Just what we need - un autre langue...

So here we are, on the final leg of the begiinning of our long journey in search of a little white cat that we all know we may never find. Back in Birmingham.



It didn't seem likely a week or so ago, while we waited every day for news from Manila of everyopne's passports, but everyone has arrived safely in Birmingham, and rehearsals are underway for the play openeing on May 15th. There were very few drama at the airports, although personally I had to jettison a good chunk of my luggage at Incheon airport, and then lost my passport and wallet in the Duty Free shop - but they were returned to me quickly, and that is just par for the course for me.



On Bank Holiday Monday we all gathered at our house for a celebration of safe arrival, of Mayday, of Blues promotion - as predicted in these pages - and our wedding anniversary. No amount of jetlag can dent the exuberance of the company, and there is a feeling that the possible excuses for failure are disappearing one by one, and a dawning nervousness at the responsibilty that brings.



Tuesday morning starts with Ayako taking the actors through voice work, while the set up is finished in the Door. The backdrops are already hung. though my first irritating director act is to change their position. The stressful aspects of the production for me now are all coming from the 'usual suspects' - the fence, the machine-monster, the ending scene and of course 'Brazil'. The metal fence pieces are now made, and we spend time constructing what will be the final version, with the real materials. In the course of the morning we make the decision which perhaps has been inevitable all along - that we will not attempt to move the fence in the change around from outside to inside the building site. We still have to solve the remaining problems of getting the wire to be released when the fence breaks, and dealing with the quantity of plastic sheet.



In the rehearsal room, the actors ran through the first half of the play during the morning, and then at lunchtime we all gathered to meet and greet the staff at the REP. At this point we were also joined by Aline David, a dancer and choreographer who will be helping us in the next three crucial days, as we crack the final version of the Brazil scene. None of us has met her before, but she is excited about the project, and leaps straight into work. Judy is speaking with her in French, just to add another language, when we thought life could not get any more complicated!



In the afternoon we moved into the Door, and staggered throught the whole play, partly to get used to the space that will be our home for the next four weeks, and also to show the play to Aline. My focus is on just how much needs still to be done, but the actors manage to do a good run, in spite of tiredness after all the travelling. In the evening we had a long talk with Aline, who has enjoyed watching and we planned together the way she will work with us over the next two days.