Our week in preparation!

On route...

Preparations have been in full swing this week as we count down to the official start of rehearsals! There have been research trips, museum visits and pre-rehearsal workshops where the cast have made the very most of the chance to...bond. We have not yet all been in the room at the same time so are very much looking forward to the official meet and greet on the 17^th.

My week started with a trip to the Imperial War Museum with the lovely Emily Stride, who will be playing Marguerite. We got there just in time as the museum is closing in January for its major redevelopment project. One of the additions will be the First World War Galleries, opening in the Summer of 2014 to mark the 100-year anniversary of the start of the Great War.

There is a section of the museum called ‘Explore History’ which houses the most incredible collection of historical papers including personal diaries, letters and poems. (As I learnt, the best thing to do is research on the website exactly what you’d like to look at and book an appt!) We requested to look at two collections of personal papers. One belonged to a Private and one to a Sapper, both of whom had served on the Somme for most of 1916. Firstly, we looked at a series of letters that the Private had written home from the Front. What struck me was his practicality. Considering the atrocities he must have witnessed on a daily basis, the letters seemed significantly detached. He listed items he needed sending out to him in neat bullet point form, including a mug as it could be “used for many different things.” He would often write one line letters saying, “I have received your letters. Yours sincerely” or “I am quite well. Yours sincerely” It didn’t come across as curt, just distant. I got the sense that he wanted to keep his life at the front separate from that at home, perhaps so as not to infect the latter with the former. He later exclaims, “Gee Whiz!” when describing his first bath in a month! But there is little mention of what he was really experiencing.

We moved on to the papers belonging to the Sapper and the most astonishing moment of the day was holding his diary. It was a humbling experience handling an object that had been to the Front and been a part of that world. After carefully opening it, we found descriptions of food, trench conditions and tunnelling operations. But it wasn’t until the July 1^st entry that we got any sense of reality. “Getting in wounded all night, awful. As near to hell as I ever want to get. Couldn’t possibly have imagined it.”

We were not the only ones researching this week. Sarah Jayne Dunn, who is playing Isabelle and Jonathan Smith, who is playing Stephen, went to Amiens and to the Somme with our director, Alastair Whatley. After a tricky start with the breakdown...they finally reached France!

Sarah, Peter (fabulous recovery man), Jonathan and Alastair...

After exploring Amiens, they visited the house Sebastian Faulks based the Azaire’s house on!

 

They then visited the Thiepval Memorial.

Inscribed on the memorial are the names of over 70,000 men who fell on the Somme and whose bodies were never found. The word they used to describe the atmosphere there was quiet.

On Wednesday, most of the cast assembled for a pre-rehearsal movement/voice workshop where we were able to share what we’d just discovered. It was a great way of breaking the ice as we all had so much to talk about! At lunchtime, having realised that there was in fact an entire high street full of delicious eateries (not just Lidls, Sarah and Jon) we ventured out! Charlie found cake, so was very happy. (It's all good, I've changed it to black and white so no-one will know it was pink...) and Poppy, Emily, Josh and I beamed at the sight of Greggs and Subway :-)

Thanks to the genius of Alastair, Tim and Lucie (Director/Vocal

Coach/Movement Director) we ended the day feeling very much like a unit. And had all used muscles we didn’t realise we had! So were thoroughly ready for bed. X

  

The collections mentioned are held at the Imperial War Museum

Private papers of C R Jones – Cat No. Documents 13273

Private Papers of Captain W H Sansom OBE MC – Cat No. Documents 8079