Roger DB's blog #3

Still hot and dry - the rain that has been predicted has held off, although the last few days have been very overcast.

Rehearsals continue to be completely absorbing, and the script and story details are in constant flux so close attention is the order of the day. As a rule we have three hours or so free in the afternoons to lunch, learn and relax before the evening rehearsals. Even walking back through the streets you start to notice butterflies, dragonflies, cicadas, small groups of House Swallows and, in the evening, a number of large bats high over the rooftops (no, we're nowhere near Transylvania!). Two or three Common Kestrals seem rather wary of persuing the bats, but there is a charming family of Laughing Doves regularly haunting our area, so tiny and neat and fearless enough to walk literally up to one's feet. Perhaps the grandest sight was a group of Eagles (probably Lesser Spotted) miles high abouve our nearest ridge, effortlessly soaring on their 6ft wingspan and drifting eastwards in the bluest of skies. Magnificant!

Tbilisi traffic is something I'll find it hard to forget. Every other car is a taxi, and a minibus passes every 15 seconds or so, and all of them stop on demand wherever they happen to be. Cars pull out to overtake and block the oncoming lane. Horns immediately blare forth, and what seems like total gridlock somehow magically returns to normal. A manhole cover disappeared from the middle of the road at a busy intersection. A bus became immobilised with a wheel stuck in the hole, and when the bus has been cleared away, two leafy branches neatly marked the still gaping hole until 36 hours later a replacement cover arrived. No-one turned a hair!

Gus enjoys the international festival in between rehearsals

So here we are again! Another Tuesday night rolls in and I thought it might be time to drop another line or two. We've now been here in Tbilisi a whole fortnight. So that has the rare symmetry of meaning exactly two weeks in and four (or one calendar month) to go. I've often thought in the past that I was well used to going away for work. After all, whenever I've been offered a job, it's almost always meant packing a bag for a few weeks. This one's different though. We're much further away and for significantly longer than usual. And that's tough. I think we've all cracked the Skype phenomenon now and it's truly amazing to have technology like that at your fingertips, but it can't possibly substitute the real thing. Anyway, I'm sure it's no surprise, but I miss my Amy more than I can describe in any blog.



Mandras the puppet

 That said, I think we've all done some really good settling this last week. Personally, I'm now taking advantage of the odd afternoon off to see if I can get myself safely lost in the city. Annoyingly, not quite managed it yet. All roads seem to lead to Freedom. - Freedom Square, that is. Though I'm sure the broader meaning's true too. We're well into the second half of the play, which I'm sure we're all pretty glad about, since we open - like it or not - two weeks tomorrow. And I've had the chance to see some of the wide array of international theatre available in the festival. To be more specific, I saw an, erm, interesting Woyzcek at the Georgian Music Centre. The generally young crowd couldn't seem to decide if they were thrilled or horrified at the sight of the naked breasts and man-on-man snogging. As I said, interesting. And then last night we saw George Mann give his one-man Odyssey at the Music and Drama Theatre. I don't know - or care - if anyone else shared my reaction, but I was transfixed. Totally without clutter. Clean, clear, entertaining and exciting. I'd happily go again and was so grateful and pleasantly surprised to come across it at all.

Anyhoo, that's all from me for now.

Maybe more this time next week - the big fat HALFWAY POINT!!!

Gus.

Music for Captain Corelli

It’s one thing to have specially composed music for a show but there can’t be many regional theatres that have that music being played for them by a full symphony orchestra. But when the music is written by one of Georgia’s leading composers, who also happens to be the Chief Conductor of the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Djansug Kakhidze Tbilisi Centre for Music & Culture, you can expect something a bit special.



Vakhtang (checked shirt on the right) and his daughter Natalia
(who plays Pelagia) during a break in rehearsals to celebrate
puppeteer Anna's birthday 



Vakhtang Kakhidze (Vato) was born into a musical family and graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory as a composer in 1981. He went on to study conducting with his father, world famous Georgian conductor Djansug Kakhidze. He has since composed music for ballet, drama and film as well as symphonic pieces for the concert hall.

His work with Levan Tsuladze, director of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, includes the award-winning Lady With a Dog (Duruji Prize 2009) and Decameron (2011). He twice won the Georgian Theatre Union Award for best music composed for drama performance (1998 and 2005) and in 2010 was awarded the Shota Rustaveli Prize, Georgia’s highest arts honour.

