Contents page Hergé Biography 2
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR’S REHEARSAL ROOM DIARY
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- WEEK TWO Monday 17th October
- WEEK THREE Monday 24th October
- WEEK FOUR Monday 31st October
11. ASSISTANT DIRECTOR’S REHEARSAL ROOM DIARYWEEK ONE Monday 10th October Day one begins with a meet and greet session for everyone involved in Tintin and who works at the Young Vic. We’re given a warm welcome by David Lan, Artistic Director, and an address by Mark Rodwell from the Hergé Foundation. The Young Vic has been working closely with the Foundation on Tintin from the very start, and Mark expresses great excitement about the project on their behalf. Next up is a deceptively simple name game, a game which quickly establishes the rule that if you’re in the rehearsal room you get involved, whether you’re an actor or not. The game involves passing a ball in a circle: calling the name of the person you pass to, and making eye contact as you throw the ball. Eventually the element of saying the names out loud is eliminated, and the ball is thrown in silence, now always following the same pattern. More balls are added in, until a steady rhythm of passing and receiving is established. Before long a quiet concentration has fallen on the room, with everyone alert and engaged in the steady rhythm of the game. The key to the exercise is being alert to what’s going on around you at all times, so you’re ready to receive each of the balls when they come to you, and ready to them pass on. The analogy with acting in an ensemble is clear, and Rufus points out that for this piece it will be very important to keep a tight rhythm going within the group at all times. Next there’s a read-through of the script. A few of the smaller parts are yet to be distributed and Rufus asks us to bear with him in this. It’s becoming clear that many of his decisions will only be made as he gets to know the actors and sees how they work together. This is also the first time that David Greig, who wrote the adaptation with Rufus, has heard this draft of the script read aloud, and already he’s making adjustments on his laptop. There’s the odd joke that's unashamedly out of place (references to Coronation Street and garibaldi biscuits) but David mentions that he likes to put in a few touches for the cast to enjoy even though they’ll never make the final piece. He also refers to that little window an architect puts in the most awkward and unlikely of places and then obligingly agrees with his client to remove, while his less glaringly quirky ideas slip through unnoticed… Next is the model box showing, led by Ian MacNeil, the designer. A big part of his challenge – and the challenge for the whole show - is the need to appeal to young audiences who’ve never heard of Tintin, as well as to the seasoned Tintin fan. The emphasis will definitely go on pleasing the former – telling a good story that is self-contained – but wherever possible, there’ll be references to iconic Tintin images. Initial ideas for the set design incorporate the moon rocket, the giant mushroom and the Sir Francis Haddock statue from the Tintin books. Other ways that the piece will play homage to the cartoon is by playing with the switch between 2-D and 3-D, and by working with the familiar Tintin colour scheme. For example, the specific blues, whites and greys that Hergé used for the mountain scenes were particular to the photo-developing techniques of his time, and the images he would have worked from. These colours have been used in the set-design. Also Tintin aficionados will recognize period details amongst props and costumes specific to the late 1950s and early 1960s - when the story is set. A further challenge for the creative team has been contending with the epic Barbican stage. From past experience (the Young Vic’s Sleeping Beauty transferred there last year), Rufus knew they’d have to make the space more intimate. To this end the production team built outward from the front edge of the stage, bridging the gap with the auditorium, and allowing the back of the stage to move a good way forward. It’ll be essential, though, for the actors to get training vocally and physically, as they’ll still have a vast space to fill. The afternoon involves a movement session with Toby Sedgewick, Movement Director. We look for ways to theatricalise the action of walking up the mountain. We need to show Captain Haddock speeding ahead and then falling behind the rest of the team. We explore different ways of doing this in a 2-D frame, where the characters are seen in profile – an image taken directly from the book. Ian has explained that this framing is unusual for the Tintin books, where the action nearly always happens on the diagonal – bottom left to top right or top left to bottom right, a convention which has been incorporated into the set design. This scene is a light one – the place for gags. The session is a chance for Rufus to establish that actors in his process are invited – and expected – to pitch in with their ideas. Most suggestions, from the inane to the