While they were in Hexham the actors did an improvised promotional film for Pub Quiz in one of the local pubs. On it you can see characters, Geoff (landlord), the lads John and Pete, the lady teachers, Cathleen and Bethany and Lewis. Of course, the outsider Asram is not in the local beforehand!
Thanks for posting this for me, John.
Went to second night at Hexham and was thrilled to see the place practically sold out. I’ve been told second nights can seem a little flat and I did notice it took a while for the pace to pick up during the play but the audiences once again were really supportive and responsive and the second half was on cracking form.
The play has been published by New Writing North and is for sale at the shows as well as from their website so I now have a copy. It’s a wonderful feeling having a ‘book’ with your name on the cover. The thing about theatre, unlike novel or poetry writing, films or radio, is that once it is over and off the stage it doesn’t really exist. But now I have tangible proof that it did, though reading a play never does it justice. There is so much more that a cast and director, set designer and production crew bring to the story to make it live. But I have a book and that is something I will always have.
There was another very positive review in The Journal but I haven’t found it online to post and it is too long to copy! There have been articles about the play in lots of local magazines and newspapers thanks to Anna Disley at New Writing North who has lead the marketing push. I like reading articles about the play and the actors and of course good reviews but I really don’t like doing interviews or having my photo taken. I get tongue tied and take an awful picture, especially awful when stood awkwardly next to two such beautiful people! I just shut my eyes and skim past it. I really don’t think writers should ever have to be photographed; we should be kept in dimly lit rooms like moldering artifacts of limited interest.
In an ideal world and imagined dream future I would like to be known for my work but not known. I think a lot of writers are painfully shy, creating imaginary worlds and people and putting these forward while hiding behind them. I know that I am happier invisible. Even on such a small scale (and I have no illusions about the scale of my presence) I find any public/press ‘outing’ uncomfortable and yet I got such a huge kick about sitting behind a teenager at the play who had bought a copy of the script and was excitedly thumbing through it. I wanted to lean forward and say, ‘I wrote that, me, right here, let’s discuss why you like it so much, go on…’. But my husband would have died of embarrassment.
This all brings me back to a much earlier post about the strange balancing act that writers do between monstrous egotism and floundering self belief - your conviction that your take on an imagined world is of value and has to be shared - and that invasive insecurity that makes you question every line and scrutinize every review for affirmation of your failings as well as strengths.
I have promised myself that I won’t read anything negative if the play gets a dud review which fingers crossed and judging by responses and performances so far, it won’t and I hope I can keep to that. But for now I am looking forward to seeing a show at a new venue and hugely grateful for the positive response and support it has been given so far. There is a great deal to be grateful for in a generous and warm audience. Hexham - thank you.
04-04-2008
Go and see Pub Quiz when it comes to a theatre near you. This painfully funny observational comedy was written by Carina Rodney after she became embroiled in a quiz in an unnamed North East pub, and actually you really couldn’t make some of it up…
Joe Caffrey as the quiz master Geoff is the epitome of wasted comedy genius as he smart-talks his way through five rounds of questions and a room full of disparate characters.
By the time we find out that all-female teams are classified as disadvantaged and entitled to five bonus points, tears were running down my face with laughter, and that hasn’t happened for a very long time.
Behind the laughter of course, there were some heavy and poignant themes running through the play. When a stranger with a foreign accent enters the melee and starts beating the regulars at their own game, he brings out some of the darker sides of British culture, as the players display shocking inhospitality and suspicion towards him – I just wanted to cringe with embarrassment at how true to life this nonsense was.
Despite the bitter sweet ending, we exited with smiles on our faces and a real buzz going through the crowd – an indication of a hit in the making.