His daughter Natalie (Nato to her friends) took a different path after originally studying music and decided to concentrate on theatre. She made an immediate impact and now regularly works at the Marjanishvili and also the Royal District Theatre in Tbilisi. She was Levan's first choice to play Pelagia - indeed she was cast before any of the other actors in the play.

In this short interview Vato describes the process of composing music for the theatre and his working relationship with Levan.

The orchestra is busy preparing for the Autumn Tbilisi International Music Festival but found time to record music for the Captain Corelli. The festival itself opens on 20 September with Chinese conductor Tan Lihua conducting Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No 3 (soloist Tamar Licheli from Georgia) and Sibelius Symphony No 1 as well as Tibetan Dance Music by Ke Jie Fang. On 24 September Vakhtang conducts his orchestra in a programme of Gershwin with George Mikadze on piano.

Alongside his original music composed for the show, Vato has put together a soundtrack of music from the Mediterranean combing the sounds of Greece and Italy. Levan, the director, is very keen on using music in his productions, underscoring the action and heightening emotional moments. Music ranges from Orthodox Church chants to folk music, 1940s popular music and opera - and of course Tony Casement, who plays Captain Corelli, has been busy learning to play the mandolin!

These two clips show the string section of the orchestra laying down tracks for the wind section to add their contribution at a later time. The recording took place in the orchestra’s own magnificently restored concert hall but apologies for the sound quality here - the recording was made on a simple Flip camera - but you can hear the music in all its glory when you see the production.

A double episode from Mike Maran's rehearsal blog

Things are hotting up in Tbilisi where the company are in rehearsals for Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Things are also hotting up in Colchester where bookings have now passsed the 35% mark. The show opens in Colchester on 27 October and runs through until 12 November so make sure of your tickets by calling the box office on 01206 573948 or book online at the Mercury Theatre website by clicking here. Performances in Tbilisi will be on 5 and 6 October as part of the Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre. Full details are on the festival website here

Today we have two instalments of Mike Maran's rehearsal blog:

Woke up this morning…da da da da dum!

It rained during the night.  This is day ten and last night’s rain was the first to fall since we arrived.  All the wonderful fruit and vegetables growing in the market gardens around Tblisi drank well last night.  So did I.

Our team is growing.  We began with 6 puppeteers and now we are ten.  It’s a labour intensive project.  Six puppeteers manipulate two puppets and I had written scenes that required three. To be perfectly honest, I never had an upper limit in my mind and would have been ready to go back to the drawing board and remove the goat or the pine martin from a scene although it would have broken my heart to fire the pine martin.  Anyway the pine martin had nothing to worry about because, manipulated by one puppeteer, it was good value. 

Levan, our director, wanted crowd scenes, but crowds of individuals.  So when Corelli arrives the Cephalonians line the street to give the Italians an inhospitable and sullen welcome.  Corelli, an actor played by Tony, asks Limone (puppet) the way to the town hall.  She hides behind Velisarios (another puppet).  Corelli crosses the road and asks Father Arsenios (puppet) where he can buy a map of the island and the priest gives him a cold shoulder.  The communist (puppet) lays down a Greek flag, the royalist is there too, other villagers, and a jeep full of Italian soldiers, - all of them reacting to what’s going on.  Ten puppeteers handle this.  And so we are ten - not six.  Nino (puppetmaker) has more costumes to make and Roger (producer) has gone back to the UK to rewrite the budget.



Birthday girl Anna with Director, Levan Tsuladze



One of the new puppeteers celebrated her birthday so rehearsals finished early to party in her honour. The Mercury Theatre actors bought her a birthday cake and so, of course, did all the other puppeteers so there were two enormous cakes. We sang Happy Birthday to Anna in Georgian and in English and then we drank toasts to her.  The whisky flowed.  When Tony had to leave to get back to the flat for a Skype conversation with his children another bottle of whisky was opened for a toast to his children, and when Jill got up to leave another was opened to toast stage managers.  And when another bottle of whisky was opened there were only five of us left and we toasted each other until it was done.  And they weren’t just bottles – they were litres. 



Irina, who's helping with puppet costumes and Crinkie,
puppeteer,  celebrating Anna's birthday.
Clearly neither of them alcoholics



Levan’s (director) definition of an alcoholoic is someone who stops after two or three drinks.  That person is thinking of himself and the acholol – so he’s an alcoholic, unlike those who stay till it’s all gone, caring nothing for the alcohol, they drink for each other.  They are not alcoholics.  I rolled home well after midnight feeling no pain.