inspired, are given a whirl. We end up with a very rough structure for the scene, to be drawn on at a later stage. The company are then taught a couple of songs by Orlando Gough, the composer. The first, Himalaya, is based on the musical style of Bhangra. Orlando makes it clear that he doesn’t want to try and replicate Bhangra, which isn't in the immediate culture of anyone in the company, but to use its rhythm and its feel to create something new. The other song is Save Us Tintin (aka The Corpse Song) , which Orlando and Rufus are unsure will make the piece. In its current form the song only achieves part of what it needs to do in narrative terms, i.e. to become increasingly frantic and agonized. But it’s a catchy number and everyone is humming it for the rest of the day. Tuesday 11th October A daily half-hour warm-up will be led by Tom Wu, the actor playing Tharkey, to build stamina and prevent the illness and injuries that can occur with a long winter-time run. This show will be especially demanding as it involves flying, climbing, fight scenes and a steeply raked stage. Tom has a background in martial arts and he uses elements of tai chi and yoga to get us moving and focused. We watch a documentary about Hergé, which fuels a company discussion about the project we’re embarking on. The documentary flags up a difficult aspect of this production – Hergé’s politics. Hergé worked for a strongly right-wing organisation. It’s hard to tell how much he was expressing his own feelings through his work and how much he was obeying his employers. Some of the early books in particular have been accused of depicting racial stereotypes – e.g. Tintin in the Congo – but Mark Rodwell of the Foundation points out the importance of putting Hergé in the context of his times. By the time Hergé gets to Tintin in Tibet, his approach to depicting characters of different races has changed – the level of cultural research is far deeper and for the first time there’s a non-white hero, Tharkey the sherpa. Tintin in Tibet stands out from the other adventures in many ways. Hergé was going through a moral crisis at the time he wrote it – he was having an affair with one of his illustrators – and the book's themes of loyalty, faith and confrontation with one’s demons seem an echo of Hergé’s own experiences. David points out that during the course of the story, Tintin becomes an adult, in the sense that he’s forced to develop his own moral code. In principle, this makes for good theatre, but must be made more explicit than it is in the book. David feels that he’s engaged in writing the story Hergé might have written had he been more in touch with himself. Rufus and David had originally wanted for Tharkey to die in the play, so that Tintin would be forced to weigh up the success of rescuing his friend Chang against the tragedy caused by leading other friends into danger. The Hergé Foundation felt this would be too large a diversion from the original, so this moral dilemma will need to be expressed in other, subtler, ways. We start reading through the play, this time stopping to address structural issues. In the hotel lobby scene we play around with inserting the crooner’s song at different stages. What function will the music have? How can it help to structure the scene? Once the opening dream sequence is finished, it’s essential to establish a normality in the hotel scene, to let the audience know that we’re at the top of the show and everything is, at least on the surface, safe and calm in Tintin’s world. We then discuss how to represent Snowy, Tintin’s dog. There’s a plan to have a real dog that morphs into a puppet and then into the actor Simon Trinder. It’s still to be decided how or when this will happen. Having a real dog allows us to show the iconic comic book image, but the second transition into human being then has to be properly justified. Part of the problem is how to do the transition in a clever, meaningful way, without setting up a whole separate story. David feels the justification needs to come out of the story itself, e.g. that Snowy has two sides - the angel and devil that feature in the book – one more carnal, the other more intellectual. Perhaps this is a key to why he becomes human – trying to behave in a logical, ‘civilised’, way but always tempted not to. Is Snowy a cross between Tintin and Haddock? The gallant hero and the lovable but irresponsible drunkard? At one point Rufus has enough of talking theory and sends us off in groups to try out different solutions. Quite a few interesting ideas come out but the issue feels unresolved. The best thing has been getting people on their feet and working together in small groups for the first time. Other points that come up: The dream sequence is an overture and to some extent we need to know what it’s an overture to, before we can make the scene. The dream sequence needs to establish three main things: Chang, the energy of Tintin; and the key family members (i.e. Thompson and Thomson, Castafiore, Calculus and Nestor) What do we show of Chang in the dream sequence? David had decided to cut the letter Tintin receives