Pub Quiz is touring the region and you can see it tonight at Queen’s Hall in Hexham or at the following venues:
10-12 April 7.30pm
and 10 April 2.30pm
The Customs House, South Shields
Box office: 0191 454 1234
18 April 7.30pm
The Maltings, Berwick
Box office: 01289 330 999
22 April 7.30pm
Alnwick Playhouse
Box office: 01665 510 785
23-26 April 8pm
Northern Stage, Newcastle
Box office: 0191 230 5151
(from what’s on north east - came out Friday morning, can’t link so posted in full)
Well that was a busy week. I’ve been teaching all over Northumberland doing one off workshops which kept me busy during the big lead up. The opening night in Hexham was well attended, as none of the crew or cast have connections there there were very few family members or friends in the audience and even so it couldn’t have gone better. The audience were warm, responsive and enthusiastic. The was even a scattered standing ovation and a lot of laughter and vocal responses throughout. The set, sound and lighting were great,th ecast were on sparkling form and Psyche had created a real and engaging world on stage. All my worries evaporated as I started to actually enjoy the show and reaslised that no, I had not given birth to a dud. The script had not been a product of a four year long delusion.
It was good to have my family there for moral support and I was glad I hadn’t exploited the bf connection. He was kind enough to give a local paper an impromptu interview in the interval and the three of us had a couple of rushed photos taken but apart from that he was able to enjoy his night incognito which I was pleased about. It was really good to have them both there and the whole family stayed together in a local B&B and spent some quality time together. Best news of all was that mum looks to be increasingly moving towards good health, so that started the day on a positive note.
A big heartfelt thank you has to go to director Psyche who has worked incredibly hard this whole week (and long before) to fill my white space with something wonderful. Even if she has ever felt a twinge of panic or bad temper it has never shown in the run up to opening night - unlike me!
Finish the teaching spat today so can get properly caught up on the blog. Thanks to everyone for all their support, interest and good wishes. It’s going to be better than OK. I know this entry is a little stilted especially concerning a great opening night but I don’t think my brain has properly settled back to normal functioning yet.
Having a break from printing out 75 writing handouts for six year olds on creating dragons. Keeping it real, down with the kids in rural Northumberland. Making the magic of writing happen. Watch their little faces light up when I am introduced as a writer and then fall when they realise they have never read/seen anything by me and that I write for - yawn - theatre - and no, I haven’t met JK Rowling. Never mind, I will use the opportunity to litter the staffroom with Pub Quiz flyers.
Mmmm…
Just a thought, it could be fantastic. It could be, should be. I am going to see the play in published form for the first time on Thursday which is cool. The set looks fantastic, sound and lighting are brilliant and in safe and experienced hands. The actors are great, director too and the script’s not half-way bad.
This is it. It’s going to be brilliant. I am going to be brilliant. I will carried through the streets of Hexham on the shoulders of burly but articulate and perceptive country folk who will salute my success with the creation of songs and perhaps an energetic jig.
Maybe this is what it is like being bipolar
This is a blog about my play going into production and now that is actually happening I have stopped posting. I cannot seem to get a clear head or hold a thought. Perhaps I will have completely lost the ability to function by mid week and will have to be wheeled into the theatre in an iron lung contraption.
It’s happening. On Thursday. After smugly announcing a complete lack of nerves I have now officially got THE FEAR.
I am doing creative writing workshops all week so have to fit my panicking around these rather full days. I am not going into tech week at Hexham. I am going to work, coming home, planning the next full day and panicking.
I am panicked about the actors knowing their lines.
I am panicked by the notion of willful ad-lib.
I am panicked about Hexham ticket sales.
I am panicked that the interval of the play may well see me denouced as a fraud and frogmarched out of the theatre by pitchfork waving locals.
I am panicked about audience reaction.
I am panicked about reviews.
I am panicked that I have been laboring under a delusion for four years and NINE rewrites.
If things carry on this way I am going to have to bulk buy some Tena Lady by Thursday.
I will see some of you on opening night on Thursday. Thank you.
I am going to play catch up in the morning when I am not so tired. I cannot believe it is so long since I have posted and so much good stuff has been happening. I’ve been teaching, I’ve been moping, I’ve been in the rehearsals (s0metimes) that I should be writing about.
