Monday Morning, Almost 10 am

We’ve opened! We’ve now had two performances and a day (yesterday) “off” and met some amazing people and seen some amazing shows…to the point where I don’t know where to start this post really.  Our last preview, at the Haslingfield Little Theatre, merits a post on its own – it saw another sellout audience, a new special effect which even our Lx loves, and a question and answer session that filled all our little hearts with joy – they got it, they  loved it, they wanted to talk about it. Getting the show up here all went eerily smoothly – love the venue (we are convinced we have the nicest and most professional tech team in Edinburgh at The Space venues – and the nicest loos!), love our flat and love Edinburgh as much as ever. And our first night was as close to a sellout as makes no difference (61 out of 66 seats sold). Just to keep us from getting cocky, however, the theatre gods decided to mess with the technical side of the show on opening night which meant we had some interesting light changes and the odd sound (or odder, as all our sounds are odd)  where it shouldn’t have been.  Audience reaction was still very warm though, with lots of happy smiles as they exited.

Day two saw us give a technically spot on performance to another large audience (including one gentleman who was returning for a second helping – we’re intrigued but didn’t get a chance to talk to him). No reviewers yet, but they’ve booked for this week so our fingers are crossed. Tonight will be interesting as we test our marketing strategy of staggered flyering through the afternoon and evening, some costumed, some not, and find out whether our first two audiences are spreading the good word…

Meanwhile, you can check out some fantastic photos of us in the venue at this site: http://adamlevy.zenfolio.com.

And on the hot shows front, four of us want to recommend Camille O’Sullivan at the Assembly Hall if you can possibly get tickets – sell your mother’s soul to do so.

A Tribute to My Co-Captain

It’s the afternoon before our fourth preview of Hayton and while I plan to tell you about the first three (and the words total sell out will feature, probably in bold), before I do that I wanted to pay tribute to my colleague

Robert Jezek as George Hayton

and friend, Robert Jezek, without whom this project simply would not have happened.

If you’ve read this blog from the beginning you’ll know that Robert appeared in the adaption of Casting the Runes which inspired Hayton on Homicide. He and I then sat down together to plot the new script scene by scene, and it was his enthusiasm for the result which encouraged me to take the risk of going ahead with an Edinburgh Fringe Festival run.  But I didn’t know then that his support and encouragement and commitment to this project had only just begun.  He has contributed to virtually every decision made in the eight month long production process for Hayton. He has been available at all hours to offer advice – and the best sort, based as it is on his 30 odd years in the business. He has attended marketing meetings and design conferences, and willingly schlepped set, crew members and exhausted writer/directors to all corners of Cambridge and beyond. He has remained passionately commited to the project and to making it the best we possibly can do, and he has contributed his creative imagination and wonderful instincts to the shaping of every scene. At the risk of sounding maudlin, I want to say to him, thank you, Robert. I appreciate it, so very much, and the production is the richer for it. In fact, so significant has his contribution been, he deserves a co-producer credit, which I hereby am formally offering him.

It hasn’t always been a peaceful process, of course. My nickname for Rob is Bear, because he’s a big, huggy guy, and when he roars everyone hears it. And when he passionately believes in something, and gets his dander up about it, his normally soft and genial hazel eyes can flash a very disconcerting shade of Gollum green. Moreover, Rob and his family have sacrificed a lot for this production – as a working actor there are many more lucrative jobs he has had to pass by. But he has never complained, at least in my hearing, and never expressed anything but total committment, even in the face of some extremely stressful weeks!

Which brings me to the previews. It was Rob who initially suggested we pursue additional previews, beside the two I had arranged at the ADC theatre this week.  We were thrilled to get two nights in Covent Garden at the Tristan Bates theatre, and even more delighted when our first night was a total sellout. Nevertheless, the experience wasn’t easy – the studio theatre couldn’t provide the full range of lighting called for by the brilliant design of Rob Mills, and though he worked miracles with what was there we felt the lack. The theatre also presented logistical difficulties, in terms of getting set and cast to the middle of Covent Garden at a reasonable cost and without losing too many more years off our lives. The venue also presented us with the genuine Edinburgh experience, in that our get-ins and outs were very short and very hairy!!

Still, our two performances went off without a hitch, and the audience response was very positive. I felt we were at 80 percent of what the show could be after our first two nights.