from Chang in the book, to simplify the story, but we realise from the reading that we’re missing a vital bit of information: Tintin’s relationship to Chang. Why are they friends? The audience need to actually feel something for Chang and his friendship with Tintin, before they can care about Chang dying or not. David and Rufus decide we need to find a ‘happy Chang’ moment. Lots of structural questions are coming up - Rufus refers to the growing ‘what-in-god’s-name-do-we-do-with-that’ pile. He's putting a lot of emphasis on letting the actors in on the process of writing at this point, taking their ideas on board. Some of the group’s suggestions are bound to be covering ground he and David have already discussed at length, but it seems important to be establishing this collaborative approach. Wednesday 12th October Orlando teaches the Tintin song for the overture. The group is quick to pick up the song and sounds surprisingly together for such an early stage. Several of the actors also play an instrument and there'll be no extra musicians playing in the show. Rufus says that the process at the moment – with Orlando but also with other aspects of the show – is about putting together a palette of material to draw on, which will be refined more and more as we go on, especially during the previews. We spend the afternoon exploring ways of portraying the monks in Tibet. Tom proposes a way of walking based on a Beijing Opera technique, where the feet are very active but the body hardly moves up and down, almost as if it’s floating. Working within the 2-D frame, various variations on this are tried. Most ideas are irreverent and silly (e.g. a monk on a skateboard which is hidden from view, so the monk appears to be floating). Rufus is becoming more and more clear that we’re working towards a ‘poor theatre’ aesthetic, but one that is framed by very beautiful and well-crafted design. Simple ideas, without apology for the mechanism behind them, seem to work best. We begin to discuss the Head Porter / Haddock relationship. The Head Porter as the anti-Haddock. At last he has met his match. Thursday 13th October In the warm-up we learn a simple martial-arts sequence. This will be useful for when Haddock tries to fight with the Monks. Rufus asks that the actors keep rehearsing this one sequence to learn it properly, rather than try and fail to become martial arts experts. We continue reading through script. Points raised in discussion include the following: How can Tintin giving orders to porters be more dynamic? A constant rhythm of Porter! Yes! ‘Instructions!’ Yes! etc is established. Should the Head Porter speak Nepalese? Or do we find some other convention for the language issue? A direct translation of the Nepalese insults into English? Some kind of nonsense language with the rhythm of Nepalese? Or Nepalese with the rhythm of a London cab driver? Is there any English language equivalent of the porters that we could draw on? Not clear for now. For now everyone having fun inventing their own version of Nepalese, but no practical solution as yet. David and Rufus have come to an important decision about the dream sequence. It should be a true anxiety dream and play on Tintin’s self-doubt. For Rufus this opening sequence is about inner demons – a person who’s extremely driven and hard-working usually has some small voice inside telling them that they’re lazy and going nowhere, so they work all the harder. In the new version, rather than supporters, the family circle of Nestor, the Thom(p)sons etc, become the manifestation of Tintin’s inner demons, the nay-sayers in his head. This immediately makes more sense of the play and also gives it a darker edge. The change will necessitate quite a bit of rewriting, especially of song lyrics. Friday 14th October We spend the afternoon on research into Tibet. We’re paid a visit by Tenzin Samphel, a Tibetan who grew up in exile in India and was recommended to us by Tibet House, the London-based organisation set up to promote the Tibetan cause in the UK. Tenzin talks to us about Tibetan culture, the religion, rituals, language and traditions. Rufus is keen to honour Hergé’s own commitment to cultural authenticity that is evident in Tintin in Tibet. It’s clear that we won’t be trying to recreate Tibet, rather to pay tribute to it. Tenzin teaches us some prayer positions and rituals to use in the monastery scenes, and answers a host of questions from the cast. We record him speaking Tibetan and singing a Tibetan song at Rufus’ request. He begins to sing with timidity but quickly seems to forget we're there, closing his eyes and singing with passion. Although he's by no means a trained singer, nor even sings especially in tune, it’s very audible in his voice that his culture and language lie close to his heart. It’s an inspiring way to end the week. WEEK TWO Monday 17th October We work on the porters’ scene in the hotel lounge, where Tintin makes preparations for the trip, while Haddock protests. There’s general excitement about possible visual ideas, as well as ways of creating a musical rhythm underneath the text. Rufus remains