The Two Joes

As a result of Martin's accident, we now have two actors playing Joe Napper in the show. Here both Joes show off their slings (Richard's on the left, Martin's on the right).

This allows Martin 

time to rest (without Richard, 

he'd have to do thirteen straight shows in a

row before the day off, and twelve more after it) and  allows the show to go on if performing turns out to affect Martin's recovery.  But it doubles rehearsal time.  Here Tom (Jerome Wright) surveys his injured brothers.  Everyone's tired, some are carrying injuries but we're working very hard to get the show ready in time for opening night (OK, afternoon).

Post-preview post

Last night around forty people turned up at the cricket pavilion to see the world premiere of Dad's Money.  Fantastic to have such a big audience - and the cast did a great job.  It's been a huge struggle through injury, orthopaedic surgery, and all the normal pressures of getting a show on with the added difficulty of lack of time.  Jerome and Martin did very well, and we had some great feedback afterwards.

Martin Miller gets into character.

With the preview over, we move on to the detail.  Getting the show on a stage was a huge challenge and now we must add the texture that will bring all of these brothers to light.  And rehearse Richard into the role of Joe as well.  Two casts to deal with - but each actor brings different ideas.

The cast were prickling slightly at rewrites in rehearsal today.  It's tricky, writing as well as directing - sometimes I can seek writing solutions to directing problems.  But detailed character work with both Joes brought nuance to the new, sparer scene one.  It's hard, but it's exciting.

Preview

Tonight at eight o'clock, Dad's Money will be seen for the first time by a paying audience.  I've washed my good shirt and had a shave.

Bit of a rush now.  More later.

Recast

We’ve found the only actor who could possibly replace Martin Miller…

…it’s Martin Miller.

And Richard Fry.

Martin is so good, it takes two actors to replace him.

Richard is so good, he alone can bring the might of two men.

Martin heads up to Edinburgh on Sunday bravely carrying on in the face of dislocation, broken bones and sensible medical advice.

Richard will play the role for two shows a week, and take over in the event of any problems with Martin.  He’s also in his own show, Bully (Gilded Balloon, midday).  He’s also got a beard.

This gives the audience the opportunity to see the role of Joe Napper with and without facial hair.

Rehearsals have been a lot of fun.  Martin returned this morning and he’s got a lot more energy and colour back.  He seems to be on the mend.  Then Richard came along tonight (after a long day at work) and worked on the same scene we’d just done with Martin.  It’s tiring for Jerome, playing with two different actors, but for a writer it’s an amazing opportunity to see what two different actors do with the same part.

Like almost-namesake Martine McCutcheon in My Fair Lady, Martin(e) Miller in Dad’s Money is carrying on with the show, with a little help from Mr. Fry. 

Casting

After an incredible effort to carry on with the show despite his fractured, dislocated shoulder Martin sadly had to leave the production on Thursday.  Very sad for him and for the show.

I've been hitting the phones to try and find an actor who can play the part and is willing to take on the challenge at short notice. 

I'm seeing people today.  Fingers crossed.

Blocking

It was a hard day in rehearsal yesterday.  Losing nine days to injury would put us up against it even with Martin fully recovered.  As it is, he’s brave but gets tired quickly.  A long slog in a hot room blocking the show – painstaking, gritty work – was hard for all of us.  We got through all of scene two (the busiest in the play) and I’m very pleased with what we achieved.

I had spent the weekend holed up with Maureen’s model box and some toy actors.  (Joe is played by two whisky corks with a paperclip to remind me which is his good arm, Tom is Ghosttooth, a toy given to my girlfriend by a boy named Hamish). 

This week will be a tough grind towards our first preview on Saturday.  The cast are worried they’re under prepared and won’t know their lines.  Martin’s still unsure if he should carry on with the show.  It’s a difficult time.

 

Dislocation

Martin dislocated his shoulder during rehearsals last Saturday.  The paramedics were great when they arrived, but Martin had a long wait for them while in a lot of pain.  Arriving at the hospital (King's on Denmark Hill) there was another wait as his shoulder had to be X-rayed before they could try to put it back in.  When the OK came, Martin was brave enough to let a tattooed charmer called Matt put his shoulder back in without a general anaesthetic.

They X-rayed again after relocation and unfortunately a small fracture was now visible in the top of Martin’s humerus.  It seemed likely he’d need a screw in the bone to reattach it.  However, the consultant deemed it unnecessary and we were very happy – surgery would have caused Martin further pain, trauma and recovery time.

Luckily, Martin wanted to continue with the show, so I wrote his character into the script as wearing a sling due to a dislocated shoulder (I’m very creative).  That way, he could rehearse the show as it would be performed.

We still hoped to have some of our planned week rehearsing in Somerset.  Martin had to pop in to the fracture clinic on the Tuesday, and we hoped to head down to Somerset later that afternoon.

Martin came in to rehearse on Monday.  He was in a lot of pain and discomfort, in addition to which he was nauseous from the painkillers, but stuck it out and carried on working.  It struck me that, just as any person can get injured, any character could get injured.  When Martin started playing Joe with a dislocated shoulder, Joe started using his injury to manipulate his brother.  Martin was very gutsy all day.  I felt proud to have him in the cast and incredibly guilty this had happened through doing a play.

The fracture clinic on Tuesday brought bad news.  It was decided that Martin did need an operation to fix the fragment of bone in place.  This screw would then have to be removed in six weeks’ time – causing another period of recovery.  Martin continued to think of the show, asking the consultant if he could keep the screw in longer than six weeks, allowing him to finish the Edinburgh run before returning to hospital.  The consultant agreed.  There were no beds available that day, so Martin had to go back the next morning.

Martin returned to King's just before 7 am on Wednesday and went under late morning.  The operation went to plan, but he was feeling pain in the shoulder and missed the consultant on his rounds so they kept him in an extra day.

He's out now, and still wants to do the show.  The doctor says there’s no reason he shouldn’t, as long as he’s not required to perform any movements that cause him pain.  Our ‘giving the character what Martin’s got’ technique will hopefully take care of that, but we won’t know for certain until he sees the consultant a week on Tuesday.

I very much hope Martin can do the show – he’s very good, he’s my friend and he’s got injured rehearsing it - but of course it mustn’t interfere with his recovery.

I feel very lucky to have such a stalwart man in the cast.  I hope he can carry on.  

Woody & Me

With two days to go before rehearsal, I cut the following out of the play:

A Roman shipwreck

Uncle Bastard

The red map

Susie ‘bang-em’ Bingham

Albert Napper

Gold coins

Insurance

The shack

Tom’s will

A curse

Cable-ties

I also moved the play twelve foot vertically downwards into the cellar.

I read once that Woody Allen cut all the murders out when he was writing Manhattan – he realised he didn’t need them to tell the story.  (They later became Manhattan Murder Mystery).  I’ve ended up scything a lot of the big backstory out of the play to concentrate on the two brothers looking for money – and all the emotional consequences of the decisions they make along the way.

Losing all this underbrush brings the humanity out more.  Also I don’t have to spend stage time explaining how Roman gold’s been in the family for generations, and other big chunks of story that shone so brightly at me when I was brainstorming this back in February.  After wanting to write about brothers and family, I gathered up a whole lot more big glittering things into the bulging plot.  Now I’m cutting them out again, back to the spare story I began with.

It’s a lot to change.  It’s a lot better.

Rehearsals

We started rehearsing yesterday.  That's why I haven't been posting much - racing to get the script in a decent state for the cast.

I am making this picture especially big to mask the current lack of content.