And then came last night at the ADC. When I left home I knew we were doing well on ticket sales – we’d sold 195 of the 220 seats by 5.30. But when my friend Ros Connelly saw me in the bar and told me she’d just bought the last seat in the house, making that night a total sellout as well, my heart did flip flops. It was so exciting for me and the cast, and they rose to the occassion brilliantly. Sarah Kenyon gets better with every performance, and the audience instantly warmed to her delightful – and exasperating – Florence Hayton. Elizabeth Muncey appeared twice her actual (petite) size as the scary Madame Valerian and continues to find new riches in the character of Alice Kentwell. Mark Compton looks fab in his dark moustache and his calmness and consistency is reassuring to us all. And of course Robert shone in his best performance yet as George Hayton – intelligent, austere and rational – but with a very warm heart. Thank you to everyone who came – hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! And to those who haven’t seen it yet – at this writing there are still tickets available for tonight, but every time I check more have gone…so act fast!

Our Beautiful People

I’ve been one manic stress monkey over the past month as all the elements of writing, directing and producing a touring production fall on my head like so many peanuts. Now that rehearsals proper have started that’s all I really want to think about, though working with our production designer, Amanda Godley, is always fascinating as well. She’s wonderful at turning one of my vaguely described visual ideas – “I want it to look like a comic strip”, for example – into a gorgeously detailed sketch or lighting plan. We’ve also got a new lighting designer/technician, Rob Mills, who has delighted both of us by being a master of that phrase which is music to a producer’s ear: I can sort that out. Particularly wonderful when it’s something diabolically difficult like radio operated practical lights rewired from existing period reproduction lanterns. Bless him.

So my mind is whirring – but that’s not what I want to talk about, mostly because I don’t want to give away any of my plots and plans before the play is seen. What I am going to tell you about is a few things that our wonderful cast members have been up to. First up, Robert Jezek’s newest film, Last Chance Harvey, is currently in theatres here in Britain. When Robert told me about this film, he said his was a non-speaking part until the final credits.  So I didn’t expect him to make the impact he does in the film. He plays the Polish neighbour whom Emma Thompson’s mother suspects is a mass murderer, and his qualities of warmth, roguish charm and intense physical presence come through very strongly.

Emma Thompson and Robert Jezek at the Last Chance Harvey Wrap Party

Apart from the two leads, Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman, he is one of the most memorable characters in what is a very nice and under-rated film – and no, I’m not biased! Here’s a photo of him with the lovely Ms Thompson…

Meanwhile, he’s been filming another new film in Roumania with Robin Hood star Jonas Armstrong (see pic below), and in-between acting as co-producer for Hayton, which he was instrumental in developing.  He’s also performing this weekend in the new writing Hotbed Festival at the Junction theatre here in Cambridge. Busy guy.

Jonas Armstrong, Robert Jezek and Richard Albrecht

And he’s not the only busy member of the cast. Our youngest actor, Lizzie Muncey, graduates this year from the MA programme at the Birmingham School of Acting. Check out the 18 June issue of The Stage newspaper to see a glowing review of her student showcase performance.  Two experts – playwright David Wood and Bruce Wall of LSW – made Lizzie their expert’s choice from her school – only one other student from any of the 10 schools featured was chosen by two of the experts. In her review of the showcase, Susan Elkin picked Lizzie out as her first highlight.  “Elizabeth Muncey…had casting directors and agents rustling their programmes and scribbling notes as soon as she appeared…” she wrote. Well, we always knew she was great.

Lizzie Muncey as Madame Valerian

Here’s a picture of her as Madame Valerian in Hayton…

…and because the rest of the pictures recently taken by dear friend and amazing photographer Chris Boland  of Sky Blue Photography are so nice, here are a couple more, featuring Mark Philip Compton and Sarah Kenyon…

Mark Philip Compton and Robert Jezek

Robert Jezek and Sarah Kenyon

The calm before the storm…

We searched high and low, saw actors of all types and ages, and have finally found our Adrian Kentwell.

Mark Philip Compton

He’s dark and he’s dashing  and we think he’s going to be unforgettable in this role. He’s also a most accomplished actor – recently appearing as Carlos in the very well reviewed UK premiere of The Woodsman at the Old Red Lion. With the indefatigable Sarah Allan also confirmed as our PR and Marketing Assistant and Tech, our team is now complete. This leaves me with only a few details to sort before we begin rehearsals in June – a strange feeling as I’ve been so driven to get the major pieces all in place – venue, cast, accomodation, main marketing images and text, preview dates, rehearsal space – and now I can relax. Well, sort of. Because now of course I have to change from producer’s to director’s mode – from thinking about contracts, ticket sales and logistics to thinking about interpetation, performance and atmosphere. In short, the fun part – but also the part that’s most difficult to get right. On May 23rd, the whole cast comes together for the first time to read the script together and make any final adjustments. Whenever I think about this my stomach goes into freefall. It’s so exciting seeing a play come to life…but also terrifying. Once June starts it will be non-stop for all of us until the 30th of August, when we pack our bags and return to Cambridge, hopefully with a month of fabulous memories and a new bunch of lifelong friends.

