Saving Alice.

On the road with Cabbages and Kings. We headed down to Guildford and spent the first couple of hours walking out the new route around the castle grounds.

With all the focus on the Ham House show we'd not really put enough thought into the possibilities for this new venue - but they quickly revealed themselves to us as we restaged. The Victorian bandstand became a perfect setting for Victorian Oxford and a beautiful winding tunnel that leads down from the bowling green to the lower gardens made for a perfect rabbit hole.

We staged the Mad Hatter's tea party on the grass in front of Chestnuts Lewis Carroll's Guildford house. I couldn't help looking up every now and then, wondering if his ghost might appear in the window. I'd like to think he'd enjoy our show - but can't help feeling he'd be horrified.

The Queen Victoria scene was majestic at the top of the hill with the keep as backdrop and then we led the audience back round to the rose gardens for the Caterpillar and White Knight sections before ending the show in the garden where Alice's Looking Glass statue now stands.

It was a very different experience to Friday's crowds. A small audience of twenty or so joined us for the early evening stroll around the grounds. One girl, Sarah, who, on her way home from school had spotted Jordan's White Rabbit and dragged her Mum into the grounds to see what was going on, became completely immersed.

She was quickly in the playing space taking Caitlin's hand and commenting on the action. She watched carefully, offered advice to the characters and at one point addressed the rest of the audience directly. As Lisa's Cheshire Cat reminded us that if we want to get somewhere it doesn't matter which way we go. Sarah took centre stage and told us and summarised the problem for us.

'The thing is,' she said 'we don't really know which way we SHOULD go!'

A little further on the Red Queen and White Knight were fighting for Alice. Sarah looked worried. She sneaked round the back and took Chanika by the hand,

'Let's go!' she whispered for us all to hear 'you're in terrible danger here!'

It was great to see the show in a completely different context and to know that it's robust enough to work effectively both with big crowds, who enjoy the visual spectacle and this more intimate setting, where a small girl on her way home from school can suddenly and surprisingly find herself the protagonist in her own wonderland.
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Murdering in Mandarin.

Up to London for the day. With all the work going into Cabbages and Kings I hadn't really noticed that the Globe's season of 37 plays in 37 different languages had begun. It's an interesting cultural experiment. On one level a wonderful celebration of Shakespeare's international currency, on another a reassertion of the bard as a cultural icon, putting the 'Great' into Britain during Jubilee and Olympic year.

Tonight it was the turn of the Beijing based National Theatre of China to bring their version of Richard III. I was pleased to catch it. Even though the Peking Opera style costumes and set had failed to make the journey, remaining stuck on a container ship somewhere in the North Sea.

When the brochure for the season came out there was a frisson of excitement to see a Chinese company take on this great play about the dangerous nature of totalitarianism. An early publicity photo revealed a picture of Richard in a communist party uniform, adding additional expectation of subversion.

In the end the work was crisp, direct, occasionally funny, but veered safely towards the symbolic rather than a direct criticism of the current situation in China. This didn't detract though from some superb performances and beautiful moments.

Each murder was represented by a light piece of black material being thrown over the victims head. It floated down, like a butterfly landing on a flower. No human touch or responsibility - just another disappearance from the stage.

 Zhang Dongyu was brilliant as Richard, charming persuasive and surprisingly agile. His deformity was ambition, invisible for most of the play, but revealed in moments of expressionistic tableau. It was a highly effective and rather brilliant interpretation of a charming, quick witted man fighting his own mind, rather than, as is the orthodoxy in European productions of the play, his body.

At the end of an emotional evening. This wonderful actor theatrically knelt and kissed the Globe's stage. It clearly meant a huge amount to this remarkable company to be offered the opportunity to bring their version of the play, home to Southwark.
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Welcome to the Garden!

We arrived at Ham House for 8am and endured a nerve wracking start to the morning with all eyes on weather tracking apps watching pleadingly as the early morning sun clouded over. We got set and tried to start a dress at 10am, only for the attempt to be abandoned ten minutes in as a huge cloud burst erupted overhead. Chess pieces scattered in all directions, props were quickly salvaged, and put under the partial shelter of the box office gazebo, tarpaulins thrown over the tea party and the nervous waiting began.

The early morning forecasts had predicted that the rains would pass through by lunchtime, but by eleven it was clear that little had shifted. Occasional flashes of blue sky were swiftly obliterated by incoming clouds and holed up in the cafe morale began to deteriorate. We shifted our own bags and costumes into the van and began to make contingency plans for perhaps performing the show on the buses bringing the children from local primary schools.

... but just as despair was about to set in the wind changed and miraculously carried the bombastic clouds north. The rain stopped. We were quickly out, just in time to welcome the children and distribute ponchos. The teachers looked sceptical, but the kids were clearly excited and ready for an adventure.

The show itself went brilliantly. The wet weather slowed us up a bit as our stewards took extra care to guide the audience around the grounds. A good job as in the end the Schools brought over 250 children with them. The company were brilliant though, working overtime to keep each of them engaged and safe.

After we waved the buses off we collapsed exhausted for an hour. A strange mixture of relief and elation. Sheer adrenalin had carried several members of the team and they had little idea of how well they'd performed.

By now, though, the clouds were clearing and a perfect evening was drawing in. We reset and went again. Another large audience, appreciative and clearly enjoying both the show and the stroll around the gardens. Gorgeous light cutting through the clearing storm clouds giving the production a very handsome look.

Wonderful well earned applause at the end. It really couldn't have gone much better.
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Hypothetical Wheelchairs and a Solid Dress.

