Preview: Bleak Expectations

Goodness. In the submission interview I was asked “Why have you chosen Bleak Expectations, with 10+ characters, a huge cast, a cannon, a song, over 100 props, rather than a 2-hander as your first play to direct?” and it was a question I was unprepared for! Idiot that I am, I could have chosen a much smaller, easier play, but it hadn’t occurred to me. I didn’t want to do another play. I wanted to do Bleak Expectations.

When I discovered the radio series, I listened to all five series in one weekend and have re-listened to it every year since. The jokes are a perfect blend of sublime wordplay and ridiculous circumstances and characters. I haven’t read that much (actually, any) Dickens, but it captures the absolute sardonic nature of the writing. When our Assistant Director Ollie mentioned he’d seen the show in the West End and it was on his Bucket List to be involved in, I realised it was on mine too, so I ordered the script and popped it in the submissions box. That conversation was the snowflake that started an avalanche that will come cascading into the auditorium at the end of October!

It leans very heavily on Great Expectations with Sir Philip Bin (Simon Gleisner) recounting his life story. There are a few allusions to Oliver Twist and A Christmas Quarrel, sorry, A Christmas Carol. But it’s the wordplay, names and situations viewed with a contemporary eye that I love. Pip’s father Thomas’ business partners are Mr. Skinflint Parsimonious (ironically the most generous of men, played by Alex Watts) and Mr. Gently Benevolent (a complete b*****d, not to be confused with Guy Jones who plays him).

When he is sent away to boarding school and meets Headmaster Whackwell Hardthrasher (Jamie Bowman), he realises that not all adults are ironically named. Like most plays there’s a salt-mine, several deaths, a few marriages and a cannon, standard stuff.

Sir Philip recounts having grown up as “Pip” Bin (Tom Mitchell) with his sisters: the daring Pippa (Flora Blissett) and the loving Poppy (Aurora Mclaughlin-Gouldhacker), his clumsy father Thomas (Craig Norman) and forward-thinking mother Agnes (Anna Callender). Domestic bliss is shattered by his father’s business partners: the overly-generous Skinflint Parsimonious and the incredibly evil Mr. Gently Benevolent. He meets the half-well-named Bakewell Havertwitch (Chris Gipson) on the run from the law, and at boarding school he comes across the first of many Hardthrasher siblings – the entirely well-named Headmaster Whackwell.

Pip makes a new best friend in terminally optimistic, swan-obsessed Harry Biscuit (also played by Alex Watts)! While trying to rescue his family, a love triangle forms between Pip, Miss Ripely Fecund and Miss Flora Dies-Early (accompanied by her stern governess Ms. Chastity Hardthrasher, always keeping the demon lust at bay!). Pip ends up in court in front of the entirely fair, legally-minded, even-tempered Justice Hardthrasher, brought up on charges by a real, actual proper American Mr. Harlan J. Trashcan, who is definitely not another character in disguise. You can tell by the hat. And the beard. And the accent.

Firstly, it’s not just a cast. With over 100 props, our amazing stage manager Fiona has been in the room from day one. The whole stage management team are in rehearsing the choreography of the props too, it’s been incredible!

But for directing performances, one word: Trust. The cast are an absolute joy! A range of experiences at SLT but universally brilliant. I want them to be able to trust me, each other and themselves. More than most, this play is an absolute whirlwind and the text is so rich in jokes and ripe for making it our own. So my improv tendencies have been useful, getting everyone warmed-up, full of energy and receptive. The heart of improv is “yes, and” – accept and build.

It’s been an incredibly collaborative process. I want actors to have ownership of their characters and make the choice for how they play each line, but to be able to welcome and incorporate suggestions from everywhere. I’m so happy with the environment of respect and excitement in the cast, with everyone offering ideas to play with, and once we hit the half-way point, polishing all the great gems we have.

The logistics of everything going on behind the scenes. Fiona Daffern has been organising and building more props than I can count (because she has counted them, labelled them and arranged several props tables), and we’re working on the choreography of each prop’s route around the stage. Alan Walker has gotten us whipped into shape for a school song, and Stephen Hayward has helped us choreograph some truly unique fights (because seeing yet another bin vs sword fight, straight after a sourdough sword fight, just gets boring!) There are so many thanks and names to go into the programme, so you’ll have to come and see it to see all the effort that’s gone into it!

Having such a talented, dedicated and energetic cast and crew in an environment where they’ll embrace the chaos and find what works, focus on getting it right again and again and still make it funny after all these weeks of rehearsals, means that we’re bringing the play to the start line of show week with a huge mix of costumes, props and mixed-metaphors that I can’t wait for everyone to see!

Laughter! Swans! Harrumble!

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