Bentwater Roads: A Trip To The Hush House

Wednesday 2nd June - The detailed dissection of this wonderfully complex piece of script kept us going until midday. 

During lunch we wedged in measurements with the costume designer Cherilyn Leeson. Then we all piled into the Eastern Angles van and headed out to the Hush House at Bentwaters Airbase. We were all amazed by the sound studio acoustics - the Hush House is a large steel hanger designed for testing Jet Engines - bizzarely this large metal shell has no echo at all and the long tunnel at the back of the building constructed as an exhaust pipe for the jet engines sends your voice back into the hanger making it sound like your standing behind the audience. Jon was capturing our bemused looks as we were all blown away by the immensity of the space. Ivan and the team have really come up with more than just a play, this is going to be Event, capital E intended. With promenade parts to the perfomance, food stands and a bar and a chorus of ancient Britons (comprised of community members) mysteriously echoing the main action and linking the four separate stories together. It's all very exciting really.

We read the final scenes of the play in the space and then headed to the nearby Wantisden Church which features heavily in the play. 

Within seconds of being in the Church Mark Knightly (the actor playing Jez and Crotus) was flying up the unlit steps of the cobwebbed tower, clambering up the internal ladders pass the abandoned twigs, feathers and droppings left by the avian inhabitants pushing back the heavy copper trap door leading to the roof of the tower. Soon half the cast were a top the tower and admiring the view of the Suffolk countryside. We all clambered back into the Eastern Angles Van and headed back to the Greyhound.