October seems like a lifetime away.
Crisp autumnal nights and the onset of winter are the last thing we are all thinking about at the moment, as we head off on our summer holidays looking for the sun block and making the annual hunt for passport.
So yesterday as the cast met for the first time for Juno and the Paycock, we were struck by how much had to be done at the first read through of Sean O’Casey’s brilliantly funny but ultimately tragic play.
I always think of The Lord of the Rings at this point in rehearsals when King Théoden of Rohan looks at the hordes of Orcs and other creatures of middle earth about to attack and he says solemly ‘and so it begins…’
Unlike poor old King Théoden, I am dead excited about the journey if front of us…and so it begins…bring it on!
Now with just a month to go, By the Bog of Cats is shaping up to be a brilliant piece of theatre. It is a play of some depth and breadth I can tell you!
As a general rule when you start working as a company on a show, it is a pretty rare event to still be finding new things out about the play at this stage . However the discussions about motivations and character interpretation still rage on.
The cast are wonderful and the show is brilliant – so come and see it!
Yesterday someone asked me “What’s Bog of Cats about?”. I have to say I found it a hard plot to describe without it sounding like a melodramatic soap opera. It really is about loss I suppose. Its themes are massive and human but the play has its lighter moments. It’s a play really for grown-ups.
As a company we have been going through the play almost a sentence at a time to understand the massive sub-text of the play. This has taken us two weeks, but we have decided after much discussion to look at certain scenes in improvisation in the coming weeks.
We are now just about to start the rehearsal process proper – and I just can’t wait!
Gerry Lucas (Director)
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