WILDEST DREAMS

. e linham discusses

his production for

Taunton Thespians.

When is a game not a

game?

\ ,ben it's "The Game"

in Alan Ayckbourn's

\\llDEST DREAMS.

1lus p lay joins a seemingly ' e,,;; line of excellent scripts

the undeniable master of Bri tish thea tre and is

the:r ad dition to his 'black' peri­It is full of wonderful charac­

an situations to work with as

m od.m\

_

- revolYes around four people who eet weekly to play "The Game".

11lli Ie-playing activity allows them the freedom to live in a world

; their (>\Vn imagina tion. "Stanley" " th" wise leader, "Hazel" a young

m\-stic, "Warren" is some form of alien being and "Rick", whose real ndlIle is Alice, is a macho warrior. Then "Marcie" arrives, on the run from her husband, and acts as the ca talyst to unveil their 'wildest d reams'. A total cast of eight, four men ilnd four women, the play has IO\'elv cameos for "Austen" ( StanIey's" domineering brother­m-Iaw), "Thelma" ("Warren's" very religious mother) and the menac­i.t g "Larry" ("Marcie's" husband). It is a challenging piece of theatre that is fu ll of emotion and lovely comic moments.

From my point of view, this production contained a number of other challenges. It was my first plav for Taunton Thespians - a Society with a long standing record of success - and it had only just been released for amateurs. What an opportunity!

SCENIC DESIGN

Taunton's Brewhouse Theatre

WEST COUNTRY PREMIERE

Alan Ayckbourn's

W!~d~· lD'r~m~ A COMEDY

Directed by Mike Llnham

A TAUNTON THESPIANS PRODUCTION

AT THE BREWHOUSE THEATRE TUESDAY 23rd to SATURDAY 27th MAY 1995, 7.45pm.

Box Office relephone: 018.23 283224

is a studio space with il 33 foot wide proscenium, so it was not dif­ficult to fit in the typical Ayckbourn three room set. The setting - a lounge, basement and attic, is 'per­manent', as action continually over­laps. For visual reasons, I felt the rooms should all be on the same level, and this was in tune with Set Designer Maggi Adams, so we quickly agreed the overall layout ­the lounge as the centre feature with window at the back. The attic entrance - Ayckbourn states this is only by trapdoor - meant we had to use a 'modified' orchestra pit cover and a somewhat long, tw.isty route from stage level. There was only one occasion where "Warren" had a speedy move off-stage to this entrance, but I added a little busi­ness between "Sandy" and the Christmas sherry bottle to cover this 100 metre sprint! With regard to the trapdoor, I asked the set building team to make this as invis­ible as possible so that "Warren's" first entrance into his 'home' space was something of a surprise - and was grateful to find all audiences reacting appropriately.

The main scenic detail I wanted to develop was the 'roofline'. I do not like using 12 foot flats for nor­mal living areas as they tower over actors in an unrealistic way. I asked that the f1attage be short and that each room should have a distinc­tive ceiling line. Maggi offered a pleasing combination with a vault­ed basement, a 'flat' lounge and an eaved attic with a transparent sky­light. This brought the focus of the action down to a more intimate scale, which I could further enhance with 'tight' lighting. Decor was quite simple; the lounge was 'rose' with a floral border, the base­ment was 'gmbby grey' and the attic green. Set building advanced so rapidly that I was able to run almost all rehearsals on set. This allowed me to experiment with the Game table position, but I could not improve on first thoughts - it had to be centre front and I decided

it should be a permanent feature, as moving of furniture would have slowed things down. This meant a few problems blocking around it, but we were able to avoid sightline problems. I wanted to establish the Game's importance as the audience entered so decided to have tabs open with the Game board and pieces lit in a pool of light. A black­out was incorporated for the cast to take their opening positions.

CASTING

There are no major casting problems with this play, apart from the workload of "Stanley" and "Hazel". Auditions brought a good turnout and made me scratch my head a little to get what I thought would be the right balance. Again audience and critical reaction sug­gested we achieved this. Rehearsals went smoothly throughout and were great fun, especially as we were working out the business with "Hazel" crawling around the table playing with her 'somersaulting dog'. I spotted this at the Ideal Home Exhibition and realised it potential to make the audience erupt into laughter.

COSTUME &: PROPS

Wardrobe was generally straightforward. Clothes were modern and, apart from "Warren's" balaclava, quite easy to assemble. I decided on two outfits for most of the cast which could be mixed and matched to give four changes. "Rick's" final costume was difficult as I wanted Silvery leathers - which proved impossible - so, a new coat of paint was needed for her Game figure. Make-up and hairstyles were similarly modern - "Hazel" had to work quickly to regress her appearance as she got 'younger',

but swift comb-work and a clear idea of styles resulted in no prob­lems in production.

Props were not too demanding apart fiOm the Game items. Six Game pieces are needed in total and a friendly toy wholesaler pro­vided the correct type of 12-13 cm high action figures. These have to be visually similar in appearance to the way the Game players look at the end of the play. A few judicious adjustments and a coat of paint readily achieved this. The board was made out of four pieces of cardboard taped together with Scotch tape. Squares and pattern features were added before cover­ing it in clingfilm. Furnishings and working computer equipment were borrowed quite readily, so it alllooked good throughout.

Personal props were enhanced a little; I was particularly pleased with an idea that "Thelma" should lift "Warren's" trapdoor with a large crucifix in her hand - this implica­tion was not lost on our audiences and her face was a picture'

LIGHTING & SOUND

Lighting was not excessively complex, but there were over 67 cues as I built more changes into Act I. The script suggests that all three acting areas are lit simultaRe­ously throughout the centre block of this Act. I preferred to light areas as they were used, as time moved on for "Stanley" and "Hazel". This allowed me to repo­sition them in their lounge to help with this time change. We added an 'unreal' lighting state and a freeze for "Rick's" flashbacks, and put on extra light to support the single Angelpoise that is used for the Game sequences. (We took the precaution of having a spare bulb on set in case of problems with this critical light but did not need it during the performances.) The

JANUARY 16

own sound 'signature'. The attic had the comput­er beeps, building up to the alarm; the basement had a drip­ping tap and passing traf­

Galactica'. Live mikes and speak­ers were set up, including one below the trapdoor so [ could get the right sort of reverberation below the attic.

"Marcie". Perhaps I should close by suggesting you read this script for yourselves - I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as we did.

CONCLUSION

All in alL this is a somewhat technical play to put on that needs

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most interesting challenge for the Lighting Designer, Sebastian Petit, was the build-up to the end of Act 1. As the s torm builds in sound, we added lightning flashes, fiery light, a floor light onto their faces and finally a 'crossover' effect before the blackout. Fantastic! The audience must have gone off to the bar won­dering what they were coming back to.

Sound was almost as busy as the lighting. Each of the rooms was

fic, and the lounge - well, I did seri­ously think about adding a 'music wallpaper' to most of the action with the Game but, ultimately, we did not feel this enhanced the busi ­ness - so it was mainly the wind effects a t the end of Act I and the offstage carol singing and crockery crashes etc. Music was carefully chosen and [ used 'Enigma' and 'Enya' for the pre-show setting and interval. The s tart of each Game scene was announced by 'Battlestar

a larger stage area if movement is to be natural. Nevertheless, it is a reward ing and dramatic play for any group to take on, although per­haps not a comedy, as we billed it. It will be a long time before [ forget "A usten" and the dry comments from behind the newspaper, "Hazel" crawling around playing with her toys, "Thelma" with cruci­fix, framed in the trapdoor, "Warren's" alien vocal effects, or "Rick", sitting on her camp-bed as she painfully reveals her story to

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