Then it rained.  Roger (actor) who shares the flat says the night lit up with sheet lightning and thunder.  I missed it all.

Today’s rehearsal was long – we ploughed through pages of script and the goat stole the show.  First of all Roger, playing the Italian quartermaster, eyes up the goat for dinner.  Then when Corelli arrives the goat nips his finger.  The goat has the same puppeteer as the pine martin and this man has a genius for bringing animals to life.  Then the puppeteers take over the story completely as Velisarios and Carlo smoke together, the Italian jeep is sabotaged, and then blows up killing the young Italian soldier.  Corelli (actor) has to write to the young boy’s mother and weeps as the goat looks over his shoulder.  It is heartbreaking.  There won’t be a dry eye in the house.  Dr Iannis’s (that’s me) special friend today is Father Arsenios (puppet) but when he come knocking on my door with gossip about my daughter and the mandolin playing Italian captain I have a right go at him and send him and his tittle tattle packing.  But, of course, Father Arsenios is only saying what everybody is saying and, however cross Dr Iannis is with the priest, it’s blindingly obvious to him too.  And so the die have been cast.  Mandras has gone off to the mountains to fight for Greece and the enemy is living in his fiance’s house.  Things are going to get worse, a lot worse, better they get better.

Day 11 and today’s rehearsal was electrifying. 

I have lived with this book for twelve years and more, performing Captain Corelli’s Mandolin up until last year in a storytelling musical way in theatres all over the UK.  Pelagia and Corelli inhabit my world.  I know them.  I went back to the book and read it again before making this new adaptation for the stage.  I wrote episodes that we can show on stage that I left  out of the storytelling adaptation, the beach for example where the Italian soldiers dance with the prostitutes and Limone rides on a mine as it drifts ashore – scenes that are better shown than told – and puppetry is a wonderful medium to bring them alive. 

But when two people fall in love it’s actors we need – not puppets.  I never referred to the pages in the book when Corelli tells Pelagia he loves her.  I know them and although I wrote the lines that Tony and Nato spoke to each other this afternoon nothing prepared me for what I saw.  The actors took Louis de Bernieres’ characters off the page and stood them on their feet.  Tony (Corelli), Nato (Pelagia) and Levan (director)  know these people too.  They know the risks you take when you tell someone that you love them – and for Corelli and Pelagia especially – Corelli, the captain of an enemy occupying force and Pelagia, betrothed to a Greek patriot who is fighting for his country.  Tony and Nato took the risks in both hands and the glowing embers burst into flames.  I could not begin to describe that rehearsal for you – and I won’t.  But there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.  And Levan (director) – the man’s a genius – proposes to begin the next scene in the rain with Dr Iannis holding an umbrella, pleading with his daughter to wait until after the war.  I had very little to do today except watch and admire.

I had lunch with Gus (Mandras).  Mandras left the village to go to the mountains and join the partisans and Gus left the theatre to have the afternoon and evening off.  He cheerfully drank two beers while I sipped a bottle of lemonade and went back to work.  Gus went into town with a copy of Hamlet in his back pocket which is more than Mandras can take with him to the mountains.  Mandras is a good fisherman but cannot read or write and one day soon Gus will land the big part that I guess all young actors go fishing for.

Jill Russell (Mercury Theatre stage manager) and I have landed a nice little job. Vato (our music director) is Chief Concuctor of The Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra,  and he has asked us to record the message to the audience before concerts to remind them to switch off their mobile phones.  He wants good English voices (I’m Scottish!) - a male voice and a female voice.  So Jill and I are going to do it for him in a recording studio tomorrow afternoon.  Eat your heart out Sir Ian McKellen!



Roger, Nino and friend, Zura, cheering on Georgia
against Scotland in Oct 07



I notice that Scotland beat Georgia in the Rugby World Cup.  Well, I’m very pleased about that.  But I suspect our producer, Roger McCann who is an Englishman in love with Georgia feels differently.  There are still fond memories here of an international football match in October 2007 when Georgia beat Scotland in a Euro 2008 qualifying match (Roger was there). 

The Tartan Army descended on Georgia in their hordes and watched their team lose before going out on the town.  The locals were delighted by the Scots capacity for alcohol - the Georgian hosts and their Scottish guests fell into each others arms and drank for each other and sang for each other.  You see, Scots don’t only sing when they are winning, and this is true for Georgians too.  Give us a drink and we start to sing.  The Georgians were mighty impressed with the Tartan Army that night and I walk around Tblisi wearing tartan braces to hold my trousers up.

