Reflecting over the last couple of months, there have been many unpredictable and magical moments during the development process that have stood out for me. Quite often during a Thursday session we would spend along time working away at a complex task in small groups, feeling slightly lost.The process would sometimes include worrying that nothing had really been achieved and that our miming skills were doing nothing but revealing a severe lack of knowledge of the shape of a telex machine. And then a moment would happen where words were added. Something was suddenly revealed. This was either through an actor or several actors speaking from a transcript or an interview recording played directly over our performance.The effect was as if something completely unique and valuable had been unearthed. This would often happen towards the end of a session and I realize now that is explains why we would arrive feeling tired and leave feeling full of energy.

So what was it that we discovered?  I suppose that is for the audience to decide when they see the show. My overriding impression was a sense of spinning threads or unwinding long thick ropes that stretch into the past. In fact, ropes have since become quite a prominent theme in recent rehearsals. I think it the shared knowledge of having created exciting and really quite moving moments of theatre in the rehearsal room is the real pressure on us now; how do we make sure that a magic feeling of discovery happens for the audience in the final show? I am feeling confident we can do the job, so it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get on with it.