Messing around with the Doubtful Guest

Posted by: Sara Green (Marketing & Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi)

Today’s rehearsal seemed to be a little more experimental. I think that Shon must have spent some time thinking about last week over the weekend before coming in today with a few ideas in mind. This was quite refreshing as the actors were able to try out some new things without being restricted by what they did last week. This meant that some of the material that was generated today was totally crazy and wacky but it has a real energy to it and a different focus than on Friday.

We started with a warm up again, trying desperately to avoid the newly assemble dolls house, and generally warmed up our muscles after being out in the arctic London temperatures.

A brief vocal warm up followed, led by the composer and this then fuelled the next exercise which involved eerily, siren-like moans suggesting crying and weeping. Like Friday the exercise developed with the actors using their initiative and before long a little piece was emerging.

The Doubtful Guest featured this time and the characters were getting increasingly agitated by its presence. It was really interesting to explore this idea of control and disorder and the way the actors experimented with it was really incredible- contorting their bodies and using their voices and facial expressions to demonstrate their hatred for ‘it.’

The day also included a short sequence in which the family were searching for ‘it.’ This was quite military-like in style, with accompanying music to create a mood of order and control. The family searched systematically through the house and a strong rhythm was formed along with rigid movements to suggest a rigorous search. This was really interesting to watch and was the first thing that was extremely similar to Gorey’s original story.

Another successful improvisation was one centred around the Doubtful Guest as it “stared.” A little song emerged in which the chorus were extremely ensemble like, standing in a tight clump and repeating “it stared at it all.” This was textured with Ben’s constant description of what it was staring at “the floor, the door…” and was a really effective moment.

The day ended with an improvisation around the phrase “sometimes it would tear out whole chapters from books.” The actors were given complete freedom to create this moment and a total mess unfolded with people tearing and ripping through the space. Soon it became a bit more ordered and by placing Ben in a chair and him sitting extremely statically, staring and the invisible creature down stage a focal point was introduced.

The disorder and chaos around him was manic and disturbing, the actors were scraping their nails across the chairs, screaming and moving in a grotesque and horrible manner but Ben remained completely still. At last the others left, leaving Jill sitting down stage, slowly ripping up paper as the doubtful guest. This was a really poignant moment and I began to see bits of the show creeping in to the process.

I had a really enjoyable day again today, although I feel slightly more disturbed than before!

My first day in the rehearsal room...

Posted by: Sara Green (Marketing & Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi)

After working for Hoipolloi for just over two months now I have been exposed to a lot of the admin side of the company. However today was the first time that I have experiences the practical side where the shows are devised and created.

The rehearsals for The Doubtful Guest are being held in the English Touring Theatre’s rehearsal space which is on the Cut, opposite the Young Vic. So the area has a magnetic theatrical feeling to it before the rehearsals have even begun.

I somehow managed to find my way to the venue, despite boarding the wrong train, and was greeted by a group of friendly, warm and witty actors. There was a striking sense of ensemble between them from the first moment and it was obvious that they had been working together for a very long time.

The day started with a simple workshop, which I joined in with, consisting of some physical and vocal exercises. However the intensity of the process soon began to surface as they got increasingly more advanced and before long we were throwing ourselves around and moving in the most grotesquely extreme ways.

The vocal warm up started with a ditty; “I like bumble- bee, bumble –bee tuna….” which was absurdly catchy. This was soon picked up by Shôn Dale-Jones, the director (and Hoipolloi’s Artistic Director) and the first elements of devising began.

The group of actors were singing this ridiculous song accompanied by ballet style movements with intensely serious faces, getting gradually more desperate to ignore “the doubtful guest.” Shon developed the improvisation by adding lines such as “we would all sing to try and ignore it”. They would then have to respond to this, signing it over and over again to block “it” out.

I was really impressed with the way the actors responded to such an absurd stimulus and the end result was a beautifully comic little scene. The way the improvisations worked all day was similar to this format - Shon would either pick a moment from the book, or a theme or character and the actors would literally take off with physical and vocal experiments.

The work was of a really high standard and though it was obvious that none of this would feature in the show, there were some true moments of genius that resulted from the clever and comic ideas.

For example, towards the end of the day a little scene was devised where Steffi sat in a chair as the mother, weeping over her loss of control. The other actors entered and using only their physicality, demonstrated their discomfort at the situation. This developed into a short song;

“She cried all night, she cried all day
We couldn’t find the words to fill
The depth of her despair,
So the best we could do
Was just to leave her there.”

The musical element was something else which surprised me. The actors were working with a composer today who punctuated every improvisation with amazing music on the piano adding depth and attitude. But even more impressive was the high standards of the actors voices allowing them to create moods and tones to accompany the action.

The entire day was a massive learning experience for me. As an aspiring actress it was really beneficial to witness a professional devising process and, even though their were moments of hilarity involving the actors throwing themselves around, giggling and generally enjoying each others company, there was a real sense of teamwork and trust.

I really enjoyed the day and can’t wait to go back on Monday.