Don John rehearsal blog pt 3

With the kind permission of Kneehigh Theatre, we're reproducing Carl Grose's rehearsal blog. This is the third part of five. Don John is on at Northern Stage from the 27 - 31 January.

Week Three

Monday. We arrive in Stratford. We get settled into our “digs” – theatre jargon for “the room you’re going to be living in for the next two months”. We, the company, go to toast our arrival at The Dirty Duck, which is a famous pub situated on the Waterside right between the Courtyard and The Swan theatres. It is exactly 13 seconds from my door. Perfect positioning! Everyone is revved-up. Another treat is that the fabulous Cornish dance company Cscape have joined us. They will be the chorus of females on Don John’s legendary list! It’s great to have them on board, and have the team grow so elegantly. En masse, and excited, much ale is quaffed. We make an exception (it is our first night in Stratford, after all), but promises are made that it won’t be like this every night… (ahem…)

Tuesday. Work begins in earnest in the RSC rehearsal space at the top of town. It couldn’t be more different from the Barn. It’s brightly lit, windowless, and huge. Emma exchanges running on the cliffs for extreme yoga. All new levels of pain are discovered. The Cscape girls’ presence also means that a number of dance sequences in the show have gone up a gear. It becomes apparent that this is going to be “a sweaty one” (actually, they always are, but so far, this one’s really sweaty!). Seeing as it is our first day of rehearsal, and acclimatising to the new space has been a little disorienting, we decide to unwind from the day by heading to The Dirty Duck for one or two. Or three.

Wednesday. We plough through the songs again, and familiarise ourselves with the start of the show. Emma now starts to layer in detail, and it gets exciting. At lunchtime we have a meet-and-greet with the RSC team. Everyone is really nice, and we feel very welcome. They asked us here before, with our version of Cymbeline. Guess they liked it! In the afternoon, we start to play around with Vicki Mortimer’s looming, rusty, but wily set. I don’t want to give much away, but we all get a taste of the “wow factor”. Everyone agrees it’s cool as ice. Everyone also agrees that tonight should be a night off from the pub as it’s Stu Barker’s birthday tomorrow. However, we still somehow end up at The Duck. It’s hard to resist when it’s only 13 seconds away from your door… and the extreme yoga is working wonders, so…

Thursday. Music maestro Stu Barker’s birthday. He gets a chocolate cake, a Flight Of The Concords DVD and a stylophone (picture a sort of shrieking calculator activated by a small wand). The man couldn’t be happier. He suggests the ever-so-slightly annoying instrument be in the show. Emma says absolutely not. We rehearse into the evening then go for an Indian meal. We decide to crown the evening with a quick drink in The (yeh, you guessed it) Duck…

Friday. My character, Alan, gets electrocuted attempting to fix a dodgy festoon for his wedding. We do the scene a number of times, and I end up pinballing off the set, dancing The Robot and almost dying from a heart-attack (told you it was “sweaty”). The scene has next-to-no narrative function. At the moment it’s way too long. It may get cut, but it was great fun to make it. I’ll let you know if it survives. Hey! Was that the end of Week Three already? Blimey! Look out! Here’s comes Week Four!

Quick!

Duck!