RAPPORT FRINGE ... MARGINAAL VERSLAG ... FRINGE BERICHT
Reviewing fringe theatre, film, art and performance in London and internationally credits
venues
|
awards
|
interviews
|
features
|
fashion
|
newsletter
|
recipes
|
news
|
gossip
|
home
|
about
|
dublin
|
edinburgh
|
links
|
contact
|
drinks Monday 4 August 08
Taking Playing To Edinburgh
Bondage, sex role-play, and profanity in church. And how Jodi Miller overcame personal tragedy to stage her, er, two-hander...
One of my last conversations with my Dad was about taking my play Playing to Edinburgh, (writes Jodi Miller). He was excited about the prospect of him and my mother flying across the Atlantic just to see the show. I was mortified.
Unbeknown to my parents I had lifted actual moments out of their marriage and woven them into a play about middle-aged sexuality. I was racking my brain to find a gentle way to discourage him, when I got a phone call that he had died.
When a parent dies unexpectedly and tragically, the last moments of conversation replay over and over in your brain. Giving up was not an option.
I had agreed to work with a director from Edinburgh. Her ideas were fantastic and we worked hard to raise money. Not only were we unsuccessful, but she lost her job and quit the project.
I wanted to quit with her. But one of my friends, Margaret McSeveney, pointed out that I was already in the programme, that I was half-way there - and it would be a shame to give up. Since she is from Edinburgh, she offered to help us with accommodation.
I called Kevin, the owner of ClubWEST Theatre, and explained. He liked the writing so much, that he offered to bring the show up to Arundel for a week and pay the actors. When people believe in you, it’s hard to give up. My motto became: Hang in there, baby.
So I rang Lisa Cagnacci - a director whose work and opinion I admire. She read the play and told me her concerns over a pint.
She drew a picture on a napkin of a huge circle. ‘This’ she said, ‘is our pool of available actors’. She drew a smaller circle inside it: ‘This how many are actually talented’. Another smaller circle: ‘This is our pool of actors who would be willing to do this for a box office split’. Another smaller circle: ‘This is how many who would be willing to perform a play as provocative as yours’. The final pin-point: ‘This is the percentage of middle-aged people who would be willing to perform this play.’
‘I think’ she said, ‘you might consider re-working the entire script from four people to two and make them our age’.
‘That is an entirely different play’ I said.
‘I know’ she said, ‘but it would be easier to do that than to find middle-aged actors who are talented and wiling to take off their clothes on stage for no money’.
In my mind I was relieved at her suggestions. The truth was - if I rewrote the play, I wouldn’t have to watch a theatrical apparition of my mom and dad on stage. So I agreed to turn the play into a two-hander about a younger couple who decided to try bondage and sexual role-play to spice up their dull relationship.
Rewriting was a marathon. I had to write it back-to-back with my first commission for a full-length feature-film. I agreed to the film not because I was excited to write a feature (I was terrified), but because I needed a way to finance the play.
This commission was based on my play Vladeck which had picked up an award. Since then, I had already written the stage-play and turned it into a TV show for MuchMusic, so the scenes and the treatment flowed easily.
We had our auditions at the Drill Hall. The talent of the actors who auditioned was overwhelming. Lisa Cagnacci the director wanted to make sure we had the perfect couple for our play, so we had call-backs on the following Wednesday.
Lisa found last-minute audition space in a Southwark church. The hall was double-booked, so the church provided the priest’s study for free.
In an attempt to make the space more suitable for the actors to read sex scenes, Lisa and her boyfriend put the crosses, religious pictures and the priest’s private stash of sherry in the cupboard.
But the actors had to sit in the pews in front of the altar while waiting their turn to read. As they waited in church, words from the script rang through the narrow dividing wall. ‘Just admit it that you’re too fucking weak and pathetic to go out there and fuck someone else, so instead you have sex with me and pretend’.
For two weeks the actors will be rehearsing in my kitchen. I will greet them in the morning and then leave the house as quickly as possible.
I trust the director and don’t like the anxiety of rehearsal. Also, I don’t like listening to actors joke around with the sacred text that I spent hours pulling my hair out to create. And because of the content, the actors will try to probe me for my inspiration – which makes me blush and pretend to be coy.
So, while they rehearse I will become the marketing team in another flat. My other motto is: If a tree falls in the forest, who will hear it?
Then the lighting designer, director, stage manager, actors, and me, will drive up to Edinburgh in a rented van. We will share a small two-bedroom cottage - and find out what, beside the script, we have in common.
END
(c) Jodi Miller 2004
Jodi Miller's Playing is at Edinburgh 04 and Arundel 04: Edinburgh 8-22 August: ClubWEST @ Drummond Community High School (Box Office 07720 285 550), Bellevue Place. 16.15 pm. Arundel Festival Fringe 23-30 August 04: dramaZone (tel 01903 889821), Arundel Town Hall, Arundel, West Sussex, BN18 9AP. 23-30 August 04. 19.30 pm.
Review of Playing by Lea Harris is here
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
