Day 9: Moving Day

The weather deserted us today. The rain was thundering down for most of the morning, which made the walk to Murray Hall that bit less pleasant - in fact, it seemed to be at its heaviest for the 10 minutes between my leaving my house and arriving at rehearsals. We looked a slightly bedraggled lot but Claire soon put that right with a warm-up which was more akin to relaxation than energization. Lots of pressure points and finger pressing elicited some fairly sexed-up moans and sighs of approval, which, let's face it, is appropriate for a group of lunatics under the leadership of very sexed-up Marquis de Sade. Nico treated us to a few extracts from "120 Days Of Sodom" which featured, among many choice cuts, a man having sex with a goat resulting in the birth of a human-goat mutant baby which the man then shags and slits its throat. Stuart wanted to know "How was that published?", but you lot are surely thinking "When's the film being released?" Yeah, I can read your dirty minds!

We retrod some ground from yesterday, before pushing into new territory, covering the "Abbess" and "Mad Animal" sections, Duperret and Charlotte's first scene and the continuation of Sade's conversation with Marat. Mike worked with individuals and pairings while the rest of us scattered about the building, learning lines or practicing songs. Being cooped up indoors because of the rain led to some cabin fever though, with an impromptu kitchen concert of S Club 7 and B*witched tracks being belted out over lunchtime by the poor, demented inmates. By the time 5pm came, we were within sight of the end of act one and packed up our bits and bobs into the van for transport to our new rehearsal venue, the Dance Studio at East15.

At 6.30, we gathered in our new home, along with our four new lunatics (James, Ben, Paul and Adrian) and Mrs and Ms Coulmier (Felicity and Laura), and wondered at the oversized wooden frame which is to be Marat's bath, a platform which will see our patients raised to new heights and a sample of the duckboards which will make up the floor of the stage. This in particular was a delight to behold, as Mike ran a drumstick over the slats and created the perfect sound of a guillotine being raised. We then ran the first 20 minutes of the show with our newbies being added to the mix. Ben is working on being a totally still catatonic, while Adrian seemed to adopt a cheerful, helpful character, wheeling me about in the trolley. The Coulmier's sat in polite confusion and disdain, professing themselves "charmed" by the experience - the glances and titters from these society ladies behind their fans betrayed a different story. Which is just the perfect way to play them.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Just sit there, shut up and wrangle your flute" - Mike Bradwell explains what Ben's job may well be in relation to looking after musical instruments.