The beginnings

Actors and their ‘Angels!’ (BOV Young company hosts)

Diary Extract:
Monday 1st February 2010
[Meet and greet with cast and crew at Bristol Old Vic]
It is the first day of the ‘beginnings’ of this project, which we soon realize and can feel, has been cooking for some time (about a decade in fact!)… And now it’s here, it’s arrived; it’s the ‘making it happen’ time.
A lot of excitement and cheer is bubbling underneath the usual feelings of the morning and a tentative meeting new people scenario…
I am as usual still glugging the provided coffee and munching on a free pecan pastry when Tom Morris begins speaking and there is hush; we must all introduce ourselves in the usual format of traveling around the circle stating name and role, I quickly realize my position and try as fast as I can to swallow the remaining pastry without choking to death, as the names are traveling fast and for some reason I always find myself with dark imaginings of humiliation and humor in professional situations such as these-- and envisage that me receiving the Heimlich maneuver from the nearby fight director so early on would perhaps not be the best start-- anyway this formality does not last too long and we get to have our first gander at the faces we will be working with over the coming months.
What strikes me most of all is just how many faces there are, of course I have worked on shows before but I never really have had it laid out in front of me like this, and for the first time really identified with the fact that we will all be dependent on each other- (essentially a bunch of very talented ‘strangers’)- to pull this off. We have a concept to work with and we all have our skills, but we still have absolutely no idea what will happen...it is a strange and beautiful feeling this creation point.
Next we break off and chitchat, familiarizing ourselves with everybody and making contact with the people we need to deal with more specifically.
I am looking after Romeo throughout the process who is played by Michael Byrne and who is instantly charming; we discuss going to the same drama school in London and how I went to Circus school, he jokes and smiles a lot, and he asks me if he can come visit the school in Bristol and learn flying trapeze, I laugh and say ‘Of Course!’- And then realize quickly the very dangerous implications of this offer, as I can’t be sure he isn’t serious…
[End of extract]

The first week in Bristol is a very focused time in which we work specifically on the relationship between Romeo and Juliet; after ploughing through verse and textual understanding for some time, we arise to our feet and make some exciting discoveries… Including a very special musical moment for Sian Phillips as Juliet at the ball, and the general wonderment of what it is for our two lovers, to find each other in this environment and at this time in their lives…
We decided this is not just a love story, but also a story of 'waking up' for our characters, who have in this ‘world’ and care home environment, been perhaps ‘asleep’ for some time…

‘Waking up.’

[Poem written by Charlie George in response to these discussions]

(Those who go into a home can quickly deteriorate; those who find love quickly accelerate)

I think it strange that when I am angry and saddened by the world and therefore myself, how quickly I would turn to leave and death.
Yet should I find some pleasure, however small, within this world and thus myself, I will cling on dearly and will all but else.

It is not then the ravages of time nor the diseases that so infect our air and minds that should take us to our graves.
But it will be the altering of moods, that so threatens our mortality; and pure happiness that saves.

Dementia and Old age discussions:

Playing old age: ‘We do not want to be “slumming”- descending the character, but transpose the justifications of the characters situation, and play to the strengths of that character within their frailty.

Dementia/Alzheimer’s heightens everything, and could be very relevant in terms of premonitions of death and intensity/confusion of feelings, as well as outbursts of anger and violence.

Perceptions of age:
‘How do you play a man of 50? [Said a drama student hobbling and bent double to suggest] ‘Well I’m 68!’ Responded a spritely and upright Dudley Sutton!

How an environment ages a person, and frailty can grow in a frail environment, exploring the physicality of playing someone frailer than yourself by using your own ailments and enhancing them.

Time and time again discussions of old age were filled with both beautiful and alarming anecdotes from our own lives and experiences with families and friends, it indeed has strong relevance to us all…

Left shuddering suddenly with the thought of a lonely council grave- Upon hearing how expensive funerals were!

‘My grandfather was unable to remember the death of his own wife, and relived the grief almost every day, I believe that is why he passed so soon after she did.’

‘At parties/functions in care homes they often sit everyone in lines, lines! Like a children’s party.’

Quotes of the Week:

‘Being unforgiving is an unattractive quality.’
(Grudges/feuds)

‘Even from the perspective of a relatively young person, the joys of youth can be regretfully lost.’
(Lovely things I haven’t done for years)

‘I fall in love everyday.’
(Love at first sight)

‘I want to go, before someone has to wipe my arse.’
(Death/suicide)

‘A blooming flower on the edge of a cliff.’
(The Romance)

‘I don’t think they should rush into anything,’
(On Romeo and Juliet falling in love in their 80’s)

‘No I don’t understand at all! But of course we’ll try…’
(Rehearsal)

‘Why is impossible love so exciting?’
(Sian Phillips)

‘I just don’t feel glamorous on a commode!’
(Rehearsal)

‘Cap the Capulets!’
(Dudley Sutton)

‘The one thing that keeps him awake is a good old rage.’
(Tybalt)

‘Perhaps the friar has a concoction that consists of Valium and spring onion?’
(Friar Lawrence development)

‘The evidence is on your own body’
(Tears)

‘A verbal bouquet,’
(Romeo’s language with Juliet)


‘Why can’t real life be like that!?...
…That’s why we make theatre.’



Theatre.
[Another poem response by Charlie George]

We are players,
We play,
We tell stories,
We share stories
Our work is a playground
Where we create beauty, truth, terror, lies…
Similar to life, in that they are living
But these are not our life games
Our life games live outdoors and are not so easily observed
In truth the joy that can be found in these experiments can equal, if not outweigh the source.