Tomorrow the British will be blockading Cephalonia and everybody is hungry. Dr Iannis suggests that everyone goes to the forest to collect snails.  We are going to rehearse this on stage tomorrow where Levan has arranged a forest  covered in snails.  I have eaten snails in Italy.  My dinner companion showed me how to flick them out of their shells with a toothpick.  You must flick them towards yourself, not your date, otherwise she will get your snails in her blouse.  I learn something new every day.  Gus showed me how to use Skype and we skyped each other across the table at lunch.  Who says the art of conversation is dead?

Ciao! 

Mike

Mike Maran's Captain Corelli Rehearsal Blog #2

Day 6 and I’m getting into a groove.
Up at 8am, shower, breakfast, and a letter home. 10am, to the coffee shop which has wi-fi to e-mail my letter and a capuccino. 11am rehearsal until 2.30. Lunch and a stroll then rehearsal until 9pm. A beer on the way home, a few words for this blog and then sleep.


The view from the back of our flat




The view from the front



It’s a strict routine – so strict that I go to the same restaurant every day, sit at the same seat at the same table and I always have khingalis. Yes, a creature of habit but an adventurous soul who today, in addition to my regular khingalis, ate a puree of aubergines and walnuts, cheese dumplings, cottage cheese with mint wrapped in a parcel of cheese, (the cheese rolled into a thin layer is used to wrap up whatever is inside and served cold – they look like large ravioli), a pastry stuffed with cheese and a dish of hot smoked spare ribs, all washed down with a bottle of tarragon lemonade. No, I didn’t eat it all on my own. Roger (producer) and Roger (actor) had lunch with me. It’s the only meal of the day and there is time to eat well in between rehearsals. And I do. Those who know Georgia know that it is a gourmet’s paradise – not for its haute cuisine but for the ingredients. It is all home grown in the market gardens that surround Tbilisi. It seems that everyone has a shed somewhere out there in the south Caucuses where they grow tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, and chillies and so on and so forth and they carry the veg into Tbilisi in the morning and set out their produce in cardboard boxes outside little basement shops - apples, oranges, peaches, and I mustn’t forget the corner shops selling cut flowers.


The Georgian creation myth says that when God was making the world and Georgians were queuing up with everyone else to get their land, they became hungry and impatient and went off somewhere to eat and drink. After the meal they fell asleep by which time all the land had been distributed. There was nothing left. At first God was unsympathetic and told the Georgians they shouldn’t have left the queue to eat and drink. The Georgians explained that they were toasting God’s health when one thing led to another and they fell asleep. And God took pity on them, relented, and let them have the land he was keeping for himself. And here we are. There is a MacDonalds here where you can buy the same french fries that you can get in New York and in Tokyo which may or may not contain potatoes. Or you can join me in the Georgian restaurant round the corner for a plate of french fries made from potatoes grown in Georgian soil which cost half the price, and I doubt God eats better chips in heaven.
No wonder people round here live for a long time!


The chap in the theatre who is responsible for explosions is 90. He is a wiry little man with smooth tanned skin and large thick spectacles. He brought the jeep to the stage today – the Italian jeep that gets blown up - and showed us the explosion. Flames leapt out from under the bonnet. He clapped his hands with pleasure and so did we. He had a throat cancer some years ago and the surgeon removed his voice box. He cannot make any vocal sounds but communicates through a series of clicks and tuts which everyone in the theatre understands. He was proposing to detonate simulataneously three more explosions on the driver’s side and the passenger’s side to blow open the doors and one underneath the jeep to blow it up in the air. Health and safety people in the venues which are taking our production may read this with fear and trembling. Be afraid! Be very afraid! There’s the episode when the mine is washed up on the beach… which we haven’t got to yet. That’s an explosion that involves an awful lot of sand! I shall go to bed now and dream about explosions.

More tomorrow.

Gus reflects on a week away from home

I thought I should pen something to mark our first week out here. Having been lucky enough to have had this evening off, it turns out I am not needed until 3pm tomorrow either! And so it is that I find myself at my computer at the highly unprofessional school night hour of six whole minutes past midnight. My two flatmates - Tony and Jill - are hopefully sound asleep and not being disturbed by my tap tap.

