Saturday Night, If It's Alright!

Saturday 27th June. 7.00 a.m. The heat has gone down considerably, but it's still unbearably hot. Currently, the digital thermometer reads 29º c, so a good deal hotter than usual, whatever usual is these days.

I have completed another play and I'm making little tweeks to make sure it runs for around 120 minutes and it has some sort of authinticity as it's set in Norfolk, so some of the characters would speak in the very distinct dialect.

Saturday 4th July. 9.20 a.m. Another warm day. We have had a few cooler days, but the weather forecast is coming in very hort again. I have to say, it is not something I enjoy because it can increase my blood pressure, and, since I have a heart condition, not something I am keen to experience.

Tuesday 7th July. 3.10p.m. It's not as hot as it was about a week ago. Currently the digital thermometer reads 31 c. 

I have written a couple more plays, this time in the style of Alan Ayckbourn. If you are not aware of his plays, where have you been for the last 50 or more years? He has written somewhere in the region of 90 plays, which has to be some kind of record. They are usually about very ordinary people doing very ordinary things. His first big success was 'Relatively Speaking' which I did the book for when I was an A.S.M. at Liverpool Playhouse in the early 1970s. Then, we did 'How The Others Half Love' at Century Theatre in Keswick, and then I did the book for another of his plays, at Ipswich Theatre in the mid 1970s, 'Time nd Time Again.' His work is usually premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough and often gets a West End production.

I am using his blueprint as the basis for several of my own plays, which are comic but can then have a certain melancholic feel to them, which makes for great theatre and have more depth to them than merely being funny. I think, having beeen involved with the production of some of his plays, I have a good idea ho they work, how, although at first sight they may seem simple, there is far more to them than you might imagine.

The central character in"Time and Time Again" was played by an actor called Chris Godwin, who created the character when the play was premiered at Scarborough, so he knew how to play Leonard. Alan Ayckhourned himself came to Ipswich to see our production and made the comment that OUR production was far better than the West End version, quite an accolade for out little production. 

Television comedy 'Outside Edge'

I'm currently watching one of my favourite television comedies of the 1990's called "Outside Edge." It's being shown on ITV Encore. Actually I'm downloading it from ITV Player. I remember it with a certain affection from when it was originally shown, but I think I must be watching later episodes which I've never seen before. It was based on a stage play, also called "Outside Edge" and written by Richard Harris (I don't think it was the actor of the same name who wrote it, but perhaps it was, but I can't be sure of that.)  It was first staged at the Hampstead Theatre, London on 24th July 1979 and then transferred into the West End, at the Queen's Theatre on 11th September 1979. The cast for that production were: Roger- Richard Kane; Miriam- Julia McKenzie; Kevin- Ian Trigger; Maggie- Maureen Lipman; Bob- John Kane; Ginnie- Susan Carpenter; Dennis- Julian Curry; Alex- Martin Wimpish; Sharon- Natalie Forbes.The original one-off television play was  broadcast on I.T.V. on 19th December 1982 and produced by London Weekend Television. In the cast were cast with Paul Eddington as Roger (best known for his roles in "The Good Life" and then "Yes Minister" and "Yes Prime Minister.") Prunella Scales as Miriam, Jonathan Lynn as Kevin and Maureen Lipman as Maggie.) The television series  version was produced by Central Television. 

The series centres around Roger Dervish (Robert Daws) as the pompous captain of a minor Sunday League cricket team. He likes to think of himself as the 'driving force' behind the team, yet he isn't really much good at organisation.

Most of the real work is actually done by Roger's ever-efficient, long-suffering wife, Miriam (Brenda Blethyn, currently seen in "Vera" on ITV).

Kevin Costello (Timothy Spall) is a bit of a slob. He's also probably the nearest thing Roger has to a friend.

