We returned from the weekend, some people bearing battle-scars from a serious night of partying on Friday. Cleo, our resident Mad Animal, had been DJ-ing in the school and her disco music clearly had led the little ones astray. Never fear though, some games were on hand to lighten the mood and raise spirits. Cleo introduced us to Masters And Slaves (a game that is far less risqué than the name might suggest), I led the idiotic Penguin Song and Leonie taught us all the joys of Baby Shark. We'll have to include samples on the DVD extras. We then dived headfirst into the show, picking up from where we had left off in the wake of Sade being whipped by Corday. I spent a good deal of time being paranoid in my bath, as is my wont, having to deal with the Enfants Terribles (ie: our singers) barracking me with songs and mockery. Fiona and Claire were especially ruthless, with hair fondling and spidery fingernails across my back. Marat was definitely feeling very hemmed in by the interval, which we reached at lunchtime.
One of the best things about working on a production like this is finding the little things which make you laugh. Helen and Leonie certainly found one during Corday's Second Visit where, for no apparent reason, they both burst into fits of giggles. We ran the scene again, and the laughs came in exactly the same spot. They seemed to be infectious and by the time the cast trooped offstage, the song which was meant to cover the exit had collapsed into a muddy mess of snorts and titters. Mike took a few seconds before looking meaningfully at us and, completely deadpan, remarked "Yeah, very good". That just set us all off again. It wasn't. But I'm sure it will be.
After lunch we broke the back of the National Assembly scene, which involves me as Marat speaking a lot and the rest of the cast providing House Of Commons-esque interjections such as 'Hear Hear!', 'Mwah Mwah Mwah!' and 'Bravo!' To achieve the effect of a full parliament chamber, the brilliant design team had constructed some wonderful puppets based on a cartoon of French politicians of that era. Andrea gave her cast-mates a quick lesson in puppetry and slowly but surely they took on very lifelike qualities, shouting at Marat, clapping their hands and chattering away to each other. This scene is shaping up to be a really fun one, although sadly I spend pretty much all of it in front of the "parliamentarians" and have to carry on speaking, all the while hearing the audience laugh at the brilliant shenanigans being played out behind me.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Em...my character's supposed to be mute". Mike's request that Kim (aka Marianne) shout out "Hear Hear!" is met with a kindly reminder of her character's unfortunate situation.
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