Casting Off - We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea

The weekend proved a useful break for us all, equally measured between line learning and heading out into Ipswich to enjoy the gorgeous weather which had miraculously appeared out of nowhere. We all leapt back into the rehearsal room on the third week fully intent on mastering the play without any script in hand at all. The work we had all put in over the weekend shined through, and we were virtually running entire acts of the play with only a few moments needing helpful prompts from the Assistant Director Niki. The main difficulty with the lines was learning all the nautical sailing terms, which have to be said correctly otherwise their whole meaning could be completely skewed. The character of John especially has an enormous amount of this nautical terminology, and it's a huge credit to my cast mate Joel that he was able to learn all of them precisely with only a few prompts needed during these initial runs.    As there were certain to be some true mariners in the audience, we were all very focused on getting the right lines out so that the reality of the children's adventure wouldn't be broken.

And so our final full week of rehearsal passed, with us progressing from running small sections of play to being able to run both the first and second half's with very little prompting needed at all. Whilst we were working our way through, Ivan (the director) added in extra notes to help us build on our characters and cement them in the reality of the situation rather than ‘Blyton-esque' stereotype that I've mentioned can sometimes be associated with Ransome and his characters. Very soon, the detailed nuances of our cast's characters began to come through. Joel's performance began to highlight the enormous pressure placed on the eldest member of the group (John) and how he had to cope with his own self-doubt as well as looking after everybody else. Roz (playing Susan) found the right balance of playing the responsibility placed on her character by the children's mother, and the abject terror she experiences in the completely new environment. Meanwhile Tilly, playing her rhyming counterpart Titty, explored her character's creative mindset and how this affected her outlook on the adventures the children found themselves in. And my character? Well, as Roger is the youngest of the children, I began to discover that his journey was based around the classic ‘rite of passage'. How he learns to grow up a bit more during his time at sea, and that he becomes more aware of how his actions affect the others around him.

Gradually, towards the end of the week, we began to add other elements into our runs. The mimed props that we had imagined in our hands suddenly took shape and form, adding a whole new focus and set of movements to be committed to memory. We soon began to incorporate sound into the piece, and it was wonderful to hear the cries of gulls and lapping of the waves echoing about us as we prepared to do a full run of the play. Finally, on Saturday, we embarked on a full run equipped with as much of the costumes, props, lighting and sound was available. And although there were occasional stumbles and moments of slight confusion, after the final chorus of ‘Spanish Ladies' had been sung we all felt very pleased at the solid shape and energy the piece had gained. Finally, we all said, we felt ready to get into the theatre.