Dark Earth: How The Professionals Do It...

A blog from Emma Goldberg, who is currently rehearsing DARK EARTH in Peterborough, and is playing the part of Cristeen:

How the professionals do it...

I love Eastern Angles. Their productions are exciting and innovative. I've laughed and cried. So imagine how excited I was at a chance to be involved in one! I was happy (and concerned) to land the part of Cristeen, the Dutch drainage expert's wife - concerned because of having to put on a Dutch accent. Not too Germanic, that's the top tip there. I think. Hope. 

Having recently started directing myself, I also hoped I might pick up a few tips from watching Naomi Jones directing, but the problem is, she makes it look pretty effortless. She's got a crack team working with her, and it's a busy play - the scenes are short and pithy, and move fast. The cast is huge as well! I feel for Naomi, trying to control us, but somehow she does manage, seemingly without being nearly as shouty or rude as I was when I directed The Crucible. I suspect that our total awe of being directed by her means that we are just being better behaved than normal. Either that or I simply have no chance of garnering respect from anyone, which may also be true. Mind you, her tough exterior is starting to crack, as we are two weeks away from the show, and there are still cast members on script (OK, OK, I'm one of them. I feel terrible. But I'm learning my lines, honest Gov).

Not surprisingly, from Eastern Angles, it's a fun script with a local flavour. It's very much set in the Fens, in the late seventeenth century. The main plot driver is the new-fangled idea to drain the fens, and upgrade to good, agricultural land, instead of all that bloody biodiversity that's sustaining the local fen-folk. However, the subplots are much deeper and more sinister, involving the local vicar, Emms, making discoveries in the peat that lead him to call into question the veracity of his Faith, and old affairs of the heart being rekindled in the Blacksmith's furnace, as well as new lovers meeting in the quiet loneliness of the reedbeds. 

It's just all terribly exciting! And with a huge cast, and the backdrop of Flagfen Bronze-aged centre, it's going to be a play to remember.

Emma