very focused on how to keep the scene clear for the audience despite its chaotic energy. We have a brief yodelling class from Orlando, in preparation for the crooner song, which will underscore the hotel scene. It’s nice to get an insight into another medium but no major yodelling talents emerge. We then explore ways to shift between the hotel lobby and Tintin’s dream – which happens several times during the first scene. Rufus tries using the crooner song as a means to achieve this shift. He asks Russell to stand in the centre of the circle while the others sing. The chorus start to respond vocally to Russell’s movements, discovering different ways of warping the song in relationship to what Tintin’s doing physically. Eventually a system is found whereby each time Tintin drops off, his head falling, the music falls with him and the note is held. When he wakes up, the song picks up where it left off. Rufus has a very musical approach to text and has an obvious ability to interweave the different strands of the production to whatever ends the storytelling requires – he's as likely to find a musical solution to tell the story as he is to find a visual or textual one. Tuesday 18th October A production meeting in the morning flags up just how many unresolved questions there are. Rufus must come up with lots of answers very soon. A number of pressing costume, props, and set issues all hang on decisions that will be made in the rehearsal room. He has been asked for a costume plot for the whole play to be ready asap, which effectively means that he needs to know where each actor will be at every moment in the piece (i.e. who’s doubling which roles, and where will each change be made etc). It becomes clear to me that Rufus’ structure of the first week of rehearsals (including the time spent on testing out the 2D frame and finding out if using a real dog will work) was partly designed to find answers to the many outstanding production questions. Back in rehearsals, we have a recap of music for the initial dream sequence and play with inserting text into the music in different places. We then start putting this first dream on its feet. Rufus tries a simple choreography based on the whole cast running on the spot and changing direction in unison – a bit of a tribute to the Tintin TV animation. He appears absolutely confident of his idea, but afterwards mentions that he’s never attempted ensemble choreography in his life and is relieved to have got the first time out of the way. Wednesday 19th October The office of mountain affairs: The premise of this session is to find the logic of the Official scene. It needs to be a farcical situation, one that Tintin manipulates to his own end. We need to discover the rules of the scene - where does the gag lie? For example does the Official insist on everyone being very quiet (as he's afraid of loud noises) but then complains that he can’t hear what’s being said? Nicky questions the character names – Mr and Mrs Patel – and asks if it would be possible to have a more Nepalese name, which would have less baggage attached to it (i.e. unavoidable images of UK corner shops). David will come back with a list of possible alternatives. David mentions that he has never written old fashioned slapstick comedy before, and although he could try his hand at it, he feels it'd be more productive if the rules of the scene were found in rehearsal. We read the scene and Rufus makes changes to the text and charts the actions that will be played. It's striking how much he works by listening to a scene and shaping it to sound right, before wanting to look at it. Thursday 20th October David aims to have a new version of the text by the end of the week, which the actors will be able to use as a basic script. He’ll be in rehearsals full-time until then, working on the logic and structure of the piece with Rufus, and a large part of rehearsal times is being devoted to this, with the actors’ input. In the midst of one of these discussions Rufus jokes that ‘one day we’ll talk about character development’ and several of the actors look relieved. Rufus tells the cast that it might feel strange to be working this way round, but that putting these structures into place now will make it much easier later in the process. It feels important that he has acknowledged this, as some of the actors are keen to get their teeth into the parts. Also important to have reiterated that this structuring is an essential part of the process and that the actors are integral to it. Whilst looking at the hotel scene, Rufus has a word about ‘quick-hit characters’, such as the reporter, Remy. ‘Whenever you get one of these characters who aren’t developed, make a strong decision each time you play them. One day try them with a stutter, another day try something else. Nine times out of ten you’ll look like an idiot but then you'll find something. Don’t worry about looking like an idiot’. We do some individual work with Simon (Snowy) to explore the physicality of a dog. We spend time on being 100% dog, to find the state, physicality and characteristics that Simon can draw on