Kevin is married to the lovely Maggie (Josie Lawrence), a very outgoing, affectionate woman. She adores Kevin and has a seemingly insatiable appetite for sex (as long as it's with Kevin). They are desperately trying to have a baby, without much success. The series was made entirely on location, and on film, which adds to the reality of the whole thing. Also, it doesn't have a studio audience cackling on the soundtrack and also it uses a clever mix of different classical music excerpts which also adds to the mix very successfully. I remember seeing an amateur version a few years ago as well as a touring version of the play at the Derngate in Northampton, but I think that the television version is better than the original play as there is room to develop the characters and plots further as well as the ability to show the actual cricket matches they play because in the stage version from what I remember the matches are 'off-stage.' Cricket isn't really what it's about, it's the interaction between the characters that makes it interesting.It's very subtle and some of it verges on the tragic-comic, particularly the scenes between Kevin and Maggie, played to perfection by the brilliant Timothy Spall and Josie Lawrence. In some ways it has a lot in common with a lot of Alan Ayckbourn's plays which seem to centre on a set of similar characters and situations which have a good deal more depth to them than your average comedy, television or stage.

A shame that today's television hasn't got the imagination that it had when this series was first aired. Even with umpteen channels we get a very narrow choice of programming. In the 1970's and 80's there were only four television channels, but you did seem to get quite a good mix of what you could watch. In one evening you'd get children's programmes such as 'Blue Peter' and 'Magpie' and later on a sitcom such as "The Good Life", 'Fawlty Towers" or "Yes, Prime Minister." A good one-off drama at least once a week in strands such as "Play for Today" where such writers as Dennis Potter or Alan Plater would give cutting-edge drama, and you could see things like "Vote, Vote For Nigel Barton", "The Singing Detective", "Kathy, Come Home" and so on. It seems that today every day is the same on television. The schedules are exactly the same for each day of the week. You know that 'Pointless' will be at 5.15 every day, and there's going to be an episode even at the weekend. 'EastEnders' is on several times a week, getting more and more monotonous and depressing as the weeks go on. When "Outside Edge" was made, I.T.V. was still made up of smaller companies such as Anglia, London Weekend Television, Central, Granada, Tyne Tees etc etc. Then it became possible for the larger companies to gradually take over the smaller ones, such as Granada and Carlton, until in the early 2000s the government allowed them to merge to just become one conglomerate, I.T.V. plc and run from one place and making somewhat bland programmes. Beforehand, each company had it's own individuality, some having a particular speciality such as Anglia, which made wildlife documentaries such as "Survival."

Working In Theatre- Stage Management Duties-Part 12

I've discussed my time working in stage management in earlier posts on here. I have mentioned running 'The Book', where a member of the stage management team was in charge of rehearsals and then the prompt corner when the show eventually reaches performance on stage. We would begin the whole process with a read-through of the play, when the cast will no doubt meet the entire company for the first time, although in 'rep' (repertory) there would be a core team of actors, around 10-12, who would remain with the company for the entire length of the season (around 6-8 months) although guest actors might be cast in specific productions and not for the entire season of plays. The read through of the play would be the first time the stage management team would get to meet the whole cast as well as the director who might also guest direct or in the case of a rep season, the theatre's artistic director would direct or one of a team of assistant directors might take the helm. The show's designer would have made a model of the play's set, a scaled reproduction which would be made of card and in the simplest representation show how any scene changes would be done. Not only helpful to the actors but the stage management who would have to do the scene changes, although in some shows the actors would also help with scene changes, move furniture or carry on props.

When rehearsals began in earnest (and if it was a two, or three-weekly 'rep' season.) there would obviously be a limited time to rehearse the play as there would be another play running in the evening. Stage management would have market out the play's set with chalk or coloured tape on the floor of the stage or if not there, in a separate rehearsal space elsewhere, either within the theatre or in a hall elsewhere in the town. Many theatres have their own rehearsal space, such as at Liverpool Playhouse where there was an excellent rehearsal studio which I believe has since been converted into a theatre space for actual performances.

Wherever I worked in stage management the jobs were given to staff for  1) The Book 2) Props
3) Sound operation and sometimes (depending on which theatre company) 3) Lighting Board operation. There were also other duties including working on the Flyfloor, working 'practical' things like 'live' sound off-stage i.e. doorslams, gunshots, glass crashes as well as dresser, paging such things as microphone leads and looking after animals that were used on stage (i.e. dogs, cats etc.)