Anyway, this is about the time that we arrived here in Tbilisi a full seven nights ago. I can't tell plainly whether it feels longer or shorter than that. I have become increasingly homesick over the past few days, and that can't help but drag. On the other hand, I can't quite grasp that we've already had seven of our precious rehearsal days - and we won't ever get them back again!

The show's coming together well. It's very strange seeing the whole picture mounted around you - lights, sound, costume, props - but I like it. Among other things, it forces the actor to make bold choices. After all, a whole sequence might be suddenly thrown together before your very eyes based in some small part on your particular reading of the given situation - so you'd better have something good to put up there!

We seem to be settling into our Tbilisi life comfortably enough too. Our Georgian hosts have been so kind and remain on hand to help with anything we might need, but we have enjoyed exploring our new temporary home for ourselves in the past week. Perhaps predictably, we seem to have honed in on a couple of places in particular - The Arts Cafe (get us!) for an after-work cheeky, and Prospero's Books (spot the actors) for a pot of Earl Grey and a naughty bit of carrot cake - and a decent internet connection.

So so far so jolly good. But I know we all miss our lovely loved ones back home. My beautiful bride to be and I haven't managed to find our Skype rhythm quite yet, but we did manage an all too brief face-to-face on Sunday. It was wonderful to see her - even if it wasn't quite the same. But I think of her lots and like to think that we're creating something she'll enjoy sometime in November, in a garrison town far far away.

Until then, thank God for Wi-Fi!



Relaxing after rehearsals in the Art Cafe
From Left: Roger (producer) Gus, Jill (Stage Manager), Roger (actor) and Tony
Mike is taking the picture



Mike Maran's rehearsal blog

Sunday



Nino and Maia with the
puppet of Dr Iannis



Here I am in Tbilisi and we’ve just finished day 5 of our rehearsals in the Marjanishvili Theatre with our director, Levan Tsuladze, and I find it enthralling. 

I spent this morning in a café with a communist, a royalist, a fascist and a priest.  They were having a right go at each other and I just sat there and listened to this furious argument going on.  They seemed very affectionate towards me and demanded my attention.  The priest finally got the radio to work and through the crackles and hiss we learned of another atrocity in the war.  We all followed the priest to the church to pray.  All these characters are puppets made by the maestro puppeteer at the theatre, Nino Namicheishvili.  They might seem an unseemly bunch but they are my new friends.  I find myself talking to these puppets in breaks in rehearsals and we engage in delightful conversations that have nothing to do with the war or with the play.  The fascist sits on my arm and taps my spectacles when he wants my attention.  The communist stabs his finger in my ear to emphasize his point. The priest, despite his Orthodox Christianity which reeks of Byzantium has a blunt four square Yorkshire accent.  My new friends are all disparate characters voiced by Tony and Roger, two of the actors from The Mercury Theatre in Colchester who are working with me on this production, and they are all loveable. The royalist doesn’t deign to look at me – I only see him in profile as he sits across the table from me.  Oh, I like him!



Gus put through his paces by Gia Marghania



That was this morning’s rehearsal.  This evening’s rehearsal was thrilling.  Gus Gallagher, the third Mercury Theatre actor who’s with us here, has been put through his paces by the theatre’s choreographer, and he dances like a Greek God!  No wonder Pelagia falls for him. He is electrifying and erotic.  Mandras doesn’t have a lot to say.  When I wrote the adaptation I was afraid I hadn’t fleshed out the character but Levan assured me it was good.  It’s enough!  Levan had a vision that went way beyond the words on the page.  I hadn’t realised I was going to be part of such a physical production.  At the end of tonight’s rehearsal Gus was drenched in sweat but he looked like he’d enjoyed it as much as I had.  I’m going to have to get rid of this admiration because I’m Dr Iannis and I’m supposed to be dismayed at losing my beautiful daughter to this illiterate fisherman. 

Between the morning and eveing rehearsals I went for a stroll around Tbilisi  with our producer, Roger McCann and we took our life in our hands every time we crossed a road.  Roger and I share a passion for khingalis – a delightful Georgian pasta parcel with minced meat and gravy inside.  You sprinkle it with black pepper and then bite into it.  For a novice it’s quite tricky.  You have to bite into it and suck in the gravy taking care not to spill the juice down your shirt but at the same time you must not inhale the pepper and cough and splutter.  When you eat khingali don’t sit opposite a novice like me – you might get my khingale all over your shirt!

