Entering through the wall

'Ig, that's maniacal'

The actress appearing from a suitcase

'Here, Pitsu' <-- and how different this is from the script

The different methods of theatre practice -- how character-driven English theatre is, how performance driven Estonian/German is. Can interpretation of character change completely every night, if it's not about biography but on-stage action?

Enschaldigung

Getting my debut play put on: the logistics

This morning I met up with my director and cast for introductions, a chat about the play and a run-through. My director is the lovely Ilinca Radulian, currently on the directors MA at Birkbeck, while my cast members are the fab Emily Altneu (Anna) and Alex Webb (Madeline).

We ended up in Costa at Euston station - not the most glamorous of locations, but when you're putting on such a short-notice production and your director has to go to Nottingham shortly thereafter, it seemed to be a good enough place. It was great to meet the actors - one of whom I already know but the other of whom I didn't at all (Alex). I even tried Googling her yesterday, to no avail, and ended up thinking she was someone else for quite a long period of time!

Upon meeting Alex, I discovered that this confusion comes from the fact that she is actually 22, a recent English and Theatre graduate, just tip-toeing into the acting scene and currently auditioning for drama school - hence the lack of Spotlight/Casting Call Pro/website! She is blonde, which will work well against Emily's dark hair - sounds weird to focus on hair, but not knowing what someone looks like prior to meeting them, you play with lots of images in your mind!

Anyway, after a read-through (which was much less cringingly terrifying for me than the last one I attended), and which went well, we all went our separate ways. Ilinca has asked the cast to do 'character lists', where they write down facts about the characters, what other people say about them, what they say about themselves and so on. It's really interesting to see her work - she's very cool and calm and open, and I'm really excited to see the piece take shape.

Until we go into rehearsal on Friday, the actors are busy learning lines. Alex has a lot - thanks to my clever decision to do monologues instead of dialogue - and so left Costa for home, while Emily and I went to Le Pain Quotidien to do line runs and try and help out with finding rehearsal space - we have plenty for Friday, and hopefully Sunday, but Saturday was a bit of an unknown quantity. I called around many, many places, and have found somewhere - if Ilinca hasn't already! Emily's doing really well with her stuff - I have no idea how actors do it! More nervous for poor Alex, who has a three page monologue at the end to get through!

Can't believe it's going to be on only next Monday. Amazing, terrifying...