What a crazy month it’s been! We’ve not blogged for a while,
and so much has happened, including the premiere of Hell Has No Fury at Assembly Roxy. Now, with a week to go before we
head to the Prague Fringe, I thought I’d give you a quick round up of
everything we’ve been up to.
First off, another huge thank you to everyone who came to
the first ever performance of Hell Has No
Fury back in April. We had a fantastic turnout and your feedback and
support has been invaluable.
Without talking too much about the fascinating (and
sometimes stressful!) ~journey~ we’ve
had with this show so far, I will say that from my point of view, the run up to
our first public performance was a massive learning curve. Having just one day
to tech the entire show, we had to very quickly find a way to communicate our
ideas and stick to an unmoveable deadline: 7.30pm that same evening. I learned
quickly when to take a step back and let those with better ideas and more
experience than me take control, and our tech day was a great reminder to me
that there’s always a way towards a solution, and that sometimes Plan B is as
good, if not better, than Plan A. After initial and expected technical teething
problems (and learning to work alongside some particularly raucous pigeons in
the rafters), the sound and lighting design came together, not least thanks to
the talent and patience of Julian our operator. I was chuffed to bits with what
we came up with in the end: an atmospheric and evocative space for Medea –
played by the absolute trooper and fab talent that is Rowan – to tell her story
in. I hope all of you who came to see it
thought and felt the same.
The week following that whirlwind of a first performance was
a blessedly quieter one – mainly because we basically decided to give ourselves
a week off before charging head on into preparations for Prague. Our venue in
Prague is completely different to the end-on, 170-seater auditorium at Assembly
Roxy, and we knew that we would have to make some changes to both the feel of
the play and the text itself before it would be Fringe-ready. So we took our
metaphorical scissors to the play and cut around 10 minutes worth of script. We
had a long discussion about what this new space – the 17th century
basement of a hotel – would bring to and even change about how Medea would tell
this story. What we’ve come up with is a woman much more focused on the ritual
of finding a way to atone for the acts she has committed, whilst creating a
candlelit, shrine-like space to the two sons whose loss she is struggling to
come to terms with. I can’t wait to see how transporting the play to that space
will impact on the performance – it’s an exciting time!
On the other side of things, the TwentySomething marketing
machine is kicking up a gear, with posters and flyers being printed, press
releases being sent out and listings posted online. A big thanks too to Katie
Jowett who published an incredibly generous and lovely review of our preview at
the Roxy – we now have some juicy quotes for future posters! Last week we also
filmed a trailed for Hell Has No Fury,
with the help of Sean Duncan, which will be shown at Fringe Sunday, the opening
showcase of the festival, giving audiences and companies a one-minute taster of
all the shows in the programme. Like our poster image, created with a lamp and
some greaseproof paper, our trailer had humble beginnings (a stolen mirror from
my sister here, cleverly draped fabric to disguise a classroom whiteboard
there), but we are thrilled with the end result. If you have yet seen what it’s
all about, you can watch it here.
We now have just over two weeks before Hell Has No Fury opens at the Prague Fringe 2016. We can’t wait for
new audiences to see our show, and we’re so excited to have the opportunity to
see the work of other international theatre makers and performers. Neither
Claire nor myself have ever been to Prague, so we’re also excited to explore a new
city – hopefully one we’ll be returning to before long. Wish us luck and we’ll
keep you updated with how everything goes. Roll on Prague Fringe 2016!
RLx
