We’ve packed up all out props and are getting ready for the move to the Tron!  We’re almost sold out here in Glasgow, so ring them soon at 0141 552 4267 to get your tickets for either Thursday or Saturday at 8pm.  For more information or to book tickets to another stop on our tour, check out these helpful links:

The Tron: http://www.tron.co.uk/even t/new_works-90/
The Cockpit: http://thecockpit.org.uk/show/new_work
The Traverse: http://www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/new-works/

You can also check our website to find actor and director information and a blog with behind the scenes photographs and videos from throughout the year: http://www.rsamd-cct.com/ 

During the past month of rehearsals for ‘The Bends’, director Emily has been putting us through our paces with ‘viewpoints’ exercises from Anne Bogart’s training method. Every morning (well, nearly) after a dose of yogurt (yoga with Charlotte), we ‘go for a walk on the grid’. We start by walking on imaginary lines through the room, bringing attention to how precise we can be, and how efficiently our bodies can travel.There are nine viewpoints which we then add in gradually: tempo, duration, repetition, kinesthetic response, spatial relationships, shape, gesture,(expressive and behavioural), topography and architecture until eventually we reach ‘open viewpoints’. Over the course of a session we will go from this very precise imaginary grid, to complete freedom to play and respond within the room. It is a great way of finding focus for the start of rehearsals, for building the ensemble, for getting rid of self-editing and opening up to the rest of the group, for feeling when something needs to happen and recognising when it has. Some really great images have been coming out of these sessions, as well as some less useful, but equally funny ones. Four headed monsters and furniture moving beasts have become a daily occurrence, and David has proved on more than one occasion that his superpower is an ability to run up walls. 

The work has been really useful for the rehearsals themselves, not only as a way of bringing us together as a cast but also because we have been able to generate material for the play by using and adapting the stuff we’ve come up with in viewpoints. Our playwright Iain has given us a few corkers in his stage directions which are ‘literally’ (you’ll get this joke when you see the play) impossible to enact on stage so the playing we’ve done every morning has opened us all up to trying physical stuff in a much more imaginative and expressive way! 

It’s lovely working in a way where even as we begin to run the play, there is a sense that we should keep playing with the scenes and responding to the group as it plays out slightly differently each time, rather than setting the scenes in stone. There are times when two separate worlds exist on stage simultaneously and it is so important not to zone out and get caught in our own heads and space. We are all still making huge discoveries about our characters as they become more detailed and its only through the relationships that we are able to discover these new ideas. ‘Strong but wrong’ is the mantra! 

In other news, the Master Creator himself, Mr Iain F. Macleod, joined us for a few days this week, and it was lovely to have his input seeing the work up on its feet for the first time. We threw him straight into some bally (foursquare) , another daily ritual, and he showed himself to be a committed player, even taking a few dives to the ground. The Bends team has been developing its bally skills for four weeks now, and have become quite a formidable presence on the court, each of us demonstrating a unique skill set (the ‘Charlie-spike’ is a particular favourite…)We plan to hold an inter-play tournament soon!

We even found the time between seeing shows at the Edinburgh fringe to visit the delicious Viva Mexico restaurant for a wee photo-shoot (yep, there’s a scene in Mexico). We’ll just have to rely on the wonders of photoshop to edit out the rain and enhance some colour on the pasty cast - ah well, Scottish summers, what can you do! Next week we’re into tech, followed by another week of rehearsal before we open at the Tron on the 1st September…keep posted for more news coming soon!

~ Rose 

Another great week of rehearsal is almost behind us, with fantastic work being done by the entire cast.  Last week’s treasure trove of research yielded some fascinating looks into the work of Ray Kurzweil  and the Singularity, as well as the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, a world leader in cryonics.  Alcor’s work is based on the following idea:

As long as resuscitation medicine remains an unfinished science, it is unethical to use the label “dead” as a basis to dismiss cryonics. Calling someone “dead” is merely medicine’s way of excusing itself from resuscitation problems it cannot fix today. This makes people feel better about abandoning the patient and making the unwarranted assumption that nobody could ever fix the problem. Cryonics, in contrast, is conservative care that acknowledges that the real line between life and death is unclear and not currently known. It is humility in the face of the unknown. It is the right thing to do.

Freezing is the wrong word.  

Adam doesn’t want it all to be lost.  All his experiences.  Buried in the ground.  

The Bends traces the life and death of a young man committed to pushing the boundaries of both.  With technology and science developing at an exponential rate, Adam can see the possibility of evading mortality just in front of him - just like the elusive depths of each cave he dives.  But will the peace and beauty he finds below follow him into the future when he awakens in a room, alone, with no memories other than a glimmer… like sun held in water… of the woman he left behind?

The Bends, a new play by Iain Finlay MacLeod, is a co-production by the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (soon to be the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and Playwrights’ Studio Scotland.  It has been developed over the past year by Mr. MacLeod with actors Charlie Hanson, David Hooley, Rose McPhilemy, Charlotte Purser and director Emily Reutlinger from RSAMD’s Masters in Classic & Contemporary Text course.  The play will premiere in Glasgow in September as part of an exciting quartet of new writing and will go on to play in London and Edinburgh.