Arthur Zacharias as Anatole, Beril Kaya as Justine and Tracie Laurinaitis as Summer
in a scene from Last Order, the Studio Piece in Spring 2010
Guest blog – Trina Hasthorpe Assistant Director
Hi, I’m Trina. I’m the Assistant Director of the devised piece: the newly-announced Pub Quiz Champion.
Staring at the web of multi-coloured scrawl on reams of A3 that are the fruits of our labour from the first devising session, I had my doubts. Reading through the character descriptions, setting notes, questions, answers, demands, and trying to follow the arrows that snake between them had me thinking – How could these disparate ideas generated by 7 strangers possibly evolve in a few short weeks to be a script – let alone a staged show?
At the halfway point now, with first draft in hand and a full run scheduled for our evening rehearsal, I am absolved of all doubt. In fact, my doubt dissipated weeks ago as I watched the actors, guided by Richard, bounce confidently and skilfully between a multitude of diverse and largely off-the-wall scenarios: bourgeois households to alien territories to lands of talking animals to the behind-the-scenes of a comedy club. I’ve seen reluctant farmers feed guerrilla armies, innocent husbands poisoned by spurned lovers, backroom witches tempt lonely priests and the elusive Danny Jones break more hearts than you can poke a stick at, but finally our story has found its home – in the more conventional yet highly entertaining setting of a local pub quiz.
The devising process that Richard has developed can be frustrating: having to let go of particular ideas about stories and characters is difficult at times, but the process relies on relinquishing control of the direction of the plot and dialogue decisions in order to give the actors free reign. And it pays dividends – the resulting script is funny without being affected, heartfelt without being cliché and honest without being boring. What was once scrawl is now a play – and a bloody good one at that.