Posted by Sara Green, (Marketing and Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi.)
With the focus being very much on The Doubtful Guest at the moment, it is sometimes easy to forget that the Story of a Rabbit spring tour is also almost upon us. The last couple of days were a real reminder of this. Being the only time that was relatively free in the Hoipolloi schedule, we headed over to the Junction in Cambridge for two days of Rabbit rehearsals, the first since Edinburgh and the last until Bogota.
As soon as I arrived at the rehearsal room on Monday morning, there were jobs to be done. Unloading all of the set took a long time then we had to set it up, including all of the thoroughly complicated wires and technical equipment, as well as organising cups of tea for all involved. Before we knew it lunch was upon us and we had only just erected the set.
This was a fascinating process in itself. Never having actually been backstage on this show or investigated the set I found it really interesting unpacking all of the intricate little details that make it up. It made me remember items such as the rubber gloves, the action man and even the potato, which I had completely forgotten existed! It was really different to the experience I had at the Doubtful Guest rehearsals. There the props and set were really random, thrown together for experimental purposes and then used to try out new ideas. But for Story of a Rabbit every tiny object was accounted for, down to the box of tea bags and the newspaper and train tickets that are one hundred percent genuine. Everything has its own place and the whole show is really organised. Perhaps this is down to Hugh’s meticulous planning or Aled’s careful preparation, or maybe it is because in Edinburgh you have to be organised, especially when you have a quick turn around!
After indulging Hugh in an absurd conversation about aliens which left me intrigued and, if I’m honest, a little confused, we set about preparing for a run of the show. This involved me and Ricahrd (Couldrey, the production manager) desperately putting cables into sockets and switching things on and off, me trying really hard to open up the flipchart which was being extremely stubborn and one last check to make sure everything was in place. Meanwhile Hugh was sat in the corner, peering at the video recording of himself, trying to remember exactly what he says and at what point.
I left Hugh and Aled to run the show and returned the following morning to weigh and measure the entire set and all the props and record it all onto a spreadsheet. My technical skills have never been admired and so this job took longer than expected, and several times Richard had to explain that pressing “paste” is not the same as inserting cells, the main difference being you don’t delete half of what you spent all morning doing.
However, after many cups of tea and several panics we finished and even managed to pack everything back into the van before five o’clock. I never really appreciated just how much work goes into taking a show to an international venue, and that also not all of what you would call “rehearsal” is actually running the show. Most of these two days were spent familiarising ourselves with this production and doing tasks that needed to be done. It was a great experience and even though now it is back to The Doubtful Guest, it is good to think that we also have another, equally exciting tour ahead of us…
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