The Inn at Lydda in rehearsals: Week one
Assistant Director Isabel Marr shares an insight into the rehearsal process for The Inn at Lydda.
The first table read at the start of rehearsals for any play is always something highly anticipated in that slightly overexcited, geeky, ‘it’s-the-first-day-of-school’ kind of way. And on day one of rehearsals for John Wolfson’s The Inn at Lydda this anticipation was more present than ever - for two reasons in particular. One, this was the first time most of us would ever be hearing the play read aloud, as it’s never been staged before. Two, everyone was in slight awe at what a ridiculously good company we were lucky enough to have assembled in the room. It can’t have been more than about ten minutes before people started throwing Fresh Prince quotes at the wonderful Joe Marcell (he takes it very well), and over-excitedly grilling Matt Romain – who’s with us fresh off the Globe’s two-year Hamletworld tour – with the kinds of questions that he must, by now, be sick to death of: ‘WHICH WAS YOUR FAVOURITE COUNTRY IN THE WORLD? IN THE WORLD?!!’ (He, too, takes it very well.) With the read-through bringing the play to life in wonderful and sometimes weird new ways, we were off to killer start and couldn’t wait to get stuck in.
After this, we kicked off week one with two days of intensive table work. Our main focus so far has been discovering the world of the play. Set in New Testament Israel during the first century, The Inn at Lyddaimagines a meeting between Jesus and Caesar (not Julius but Tiberius - the Emperor of Rome during Jesus’ lifetime). It was inspired by a story from The New Testament Apocrypha, The Death of Pilate, which hints at the possibility of such a meeting. So, in order to fully grasp the play’s genesis and framework, there was a wealth of research to be done. We began by combing through the play in sections, feeding in our research in wherever possible to help us all develop a shared understanding of the play’s historical, geographical and sociopolitical context.
The play alsofeatures more than a few big names from ancient history as its characters: Tiberius Caesar, his infamously mad nephew Caligula, John the Apostle… And let’s not forget Jesus Christ himself. When faced with the challenge of portraying such figures, questions instantly arise along the lines of: to what extent do we try and stay faithful to historical accounts of these people? How much artistic license do we allow ourselves in our own creation of these characters and this world? Another worry in the back of our minds was that many modern portrayals of Biblical figures have tended to play on caricatures (the Monty Python effect, so to speak), which was something we were keen to avoid. Dealing with these sorts of questions throughout this first week as a group, we’ve been exploring where our vision of this world lies – finding the appropriate point at which the imaginary meets the historical; understanding the truths we need to convey whilst allowing ourselves enough room to play and create.
Andy was keen to establish a clear direction and progression of the play’s story arc, so to help this we divided all the scenes into ‘units’ according to each active plot development. This helped us get a better sense of each scene’s pace and momentum, as well as underlining which key elements of story telling should be prioritized at any given point. Then, on day three, we were already getting the play on its feet. The second half of the week was about putting a very rough shape on each scene – what Andy calls a ‘stumble-through’. We’ve been discovering the play’s physicality, and above all getting used the space. Using a markup of the Sam Wanamaker stage on our rehearsal room floor, we dove headfirst into the challenge of navigating thirteen actors on and around a very small stage (often all at the same time). No injuries as of yet, so we’re golden. In putting the play on its feet we’ve also been constantly unearthing new ideas and also new challenges with the script. The writer, John Wolfson, has been in the rehearsal room with us, allowing for discussions and clarifications along the way, and the script itself has been evolving over these first six days to allow for new discoveries in a wonderfully collaborative way. And, as ever, this first ‘stumble-through’ of each scene has already revealed brilliant and bizarre moments of comedy in the most unlikely pieces of text.
The Inn at Lydda will play in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse from 2 – 17 September. Book tickets.