On the not so good side I had a bit of a break from rehearsals and went home over Easter after mum had a health scare. I know she reads this blog, she is always threatening to leave a comment telling me off for my swearing if she could work out how to leave a comment telling me off about my swearing. It was good to see all the family including my numerous siblings, we tend to be scattered here and there but everyone is coming to see the show. I am desperately fighting the urge to exploit my sister’s boyfriend’s ‘name’ when he comes to see the show with her. For a start it would be kind of vulgar and mean when they are flying in specially and he’s lovely and doesn’t deserve to be exploited (but think of those ticket sales!) I also don’t want a theatre full of women looking at him instead of the stage, not that the audience will be able to draw their eyes from the fine acting on stage. Maybe a minor exploitation dressed up as consideration, like the above blog entry….ha ha.
It’s at times like this past week that make you really appreciate your family. It’s at times like these that my utterly self obsessed writer self is looking at a way to exploit those connections and care for my own benefit.
Yeah, yeah, serious and shitty health concerns but what about my ticket sales in Hexham? Priorities, people.
As my sister said, ‘Frigging hell. we’re not the Waltons.’ Indeed, we are the Anti-Waltons and we don’t own a pair of dungarees between us.
So to come soon, when I’ve had some sleep:
News of mini pub quiz film, production news, vile and unnecessarily large photo update, rehearsal shenanigans, PUB QUIZ ALMOST, ABOUT TO BE, PROOFS CHECKED, PUBLISHED and the run up to opening night nervous breakdown. And most importantly….Asram’s jumper! (ebay we love you!- and Mila)
Thanks for reading and for still checking in despite my slothfulness. Nearly 3000 hits - I was thrilled at 100. I appreciate it, truly.
And if you can spare a positive vibe, please send it Janice’s way - she will appreciate that - thanks.
(mum, you really need to have a go at the bastard comments box, it won’t bite you in the frigging arse)
It really is.
I’ve been in rehearsals and it was fab. The play is going from strength to strength with the input of the team.
As I’ve mentioned before I don’t put in directions if I can help it, I don’t even think of the movement of the characters as I shepherd them through the story. I am not that sort of writer, my imagination can only see so far.
Psyche and the actors have worked out some really interesting scenarios and ways of presenting the surreal moments in the play including a shock for Bamber. Bits have been added, shifted, speeded up, slowed down until the space within the set and also between lines and characters has become defined.
Each section of script is played with, improvised, bounced back and forth until it sticks and sometimes it sticks in a place I didn’t know was there and that’s exciting, sometimes it’s scary but the end result is good. Rehearsals are the process of discovery. When you have controlled your created world with words and structure it is kind of liberating to free it again. Sometimes as a writer you want to snatch it back up into your arms but it’s a trust thing, if it’s got legs it will walk and run in a new space. Better pray you haven’t create a club footed, dependent monstrosity which will fall flat on it’s face at the first sign of freedom.
One of my favorite bits is the song in the play. It was Psyche’s idea to have it as a song rather than a monologue and it works brilliantly. I wish it had been my idea. I love watching that scene, the dream like quality it has which has been developed in the rehearsal space. Chris’s portrayal of John and his song is wonderful and makes you ache with pity and empathy for a character that too often behaves like an idiot.
I am lucky and I am happy. I am not nervous and I am not anxious. Not today, no way.
Got in early and found most of the set in place and it looks fantastic. The bar is sturdy, imposing and it can and will be jumped on and yet the whole set can be in and out of a venue in a day. How clever. As I was alone I went behind the bar and spent some time walking through the doors in and out of the set. I have always found theatre sets magical.
Had a half hour chat with Psyche about developments and possible changes before the actors came in and then watched some of the stuff that had been developed since last time.
In the play there is a song which works as an inner monologue for the character John which is played on the pub juke box. The lines I came up with have been transformed into a proper song by composer Simon Oakes. The CD was played and the actors went through the scene when the song is played. I loved what they had done and I loved the song. I asked to listen to it and watch it twice. I am going to get a CD copy of it. I wonder if I can put it on here?