About a Poster

If it’s possible to be in love with a poster, I’m in love with ours. In fact, whenever I have a dark production day (like right now, when I’m having trouble confirming a fifth preview date in my own village), I only have to look at the fabulous poster designed by Tami Brown (TamiBrown.com)  to feel better. However, my affair with this poster started quite a long time before Tami became involved. The picture you see here was the first image we had toward the Hayton poster – an ink drawing by the amazing artist, poet and chef John Lyons (www.johnlyons.org). He kindly allowed me to use this image for my poster, but I quickly decided the part that worked best for us was the rather ominous looking figure standing at the back. So I began to play with isolating this figure and adding some text:

Like so. This was great fun, and I was also rather fond of the font used here (appropriately called Blackadder) but it lacked the colour and punch it will need to stand out in Edinburgh. Robert’s partner (and the wonderful designer of our wonderful webpage www.haytononhomicide.co.uk), Jane Horwood (www.catfishwebdesign.com), put us in touch with her friend Tami, and from the first image she sent us I knew this was going to be great.  So, without further ado, here is the poster design we’ll be using in Cambridge, London and Edinburgh, with the hope that it will intrigue you and entice you and even cheer you as it does me….

Oh, what a marvelous cast…

Actors are, quite simply, the most amazing people in the world. The average person, as Jerry Seinfeld has pointed out, is more afraid of speaking in public than of death. Actors  coming to auditions have to walk into a room of beady eyed strangers, clutching a script they’ve only just met, and not only speak – they have to BE somebody else. I’d be terrified, but everyone I’ve seen over the past few weeks has been poised, commited, enhusiastic and generous – as well as pretty terrified.

This of course, made it difficult for myself and actors Sarah and Robert to choose just one. What made our final choice, Lizzie Muncey, stand out? Well, apart from being beautiful and talented, she was also amazingly well prepared. She’d thought through exactly how she wanted to approach the part, and she hit all the marks she’d set herself. Just because I could (well, they do say that power corrupts), I then asked her to do one bit completely differently, and she was brilliant at that too. I can’t describe how exciting it is to see someone do this  so well, but it might help if you pictured Lizzie going out the front door while in the back the three of us danced around the room singing “We’re in love with a wonderful girl…”.  Actually, it was just me singing, but I thought it sounded slightly more dignified the other way.

So now it’s on to cast member number four – the young man who will play the dashing Adrian Kentwell. Must say I’m looking forward to this particularly…

Hayton’s History

Hayton on Homicide began with an e-mail. In October 2007, Emma from the Cambridge Librarians contacted me about providing a performance for their Christmas party at King’s College. I got all excited – until she went on to say that what they wanted was a reading of an M.R. James ghost story. James used to introduce his new story each year at a Christmas gathering at King’s, so it was a good idea for them – but what could be in that for me? I’m a writer, director and producer, but I’m not a performer. Every time I get up in front of an audience I get gut-churning flashbacks to the Karate Incident. The Karate Incident, if you must know, involved a badly tied Gi, a distressingly transparent bra, and me. The rest I leave to your imagination. May it haunt you as it has haunted me.

Nevertheless I loved the idea of doing something at the college  (plus it was three months til Christmas and I needed the money).  So I suggested that I provide an adaptation of one of James’s stories as a staged reading. Emma was really chuffed by this idea, and said yes.

I picked Casting the Runes – the one about the evil alchemist Karswell who cursed anyone who gave one of his papers a bad review – because it had two quite good female characters. Most of James’s stories don’t  have any – maybe something in a mob cap with a country accent – and what fun could you have with that? And we did have fun with the adaptation. I changed Harrington’s brother into a sister, so she could bewitch and bewilder the scholarly Dunning, I had the fantastically gaunt and grim John Parry stalking the stage as Karswell, but mostly we all enjoyed the relationship of Mr and Mrs Gayton (Robert Jezek and Sarah Kenyon), who began the play by bickering over the Karswell’s threatening letters.  After the performances (which went down a treat) we all felt sad to say good-bye to the Gaytons, who’d made us laugh with their combination of well-mannered Victorian affection and complete inability to agree on anything.

“You should write a play just about the Gaytons,” said Sarah.

So, with the change of a single letter, I did.

Our Venue

This is it – the frontage of our Edinburgh Fringe venue on Nicholson Street.  Pretty perfect for Hayton…

Royal College of Surgeons