Last night we
had the first rehearsal of ‘According to Claudia’ and ran through about 30
pages of script.
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| Karen Davies as Belle, Paul Howells as Micky and Eloise Rossiter as Lucy (PHOTO: PHIL MANSELL) |
My wife, Caroline, who is directing, had carefully blocked all
the scenes, so as we went through the script the actors made notes of their
moves and positions for certain lines.
Having done
that, we ran the piece again – and this time, as the pace quickened and
everyone became more confident of their places on the makeshift set – the play
started to come alive.
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| Claudia (Angharad Jones), Lucy (Eloise Rossiter) and Belle (Karen Davies) - the three sisters reunited in the play. (PHOTO: PHIL MANSELL) |
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| Angharad Jones captues a perfect "Claudia" moment (PHOTO: PHIL MANSELL) |
It was an
amazing process to watch and be a part of. The “sisters” moved easily into character –
Claudia (Angharad Jones) cutting and sarcastic, Belle (Karen Davies) the jovial
peace-maker and Lucy (Eloise Rossiter) the sensible, contented one.
Paul
Howells as her husband, reformed crook Micky, went from dazed intruder to down-to-earth
businessman keeping a weather eye open for his enemies from the bad old days.
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| A slight disagreement between Lucy (Eloise Rossiter) and husband Micky (Paul Howells) (PHOTO: PHIL MANSELL) |
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| Karen Davies as Belle and Bob Brown as David study their script during rehearsal (PHOTO: PHIL MANSELL) |
He chatted eagerly about childhood books with crime writer David (Bob Brown)
whom Claudia claimed was her fiancé while he insisted he was simply her “companion”.
There was a
nice moment where he was urged to go and comfort Claudia but, after getting
halfway across the room, changed his mind and returned to the kitchen to make a
pot of tea.
I can’t wait
to see how the characters develop further as the actors breathe life into them
at the next rehearsal.
