Our production of Rosmersholm had two Assistant Directors working alongside the Director on the show: Paul Higgins during weeks 1 to 3 and Walter Sutcliffe from week 4 onwards.
Here they tell us about the progress of rehearsals from week to week:
Week 1
The first day of the first week begins with what is referred to as a 'meet and greet' – where the administrative, production and creative staff of the Almeida Theatre meet the actors, writer, director and designers of the production team, followed by a showing of the miniature scale model of the stage set, led by the designer Hildegard Bechtler and director Anthony Page. The designer and director go through the set design of each scene or act of the play, talking about the look and feel of the production and what inspirations have been used.
For the next couple of days, the director, cast and adaptor Mike Poulton re-read the play – discussing and analysing the story, the play’s themes, the use of language, and any historical, social or political background of the 1880s in Norway which may be of use. Led by director Anthony Page we get into the world of Ibsen. This ‘round-the-table’ exercise proves very useful because the actors don’t have to worry about props or where and when to move, they can just concentrate on their characters wants, needs and intentions and the characters’ relationships to each other.
On Thursday of the first week, after the first production meeting, it’s time for the actors to get on their feet and start to move. The stage management team have set up Act One, having marked out the floor using tape to indicate where the set doors, windows and walls will be; and providing rehearsal furniture and props (substitutes that are close in size and period to what will actually be used in the theatre).
Week 2
We continue working through the play, act by act, plotting moves with the actors; character relationships are now explored physically in the playing space.
This week the costume designer visits the rehearsal room and spends time with each member of the cast individually.
At the end of each rehearsal day, the deputy stage manager has made notes on anything that has cropped up in rehearsals. For instance during the rehearsing of a scene we discovered the character of Mrs Helseth will need polish and a cloth to polish furniture in the room, and that one of the tables will need a drawer for the actors to use. It is only through rehearsing the scenes and the beats of the scenes that these finer details are realised. The rehearsal notes of the day are then issued to the various departments so that additional props can be found or furniture changed.
A second production meeting takes place at the end of the week covering all aspects of the production, from the choosing of furniture to discussions about wigs to which way the doors need to be hung – does the door open inwards or outwards into the room? Will the oil lamps be real or operated with a battery? Portraits are seen on the walls of the set. Anthony and Hildegard decide on the look of the portraits from examples. Two of the characters crochet in the play, so we need to teach one of the actors how to do this. Every aspect of the production is thought through carefully, often with a great deal of research.
Week 3
The actors are now mostly ‘off-book’ – working from memory rather than scripts in hand – which can be a frustrating time for actors as the scenes will often be slower. However by working in smaller sections, often going over a scene or a beat of a scene many, many times, the text is soon solidly in the actor’s memory.
Having gone through the play once, we go back to the beginning and work in much closer detail, really pulling things apart, beat by beat, discovering new things and exploring in greater depth what was found in the previous weeks. Some choices that were made in the previous week develop into different choices and the plotting of a scene can take on a new life if a different ‘key’ into the scene is discovered. It’s an exciting part of the rehearsal process as Anthony begins to shape the play almost as though it were a piece of music – the contrasting movements of the play, the physical and textual rhythms, the building of scenes to their climax, and the silences that separate them. And of course the interplay between the actors is sharpened. Once a scene has been broken down and worked on, Anthony will then run the scene and give notes to the actors.
Anthony also has meetings with other creatives on the production, such as the sound designer. This takes place in the rehearsal room where Anthony and the sound designer can discuss in detail the sound requirements of the play whilst walking around the rehearsal set.
Other aspects of the production continue to run alongside the rehearsals. Costume, hair and wig fittings for the actors occur during this week, which then allows the design team the time needed for any alterations to be made. Also, new props and furniture are continually brought into the rehearsal room by the stage management team, to be used by the actors, which again allows time for any changes.
