Choosing the right play for this process has been very challenging but also exciting to know what ideas are out there and how we all wanted to be stretched, individually and as a company. I have struggled to find something that I am drawn to as well as being logistically and feasibly possible, and I’ve been looking for a play that would showcase everyone’s strengths and that has a lot of artistic freedom, also has minimal set, props and costume and push me outside of my comfort zone. I would love to play a character that I haven’t got the chance to play yet and it would be great to explore a topic that needs a lot of research and something that is very close to my heart, like abortion or violence against women. Having such a small amount of time to read and put the plays on their feet means that we haven’t had the opportunity to grasp the story or message behind it yet, so I felt that it was more difficult for me making a judgment on a show that I’ve only read three scenes of. However, there were others that we read and in the first couple of scenes I understood whether it was something I wanted to explore further and what the other company members were feeling.
One of the first plays we looked at was Nothing by Lulu Razcka which was a selection of monologues looking after different themes, ranging from porn to one man's love for films. I really enjoyed getting to work one of the monologues, which looks at rape and even though I couldn’t build up much emotion when performing this speech, it was really promising that there is a lot of freedom in the amount of characters and the setting for each monologue. I also found it really good for being able to showcase us all individually which is perfect for if any of us were to invite agents, but that could also mean that many of us will be playing a character that is very comfortable, whereas I know I want to challenge myself in this process. Overall, I liked how interpretive the show is and there’s a lot of room for artistic freedom, and I think this is one of the plays I’m interested in looking at further.
We also got the opportunity to look into some connections plays as an option for this process, and the first we read was Tuesday by Alison Carr. This piece was very different from the other plays we’ve looked at as the ideas are sci-fi themed, and once I read it I thought this would be better suited for screen. We had a lot of fun playing with different characters and their relationships within the play, but I knew this one wouldn’t work for us because there are too many characters for our company and there are a few moments that we wouldn’t be able to create with such a small amount of actors, eg the human chain at the end. I really liked the premise of it but I felt there wasn’t much of a climax to the final moments which was disappointing. Another connections play we looked at was A Series Of Public Apologies by John Donnelly. I was excited by the title and reading the first few pages gave me different ideas of how we can stage each apology without playing it safe or keeping it the same. However, I eventually got bored reading it and I was concerned the audience would be if they were watching us perform it, and we all agreed that this wasn’t the right show for us to perform in a London venue, but maybe for a rehearsed reading. Our final connections play was Dungeness by Chris Thompson, and I enjoyed performing this one as it's the perfect size of characters for us and all of the characters are in our age bracket, and everyone got the opportunity to try out characters outside of their casting. However, we discovered that there is a role in the play that must be played by a muslim and it would be inappropriate for us to take on this role, and I thought that it wouldn’t be challenging enough for us all as there isn’t much stylistic freedom in the play and it’s very static, and I know we all wanted something that could bring outside of our comfort zone. It’s a shame we can’t perform this play, but I know we have plenty more options that are right for our company and will challenge us.
There were two plays I didn’t get to look at myself but I watched other company members explore some ideas with, which were Bright Young Things and Patient Light. Bright Young Things had a lot of different styles we could include inside of it and the cast size is very adaptable, and we could play around with set and costumes, whether it’s minimalistic or larger than life. Although it’s got a lot of the components we’re looking for in our play, the text felt too young for our company and it’s another play that felt too comfortable compared to what we want to achieve with this process. Patient Light felt a lot like A Series Of Public Apologies as there’s so many ways you can interpret and take the language in the piece, but it was also similar because I felt quite bored and unsure which direction the play was going, and I really struggled to unpick some of the ideas inside of it.
We’ve also found one of our top choices in a play that Layla recommended, which is Attempts On Her Life by Martin Crimp. This piece has different stories in it that I saw them as different plays within a play, which means you could have a different style for each scene and every member of the company gets the opportunity to perform a range of roles, inside and outside of our comfort zones and like Nothing, it’s perfect for showcasing everyone at their best in front of agents and casting directors. However, from reading the first few moments, there's a lot of dialogue and imagery I’m struggling to unpick and find the meaning behind so even though we want something that’s more challenging, this dialogue may be too complex for me.
A play I hoped we could explore more of was Emma by Doon MacKichan and Martin Millar. I liked having the opportunity to explore a period piece and I liked how it was a contrast of modern and an older writing style, and it would be great for us to be able to multirole with different physicalities and voices for each role. As great as the piece is being female heavy which is what our company wants, the male roles are too small and no male characters really appear until halfway through. As much as I liked playing with some scenes in this play, it’s not right for our company which I’m disappointed about, but we have some great options to keep exploring and we have to keep an open mind whilst making our decision.
My favourite play to look at was Love And Information by Caryl Churchill, and getting to look at a few scenes from the play was really exciting and promising. I later read the play in full and even though the scenes didn’t tie in together at the end, I really enjoyed reading them in my own way and looking at how different companies may take this text and what ideas they come up with. It’s a challenging piece since there are so many scenes and characters to keep up with, but I thought this would be perfect for us to keep on its feet with a range of visions, and I was disappointed that the other members of the company weren't as excited about it. However, I know that if I were to get this opportunity again in the future, I would keep this piece in contention.
The final play we explored was Burying Your Brother In The Pavement. I really liked the premise of this one and we can be very physical with the text, and there are many characters that we can try out a range of ways to portray them without keeping inside our comfort zones. However, there were a lot of questions over the character of Tight and his ethnicity, and the two main characters needed to be male but after reading through the scenes with each actor, we felt that neither of them were right for the role of Tight, although both of them could play Tom and giving the role of Tight to a female would lose a lot of the meaning of the piece. We were disappointed by the factors letting us down but I know we’ve got a few other options that we’re very passionate about.
After much deliberation amongst the company, we chose Attempts On Her Life as the play we’re going to perform at our London venue. It came down to a vote as we were deciding between Nothing and Attempts as both are very similar, they’re both open to interpretation and there’s a range of styles and with no stage directions, we can set the different stories anywhere we like. I voted for Nothing as I felt this would showcase us all the best and even though it’s monologues which not much tying it together, they are very challenging pieces and by having different actors cutting in and out and having to remember where to pick up from, it would be confusing but a lot of fun to work with, and for me that’s the beauty of the play. As much as I like Attempts, I am struggling to understand some of the dialogue and it’s hard for me to unpick by myself, but I know by going away and learning to understand the text by myself, I’ll be in a strong place for us to start getting the stories on their feet and creating a vision of what I want to bring to the piece!
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