More cool stuff, seeing the University Challenge teams, King’s and Durham go head to head. Watching Lewis and Asram interact in the quiz and seeing the relationships between John and Pete and Bethany and Cathleen develop layers upon layers. New ideas were tried out with James coming up with a new response for Lewis at a pivotal moment which has given me a lot to think about in terms of how that change might filter through Lewis’s responses at the end of the play. It is about an internal change, an act of empowerment which would change the balance but could work very well. Joe (Geoff) had picked up on an error in how I had played out the Who Wants to be A Millionaire scene - they get the questions first, not after their decision to play on and Helen (Bethany) caught a reference which needs to be moved back to act one. All of which was useful. There are also a couple of scenes where I need to look at pacing. I knew that I wouldn’t get those scenes right on the nose until they were off the page and I could see how the actors nailed the dynamics and interaction between their characters. There is an energy that is brought to particular scenarios which cannot be anticipated (by me, at least) until the actors are in place and in those cases I know I have to see what has been ‘found’ and match the writing to it rather than vice versa.
Despite all the cool stuff today was also hard for me. I promised that I would be honest on this blog about the process but I am also not anonymous. This is a problem for me today, so I am going to say a little as I like to keep my promises and to pretend it was just a great day for me would be less than honest.
* after some reflection, consideration and conversation I am feeling positive and feel it is best to edit out rest of the post aaprt from this:
People have different ways of working, of responding to the frustrations of not immediately finding what they need to in a piece and if I am going to truly respect other people’s craft and creative process I have to accept that part of it too - no matter if my ego gets momentarily squashed during their creative process. I shall have to get a cat to kick. )
Please note, I would never kick a cat.
writing is hard, and you get protective over your babies
I have been very bad about keeping my blog up to date. I have been busy working on my new play which is going to be workshopped in April and is nowhere near finished and there is nothing like the threat of public humiliation to get me moving. I have also been teaching some writing classes. I am also lazy. I should learn to type. It takes me ages to type stuff. I installed a DVD to help me and all that happens is a parrot keeps popping up and telling me it is time to rest my wrists, god knows what it thinks I am doing on here.
The thought of having a painfully unfinished script read has kept me away from rehearsals as I work on creating my amazingly productive three pages a day - woohoo! I have only been in a couple of times but I am in for a full day tomorrow and hopefully more days next week. Writing for theatre is a real shot in the arm for a writer, you are actually involved in and wanted in the development process. You get to keep making improvements and tweaks, your script is still in your hands as it were.
The actors have time to play with their characters, to find their way into the story. A lot of time is spent working on scenarios and moments that happen ‘off’ the page which are hinted and are important to the script and the story but never explicitly shown. For example, in the play there is a moment that is alluded to and worries other characters, a moment between Pete and Bethany. In rehearsals this moment is explored, improvised, acted, discussed and it lends depth and understanding to the dynamics between the characters on stage.
This is what goes on in the first part of rehearsals, it is not a case of reading and learning lines. It is all about the characters and how the actors make those characters their own. In the process the writer leans a lot, in my case it is knowing what your characters bring to the play and the stories that have happened to them are as important as the one they tell. Like any real person a character carries their mistakes, hopes, fears and past with them.
A writer must know their characters and have done the back story work because the actors will not miss the gaps in your story and you can bet your last penny that whatever you thought you had got away with, skirted paste, you haven’t. You will be held to account, in the best possible way. I am lucky, the actors without exception are dedicated, talented, hardworking and smart.
I like being in rehearsals, I enjoy seeing the actors and director work together. I am engaged by the layers they discover and develop but at the same time I want to take a step back, to let them get on with it. if I am honest there is something liberating in handing it all over into capable hands. I have messed about with, rewritten, scraped, started, moulded, abandoned, resented, and loved this script on and off for four long years and now I want somebody else to snap it into shape. I feel like a mother who has kept their spoilt child at home too long and is now sending a slightly out of shape and flabby son into the army, to be made into a man who can make his bed complete with hospital corners. I want the ‘team’ to be gentle and firm with it, to get rid of the slack, enhance the positive and camouflages the flaws. But I want them to slap it into shape and like a cowardly dictator I prefer not to be present when there’s blood shed because of me.
I’ve been told that tomorrow the actors have questions about the script, I bet they bloody do.
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