Tuesday, 26 September 2006
The Inhabitants of the Moon are Noses and September's Salt'n'Sauce developments
by Tim Massey
A healthy contingent of Southwest Scriptwriters at the Alma Tavern to see Steve Hennessy's The Inhabitants of the Moon are Noses at the start of the second week of Theatre West's autumn season.
Steve's play, which tells the life story of the Russian novelist, dramatist and short-story writer Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (1809-52), is directed by Andy Burden and performed very energetically and imaginatively by Martin Aukland and Julia Gwynne. The script is an absurdist comedy featuring inventive use of props and puppetry, which merges cleverly into near-realism when depicting Gogol's time in a mental institution. The 'treatments' that the writer undergoes as a patient - including leeching, mustard poultices and hot and cold baths - are themselves absurd, needing no Pythonesque input from Steve - truth is more absurd than fiction. The scenes from the asylum are quite harrowing and the play's final return to comic absurdity with Gogol's mother and father floating about on the moon in big nose hats lightens the mood again. The production features Peter Liddiard's ingenious revolving set placed on a circular black and grey rug to resemble the moon and is very striking visually. The show must have had close to a full house if it had not sold-out completely and the audience was responsive with a lot of laughs - always an advantage at a comedy!
Met Simon Winkler before the performance and talked about progress on Salt'n'Sauce. Sam's been trying to set up a read-through of the play before rehearsals begin properly on 16 October. I won't be able to attend rehearsals because of work commitments, and we thought it would be useful to have a chance to go through the play with me there. It would also be an opportunity for the cast to feed back on ways to improve the script so that I can do a final polish before they get stuck into rehearsing. Unfortunately, it's proved impossible to get the three actors together at the same time and we're going to have to abandon this idea. Simon said that he was keen to make some headway with learning his lines as soon as possible without the distraction of taking on board minor changes before rehearsals start. He pointed out that I'd be unlikely to make major changes in the script - like writing a new scene - following a read-though, and smaller problems could be fixed in rehearsal. He added that the rehearsals for Mark Breckon's The Keith Ashton Experience (Simon plays the eponymous Keith), which opens next week, have resulted in a number of changes to the script.
The Salt'n'Sauce cast has changed since my last post with Joanne Lancastle now playing Emily. Sam and I are very pleased to have Jo on board as she impressed at the auditions. Something I've learned from previous productions is that casting is never really final until the first night, and while line-up changes are alarming, they're part of the cut and thrust of the production process.
Sam and I met at the Alma on 9 September to go through the mk II version of the script. Again, Sam suggested a few tweaks and cuts to punch-up the comedy and action of the play. Following some initial discussion with the production's designer, Catherine Hoare, Sam asked if the scene set on Arthur's Seat could be changed so that John and Paul are not sitting in their hired car. The idea for the set design is to centre on the studio flat where much of the action takes place with other locations in different parts of the stage, making efficient use of the limited space. Obviously, incorporating a car in a composite set would both fill the space and stretch the budget. I've always thought of the scene as one of the play's 'moments', though, and locating it in a car is integral to its success. It's a cliché of a romantic setting - a parked car overlooking a spectacular view at night - and this fuels John, the central character's feeling that he's where he wants to be, but it's not quite as he would like: he's made it to the theatrical Mecca of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but his show isn't a hit; he's in a romantic spot, but he's with Paul not Emily. I suggested that the car could be affected with some minimal props (a steering wheel?) and a lighting change.
Alison and Ann joined us for a drink at the end of our meeting having slogged around Bristol's various public buildings distributing posters and brochures for the autumn season. Ann is Theatre West's graphic designer as well as its joint artistic director and had a hectic time getting the season's brochure together. She gave us the chance to comment on her initial design and, while I liked the Salt'n'Sauce page, it originally featured a classic tomato-shaped ketchup bottle with the salt cellar in the 'wallpaper' behind the text. 'Salt'n'sauce' is what they offer to put on your chips in Edinburgh takeaways and the 'sauce' is not ketchup, but, I thought, vinegar. Researching this on the internet (see UnLimited Media's Three Weeks website feature), though, I've discovered that it's actually a thin brown sauce splashed on chips like gravy. Anyway, Ann gamely changed the picture to a vinegar bottle and then Sam decided the copy I'd written originally for the play could be more persuasive and rewrote it. By the time I'd subbed Sam's rewritten version, Ann must have been wondering where perfectionism ended and pedantry began.