later, when the character will probably be much more humanised. Friday 21st October Orlando brings in the music for the Marlinspike Song that Haddock sings in a state of exhausted delirium. Orlando points out that he forgot he was supposed to write a sea shanty and wrote a waltz instead, but that it can easily be turned into one, which he proceeds to do – the song seems to adapt naturally to Haddock’s salty-sea-dog world. The song is beautiful and Rufus is very taken with it. He’s also worried because this is a Haddock moment. If this becomes the big musical number of the piece (which also involves the spectacle of flying the family in), it will place great emphasis on the wrong character. This is all the more problematic since the Ice Tintins – ice replicas of Tintin that haunt him at the peak of his exhaustion – are in doubt for technical reasons. However, as the music is so rich, Rufus feels the Marlinspike song could become a bigger number than planned, incorporating all of the characters rather than just Haddock. Each character would take a verse, singing about whatever it is that’s keeping him going. Orlando has also rewritten The Corpse Song, which he feels he got wrong the first time round. He has cut most of the original lyrics, feeling it was distracting and unnecessary to get involved in the stories of individual corpses. The call is divided into two groups – the main characters work on Act Two scenes while the rest of the cast looks at music. We’re discussing Snowy’s “butterfly, tree trunk, squirrel” text, a kind of mantra he repeats so as not to think about the precarious position he’s climbing in. We discuss whether these are the right images for Snowy to use, or if images of food would suit him better. Rufus is reminded of a food story from when he and David first worked together, in Ramallah. The telling of stories from Palestine, most of which involve near brushes with death, take over most of the rest of the session. The link to the rehearsal is tenuous but we're all riveted. It feels good to be working in more intimate groups now, and for the main characters to start spending time as a group. We discuss the moment where Haddock falls and tells Tintin to cut the rope. How can we make the fall a surprise? Build in a distraction from Snowy, like peeing in Haddock’s eye? How to create a light moment that is suddenly undercut by the fall? WEEK THREE Monday 24th October Most of the cast work with Toby on the introduction to the world of Kathmandu, while Rufus works with the main characters on the moment where Tintin rescues the drunken Snowy. It’s an opportunity for Russell to confront some key questions about the character – would Tintin ever hit Snowy? If so, what is it in this situation that would drive him to it? What are Tintin’s weaknesses and why does this situation make him confront them? We’ve been returning again and again to the idea of Tintin’s fear of failure and to the fact that in this story his determination to save one friend puts other friendships on the line. We discover that the recording we did of Tenzin speaking in Tibetan didn’t record properly and arrange a proper recording session with him. It has been decided that the porters will definitely speak Tibetan, rather than English with an accent or some made up language, so there’s a big learning task ahead. Tuesday 25th October We work on music for the Snowy Song and the wedding procession with Orlando. Rufus listens to the wedding band music and asks the actors to do a rendition where they put down their instruments and imitate the sounds with their voices. The result is quirky and surprisingly dynamic. This may or may not be used but it’s useful to have options like this in case there are times when getting instruments on stage isn't practical. Rufus finds a basic shape for the Tharkey scene. It's clear that this scene will have a strong emotional weight. Tom Wu and Russell Tovey have very different energies on stage and the contrast between them is potentially very dynamic. Tom has a different energy to the other actors in general and brings a particular focus to the stage. Perhaps the fact that he has been leading the company warm-ups, where he passes on an expertise that most of us lack, is also helping him fall naturally into the role of Tharkey the Sherpa guide. Thursday 27th October Everyone comes in looking tired today and Tom adapts the warm-up to involve work on the floor with a focus on relaxation. The angle of the rake has been marked out on the wall of the rehearsal room and a scale model of the set brought in. It's a bit of a shock to realise just how steep the rake will be in places. Rufus asks Tom to incorporate calf and ankle exercises into the warm-up in preparation. Steven Lim points out that the rake will also have a knock-on effect on voice, as it will be much harder to relax the neck and throat muscles. We have to reduce the number of people who can play both porters and corpses due to quick costume change issues. Rufus is careful to involve as many people as possible in each group scene, reluctant to have actors sitting in the dressing room for