I have discussed 'The Book' on an earlier post, whereby whoever does this is responsible for keeping the 'Prompt Copy' of the play's script up to date with the actor's moves given in the early stages of blocking the play in the rehearsal room, so that actors can refer to this if there is any sort of dispute with the director or other actors. Another member of the stage management team will sit in all the early rehearsals and note any props that will be needed. If a play has been produced before elsewhere there is a good chance that the printed script will have a props list at the back and a setting list, which shows in details where the props should be set on the stage and off stage, as well as personal props which the actors themselves will need, such as cigarettes, glasses, umbrellas etc. which they bring on and use themselves. Once the play is at the performance stage whoever is in charge of props (and, if it is a particularly prop-heavy show.) there may be more than one stage management member running props. During rehearsals stage management will probably have to provide 'stand-in' props for the actors to use, such as teasers, kettles, wine bottles, which may well need water in if they are to pour out drinks as well as some stand-in furniture. I say 'stand-in' because at the early stage of rehearsals all the actual props may not have been acquired by stage management. Some props would be very difficult to find and would need to be hired from a prop company. Such things that you would never manage to find in the average antique shop, such as a stuffed bear, which we needed for a show at Liverpool Playhouse called 'What Every Woman Knows.' There again, if it's something like period grocer items which we needed for another show at Liverpool Playhouse called 'June Evening' which had a corner shop on stage and needed grocer items for the period it was set, 1920's-30's we had to contact a company which specialised in period grocery items and gave us a whole shop-load of things from bars of soap to tea packets. It was in that show that we needed a bulls heart which had to be cooked and eaten! So a specific number were ordered from a local butcher and then we had to cook it and have it ready for the actors to use and eat on stage! Not actually as bad as it sounds as it tasted very much like roast beef! In another show at Ipswich Theatre when we did 'Roots' which is one of the Arnold Wesker trilogy plays, the show called for a cake to be made and then cooked on stag so we had to provide a working oven on stage. The cake was never seen to come out of the oven but for one performance the actress who made the cake actually cooked it and we ate it! It wasn't brilliant, but it proved that she had actually made the whole cake during the action of the play, which can't have been that easy, concentrating on her lines as well as getting all the ingredients of the cake and then baking it!

For all the other props we would need we had to beg, borrow and very nearly steal, whatever items were needed on stage. Looking back some forty or so years it seems amazing that we would go to the various shops around the towns where the theatres were and ask shopkeepers if they would lend certain items. I had to find a samovar for a show at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, for a show called "The Farmer's Wife." I spent a good two weeks trekking around the antiques shops in the town and almost gave up but then found one in an antique centre and managed to persuade the owner of the shop to lend it. I can't imagine what would have happened if it had been stolen or lost and whether the theatre had all these items covered on some sort of insurance policy. In most cases the shows were produced on extremely tight budgets so I suppose the only way they could be staged was to borrow these items from the good people of the town. Some items which did cause problems were drinks bottles and in particular those for shows which were set in, for example, America, where you needed a specific brand of beer or some obscure bottle of spirit such as vodka or whiskey. We would have to traipse around all the bars, pubs and restaurants and ask the managers and bar personnel if they could keep any empty bottles of whatever drink it was and then we had to create the actual liquid part to go inside the bottle with food colouring, gravy browning or even cold tea! I sometimes wonder, looking back, how any actor could be expected to drink those awful mocked-up drinks, be it whiskey, gin and tonic or whatever, when the colouring in the water we used was so foul to taste! As for food on stage, well, that can cause some problems, particularly when you are on a very tight budget. I mentioned earlier the cake that was made and baked on stage, but when you have to create something that looks edible, and often is eaten by your actors, that can be a different matter. We did an Alan Aykbourne play when I worked at Century Theatre in Keswick in the early 1970's, "How The Other Half Loves". There is a dinner party scene where the hostess produces a fancy casserole. We couldn't use meat as it would be too expensive, and wouldn't be seen as such so the concoction was made using bread, gravy browning and water but it did look quit convincing when it was served up. At Watford Palace Theatre I worked on "The Three Sisters" and we had to produce something to look like caviar and we used blackberry jam which did convince and the dining table was set far enough up stage so the audience couldn't see precisely what the actors were spreading on their toast!