Early morning start to pick up the van, ready for loading back at St Marys. Our progress was delayed by a Wonderland-esque contravention of the health and safety regulations as we'd pulled up outside of the theatre and blocked the route for wheelchairs. We tried to suggest that if anybody needed access we'd immediately move on, but were told that whilst that might work for real wheelchairs, hypothetical wheelchairs would still be denied access! We tried to establish four scenarios and suggested alternative courses of action for each. Hypothetical van, real wheelchair - no problems. Hypothetical van, hypothetical wheelchair - no problems. Real van, real wheelchair - van moves. Real van, hypothetical wheelchair - van stays. In the end we were told off for being smart alecs and can expect reprimanding emails in our in boxes in the near future. In reality this a small price to pay to ensure the safe loading of the mushroom, mechanical horse and teapot.

We got to Ham as the house closed to the public and quickly set to work installing the set. Then we walked the company around the site, pointing out some of the hazards and stressing the importance of helping the audience around.

By six o'clock we were ready for a tech/ dress and so we slowly worked our way through each of the sections, stepping back to allow the actors guide and reiterate the route around the grounds. The weather, as it rather miraculously has been all week stayed off and enabled us to keep all the costumes and props dry - a real bonus for tomorrow.

In the glooming darkness we finished the show in the wilderness. The get out done using the headlights of the various cars that had ferried the cast to the  house. We've done all we can. Now it's up to the rain gods.
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Jabberwocky Carnage and A Rainbow in the Garden of Reason.

This morning's Primary School workshop was in St Elizabeth's Catholic School on Richmond Hill. The KS2 classroom we were in had a list of rules printed up on the wall, the first of which was 'Be Like God.' At least nobody can accuse them of having low aspirations for their pupils.

The workshop was really well handled by Jess, Mary, Lauren, Ollie and Valentina and it was clear that, once again the children had a terrific time.

Towards the end of the session the class were put into groups of five and asked to create a new Wonderland adventure using any of the characters from the stories. One group ended up having four girls - who immediately set up a demure and charming tea party featuring Alice, the Dormouse, the Cheshire Cat and a flamingo - and one boy who seemed to be sulkily left out of things to begin with. Just as the tea party reached its zenith, with Jam Tarts all round. He jumped onto a table and revealed himself to be the all conquering Jabberwocky come to claim Wonderland. With that he set to work pretending to snap the flamingos neck, rip out Alice's throat, bite the Dormouse's head off and maul the Cheshire Cat to pulp before she had time to disappear. Old testament stuff really, lots of smiting.

With them all lying on the floor in a pile of blood and tea, he announced that Wonderland was his! With Lewis Carroll turning in his grave and the rest of us lost in fits of giggles it was left to poor Valentina to facilitate the feedback - 'now what did we like about Richard's performance?'

This evening was the grand opening of the Garden of reason at Ham House. A summer long festival of contemporary art, with nine installations carefully placed around the grounds.

Drama St Mary's students took part in the Harold Offeh's rather marvellous and mischievously camp Arcadia (Re)Imagined. They paraded formally onto the plats dressed as terracotta plant pots and topiary and performed a courtly dance to the strains of Noel Coward's London Pride, before funking out to some busting seventies disco. It was tremendously silly and brilliant.

As they danced for the 500 or so invited guests a huge rainbow came out framing the gardens and making the whole thing astonishingly beautiful. It was the perfect way to end the day.
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Blue Sky?

A better run tonight, the first we've managed with full company. The rain stayed off so we set a route around the campus and worked on leading a small audience of invited third years around the space.

There is an air of chaos about the work, that I don't think is going to completely disappear - but as long as the chess pieces stay up beat, cheerful and look friendly, enough of them know what they're doing to get the audience round safely. Each run brings more confidence and knowledge.

The show does work well, despite the fact that it's incredibly wordy. My guess is that the audiences will enjoy it in one of two ways. Firstly I hope most will follow the story, largely narrated by Sophie, playing the eighty year old Alice. For those who don't the hope is that Tina and Kate's sumptuous set and the fast paced slapstick routines of the chess pieces will keep them entertained and happy.

There were some real positives this evening. Millie, Emilie and Sarah as the Mock Turtle, Gryphon and Humpty respectively revelled in the chance to interact with the audience. Jordan and Natalie found new levels for the White Rabbit and the March Hare respectively whilst Adam and Chanika managed to hit the right rhythm and sense of fragility in the final farewell scene between the White Knight and young Alice.

In reality though the acting notes for good or bad are all but done. The main focus now is on staging the work at Ham.
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Long and Winding Tech.

We pre-teched Cabbages and Kings tonight. It was a long, drawn out and frankly fairly depressing affair.

With the rain falling we had to retreat to the Students Union for the first three hours. Although the space is big, the acoustics made it hard for the actors to hear each others cues and Ben's playing, the sticky floor made fleet footed entrances and exits near impossible and the bar next door, perhaps angry that we'd booked this predominantly social space for our rehearsal kept their music turned up to the max, despite only having a handful of customers.

At eight rehearsals in the theatre had finished so we could decamp there, but the company seemed out of sorts, moody, tired, distracted and unfocused. It was like wading through treacle.

Part of the problem was that not enough of the Level 1 ensemble company knew the show well enough and although those that have been regularly coming into rehearsals to pick up notes and get an understanding of the shows complexities were trying to help, the weight of ignorance held things up.

Unfortunately the second years didn't rise to the occasion and rather than trying to help, sat on the opposite side of the auditorium chatting amongst themselves, texting and at one ridiculous moment ordering a pizza from Domino's.

The realisation that most of the company had either never been in a tech before nor knew how to operate in one was a shock and is something we must look at seriously next year. By eleven we'd done, but I left feeling very concerned that the lessons actors should have learnt, hadn't really been fixed. Most years the tech settles the work and brings renewed energy as we hit the final runs and the show itself. Tonight it brought fresh fears and a creeping anxiety that we're not quite on this as much as I thought we were.
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