any length of time. The Himalaya expedition takes shape. Some of the actors are beginning to get anxious to spend more time on character development. Rufus also very keen to spend more time rehearsing scenes and less time on structuring. But it seems the nature of the process that character, narrative structure and the time-consuming group scenes all need to develop in conjunction. Friday 28th October We work on the Haddock and Head Porter scenes, running them in sequence to get the development of their conflict right. We try confining them in a tent together to see what heights of childishness their fight can reach. Helpless giggling in rehearsals for the rest of the afternoon. I go on an excursion to the park with Simon Trinder, who plays Snowy, for a bit of method research into being a dog. Rufus suggests that Simon plays the state of a dog, (finding the way he looks at the space, the way he responds to other people or animals etc) on a very small scale. No-one else need know he’s playing this, it’s just for Simon to find out what the impulses are. As it happens, self-consciousness doesn't present a problem, and before long Mr Trinder is sticking his face in puddles, peeing on trees and stalking old ladies. It's a wonder we don’t get arrested. Simon is encouraged by the experience, which gives him a lot of material to draw on. WEEK FOUR Monday 31st October Reading through from Act Three (discovering the Yeti footprints) to the end, cutting lines that can be played out in physical action instead of stated. Most of the focus is on establishing what the power relations should be. There's an interesting power struggle developing between Tintin and Tharkey. What’s the trigger for Tharkey leaving the expedition? This is the first time Tharkey will ever have let himself be led in the mountains by a westerner. Tintin is faced for the first time with an older person who is wiser than he is – normally he’s used to the opposite (Haddock is a drinker, and the family characters who all obstruct Tintin as much as they help him). We need to go back and chart Haddock and Snowy’s relationship through the play – moments of irritation with each other, moments where both are afraid. Also moments of unity, especially when Tintin is angry or stubborn. Do they share a joke about Tharkey behind his back? When Tharkey returns and rescues Haddock, we need to wow the audience with his mountaineering skills – he must have an ease of climbing by comparison to the others. Russell is keen to simplify his text in places, to make it feel less formal. This makes it more naturalistic and often more believable, but also raises the question of tone – Snowy and Haddock’s text is quite heightened – should Tintin’s be more ‘normal’ by contrast, or does he also need a more heightened style? Rufus is concerned that the last part of the first half (the arrival at the plane wreck) is too long-winded. His experience of family shows tells him that by this point the audience will be gearing up for an interval. The scenes will need to be cut down or compressed so more than one thing is happening at once. One solution is to cut Tharkey’s story about Ang Tsering, Tharkey’s sherpa friend who died on the first rescue expedition. The point of the story is to draw a parallel with Tintin - being over ambitious in the mountains can cost lives. The lines could be adapted so they are directly about Tintin. Simon Trinder is keen to find an accent for Snowy that’s different to his own. He tries a range of UK dialects, even having a go at French, before settling on Scots, which he feels gives Snowy a light, playful quality. Simon’s dog physicality is improving all the time – he’s keeping the centre of gravity low, with the weight in the hind quarters, using the nose for direction and keeping a flexible spine. Later Rufus tells Simon to be careful the Scots doesn’t make him camp. At the moment Rufus prefers Simon’s own accent and feels the Scots risks imposing something on the character. He sees that Simon is inspired by it though and keen to see him explore it further. Tuesday 1st November The Ice Tintins idea has been abandoned for technical reasons, so it will now be the family who will encourage Tintin to give up the fight after the avalanche (assuring him that he’s “useless, helpless” etc) – the demons inside his head reappearing. Most of the day is spent on the monastery scenes. We see the Grand Abbott for the first time. He’s played by the same actor as the Head Porter and there’s an interesting resonance between the two characters – one at the top of the cast system, the other at the bottom. Rufus points out that although the Grand Abbott should be an interesting character, he must be played absolutely straight – his status and his sense of humour should be created by the other monks, in reaction to him. Wednesday 2nd November Toby Sedgewick works on the Kathmandu sequence, focusing on creating the immediate impression of a lively city for when Tintin, Haddock and Snowy first arrive. Working out the logistics of a scene of organised chaos is proving quite confusing. The more chaotic the scene appears, the