Cardiff

This week we have been at the wonderful New Theatre in Cardiff. As a welshy (well, a passionate half) it was great to be back and catch up with some long lost relatives along the way.

It has been yet another very busy week. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon to check out the space and run scenes in our new environment. Like the Grand in Blackpool, the New Theatre has a raked stage, so manoeuvring the swing door in the scene changes could prove...challenging. I think I only tripped on it twice this week, result!

On Wednesday, we had our first Understudy run! Everyone did so well. We were very pleased to have got through it for the first time and to have grasped some idea of our alternative tracks through the play. Jon Smith played a spellbinding Berard and Sarah Jayne Dunn's Marguerite was truly heartfelt, but Malcolm James' Lucien Le Brun took first prize.

....which brings me neatly to this week's video - Lucien Le Brun giving us a backstage tour of the New Theatre.

In the play, as some of you know, Lucien Le Brun is the leader of the workers who are striking. Isabelle's husband is a factory owner and has "brought in a whole host of modern machines" threatening the livelihoods of many of these workers. Isabelle faces a major moral dilemma and tries to help Lucien by taking him food for his family. Although Lucien does not say anything in the play, his walk on is central to the storytelling. In this tour you will not only get to see backstage, but see just how Lucien's off stage life is blossoming...

(He is French, but apparently his father is Russian.)


Lucien Tour Part 1...

Lucien Tour Part 2...