Week 4
This week begins with a run-through of the play so far. This is important for the full company, as after a couple of weeks of detailed work everyone needs to regain a sense of the bigger picture. This is a chance for the actors to feel their characters’ journeys; for the director to assess how the overall story is coming across and to chart how the more detailed work is functioning; for the adapter to experience the script in context; and for the set and costume teams to check their designs against what the actors are now doing in practice. This is an exciting and sometimes nervous event. To take some of the pressure off the process, Anthony decides to run the first three acts of the play - which have been staged and re-worked over the previous week - but to run the final act sitting down without the staging, as it has not had so much attention and there is still plenty of time for running the whole play at the end of this week.
The run-through shows that the first three acts are in good shape. There are some conversations with the adaptor Mike Poulton about cuts and changes that may help the story-telling or that may make the actors more comfortable with their words.
The next two days are spent working in detail on Act 4. As it has been a few days since we last worked on it, the cast and director spend some time talking and thinking about the characters motivations and choices in the context of those made in the previous acts. After this discussion the actors walk through the scene with scripts in hand – the process is faster if they don’t have to try to remember their lines at the same time. This whole process shows up new and better options and the act becomes tighter.
Once Act 4 has been re-worked we work backwards looking at Acts 3, 2, and 1 in preparation for the run-through on Saturday morning. We spend more time than anticipated on Act 3, developing the intensity of Rebecca West’s confession scene. This is very productive but it means that on Friday afternoon we can only re-cap Act 2 and we have not seen Act 1 since Monday. We decided that even if Act 1 feels a little distant we should run the whole play on Saturday all the same, particularly because the coming Monday is a Bank Holiday and we cannot rehearse. The re-workings prove successful and the run on Saturday morning shows a lot of good things. Our lighting and sound designers are present and can get a very clear sense of the atmospheres they will be creating.
Week 5
The final week in the rehearsal studio before we get onto the actual set in the theatre is divided up into run-throughs of the play and sessions to re-work any specific aspects that need attention. We have notes to give the cast from Saturday’s run-through. We saw then that Act 1 could certainly benefit from some closer attention before we run again. In addition we would like to give the actors a chance to look at aspects of Act 3, where the scene between Rebecca West and Dr Kroll is becoming very exciting but the information that it conveys is so significant, for both cast and audience, that it could do with a couple of hours of calm and considered assessment. We would also like to give the final scene between Rosmer and Rebecca a couple of hours.
Monday is a Bank Holiday, so the cast return feeling rested and energised. Tuesday is spent working Act 1. The basic moves are fine and the performances are developing well, but there are positions that can be fine tuned, and choices that need refining. We work through the scene chronologically, stopping where necessary and adjusting. This is often a case of something as simple as a character finding a stronger position in the set, or staying seated when previously they had been standing up. Sometimes the alteration is more significant and requires the actor to re-assess the effect a certain piece of information has or what their attitude should be at a particular moment. The major objectives of the characters remain as they were, but this fine tuning gives the scenes greater dynamism and brings them closer to readiness for performance.
On Wednesday morning we tweak Acts 3 and 4 before running the piece in the afternoon. A production meeting over lunch has brought no major problems to light, and the creative team are able to stay to watch the run through. The play is now running at just over 3 hours, not including the intervals. We feel sure that this will drop by about 20 minutes as the cast get quicker at picking up cues and we adjust the tempo of certain scenes.
Our plan is to run the play on Friday afternoon and again on Saturday morning, giving us Thursday and Friday morning to do more fine tuning, clarifying a few choices and stage positions and injecting more pace into certain scenes. We have invited a few guests and Almeida Theatre staff to watch the Friday afternoon run. Anthony likes to give the cast as much opportunity as possible to perform in front of an audience. It is also very useful to get fresh perspectives on the production, and to analyse whether information will be conveyed clearly to people who are seeing it for the first time.
The run through shows that the narrative is coming across clearly and the performances are becoming very exciting. We note the occasions when the tension drops or the tempo seems wrong, and any aspects that did not ring true. Most of these can be fixed by giving notes to the cast and do not require a scene to be re-worked. On Saturday morning we spend an hour on notes, and then decide to run the first half of the play. The cast have taken on board the issues that we discussed and the first half has a real buzz to it. We plan a line run for Monday morning and a final run in the rehearsal room on Monday afternoon before moving into the theatre on Tuesday.