more in control the actors need to be. We're also aware that this scene will be hugely affected by the set design, and will probably need a lot of adaptation once we're at the Barbican. Thursday 3rd Nov How should the porters describe the Yeti to Haddock? It has been decided that the porters will speak in Tibetan, and someone suggests throwing in occasional English words, the more unlikely the better. Rufus is tempted but not sure this is the right place for that kind of gaggery. The porters have to be in absolute terror at the prospect of Haddock attracting the Yeti and it’s important not to undermine them. We explore ways for the porters to describe the Yeti physically, by becoming the Yeti as a group. After lots of failed attempts, we discover a very silly but effective way to create the illusion of long arms, using several actors’ arms in combination. This becomes the basis of the monster and gives an instant playfulness to the scene. Also puts everyone in a good mood. An evening session is spent with Simon, for work on exploring Snowy’s character. Rufus breaks the character down into four basic states:
Rufus is particular about naming each state in the right way – giving Simon something very specific to refer back to. These labels take him through a range of states: obedience and loyalty to Tintin; a dog-world where everything is governed by carnal desires to eat or sniff or sleep; a lazy state where he’d rather have the easy life than climb up mountains; or on the rampage where he gives in to inner demons that lure him to drink whisky and seduce other dogs. We do a long improvisation that allows Simon to move through these different states. Friday 4th November We look at the scene with Pundit and Pandit. A first read through – Duncan and Graham have a natural complicity and have quickly fallen into a rhythm for the scene. What they’re offering works in itself, but Rufus has worked with Duncan before and is keen to push him into new territory. He encourages them to try different variations on the characters over the next couple of weeks. “Just make sure that you’re balanced – whatever one does, the other is diametrically opposed. The main thing I want is to get you away from what’s comfortable for you – from what you already have in your bag”. Some more surprising and much funnier variations on the duo start to emerge. Saturday 5th November A shorter session today, with the main characters only. A mock-up of the fly piece has been rigged in the rehearsal room, and we work out the main configurations of the actors for the climbing scenes. This is going to be the most daunting aspect of the technical rehearsals once we get on stage at the Barbican, and everyone takes the opportunity to terrify each other with set disaster stories from Christmases past. We work on Haddock’s fall, still searching for a catalyst that can involve Snowy. Russell asks why Snowy needs to be involved – can’t Haddock just grab a loose piece of rock? For Rufus it’s about one piece of action coming out of another. The value of a domestic row is too good to miss – people scrapping in such a precarious situation will heighten the stakes. Russell is keen to cut various bits of his text, which feel convoluted or unnecessary to him. Rufus doesn’t always agree with the cuts but does takes Russell’s instinct seriously, as he’s often flagging up something in the text that needs clarifying or developing in some way. The climbing section will have four types of sound: Internal – breathing External – wind, snow Wishful – Marlinspike song Fantasy – the family visions As with the four Snowy states, Rufus is very specific about the names he gives to each sound element, which allows everyone to be on the same page. This feels especially important for a sequence that can’t be developed fully until the tech. The Tharkey / Tintin confrontation: Rufus tells Tom to not let Tharkey get too angry. “You’re a man who never normally gets angry, least of all in the mountains, where it’s vital to have self-control. This moment of conflict is a warning sign to you – to have lost your cool with Tintin lets you know that you’re all in danger, and that you must pull back immediately. Tintin, in the meantime, has never had to apologise to anybody in his life – he’s normally the hero - so apologising to Tharkey is a big moment for you.” Directory: sites -> default -> files -> documents -> Resource packs Resource packs -> In the Red and Brown Water documents -> - documents -> Cbp and Trade Automated Interface Requirements Appendix: pga december 22, 2015 documents -> Ace abi catair customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements documents -> Ace abi catair customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements documents -> Mobile audio/video recording systems documents -> The south australian government gazette documents -> All public acts appearing in this gazette are to be considered official, and obeyed as such documents -> Union interparlementaire inter-parliamentary union Download 341.78 Kb. Share with your friends:
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