Here's a video of Mike's first encounter with Khingale, two years ago.

The roads are awful – the traffic’s a nightmare – the food is heavenly – and the theatre is fabulous.

Tomorrow we’re going to rehearse the Italian invasion of Cephalonia.  For those who have read the book you’ll know this doen’t happen unitl page a hundred and ninety something.  Tony, who has been voicing puppets for the last five days, plays Corelli and at last he’ll get to march into the story and strut his stuff.

For anyone reading this in the UK you may like to know that we are bathed in warm summer sunshine – T-shirts and shorts.  We left Gatwick wearing scarves and gloves!  

For anyone thinking of coming to Georgia the local religion is Hospitality and regular services are held with copious amounts of food and drink.  The only comparable ritual I can think of is a Burns supper which is celebrated in Scotland once a year.  The celebrations here are held several times a week.  But now I must sleep because tomorrow I have to work.  Ciao!  Mike

Roger Delves Broughton goes bird watching in Tbilisi

Roger DB, who is playing the British Spy in Captain Corelli's Mandolin is a great bird watcher and is to be found in spare moments wandering around looking skywards. Here is his report!

Roger's blog #1 Thurs 8th Sept

After all the anticipation, we’re here! The Georgian welcome is as comprehensive and overwhelming as you can imagine.

After a short introduction at the theatre, we saw the character puppets in Nino’s workshop, and believe me they are delightful and fascinating and full of character.

We were then convoyed out of Tbilisi up the mountains to about 1300 metres above sea level. Half an hour or more rising hairpin bends took us up to Levan’s summer retreat; a beautiful wooden chalet in a kind of alpine meadow among the high forests. In Wales it would be high above the tree-line, but here there are thick woods of Hornbeam, Ash, Oak, Birch, wild Pear and Beech. Mushrooms sprout underfoot but nobody really dares to choose one to cook, for fear of a gastronomic game of Russian Roulette! The sky was blue and cloudless, and although the temperature dropped with the altitude it was still a comfortably warm 62°F, whereas in the city it had been nearer 80! My joy was to scan the twittering flocks of Swallow, House Martin, and Sand Martin over the meadow. But the real heart-leaping sight was the succession of European Bee Eaters migrating overhead: unbelievably colourful and exotic and a new bird to me.


European Bee Eater



Needless to say, we feasted lengthily on vegetables, salads, fish and barbequed pork, drank many toasts in Georgian wine, and were entranced by Levan’s daughter Tina as she showed us the most graceful Georgian traditional dances barefoot on the twilit grass. Sensational. A truly bonding experience for us all, and a day to relish and remember for a long time.





Roger’s blog #2 Saturday 10th Sept


We’re rehearsing on the Theatre’s main stage, which is useful in the initial stage, since all the puppets and stage action can be created under the very tight lighting requirements particular to this style. It’s constantly amazing to watch the puppeteers crowded round a single puppet and creating movements of astounding delicacy and precision. They are instantly humorous and soulful.


Hooded Crow
Photo by panafokas


So far we have worked mornings and evenings, so have had a couple of hours free in the afternoon. The apartments are about a 20 minutes walk away, so today I took a walk along the River Kura embankment. It’s been so hot and dry that today’s stiff wind created a veritable windstorm, but through the flying grit I did manage to watch some Yellow Legged Gulls, Hooded Crows and a White Wagtail to add to my Georgian list.




White Wagtail
Photo by Andreas Trepte
http://www.photo-natur.de/



Rehearsals start in Tbilisi

The British contingent has arrived in Tbilisi to start rehearsals for Captain Corelli's Mandolin, a co-production between the Mercury Theatre Company Colchester and the Marjanishvili Theatre Tbilisi in assocociation with NFA International Arts and Culture. The show will open in Tbilisi on 5 October as part of the Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre before moving on to Colchester, opening on 27 October at the Mercury Theatre.



Mike and Gus feel the coolness in the air

 Things started easily with a short meeting to introduce everybody and talk about the process Then it was off to Levan Tsuladze's summer house, high above the heat and dust of Tbilisi for a welcoming party. At 1200 metres above sea level the air was clear, the wine was cool and the food delicious!

 The first day proper of rehearsal began with  a reading of the script. As well as playing their own characters, the actors have to provide voices for the puppets so they need a variety of voices - and then have to remember which is which! Towards the end of Act 1 there was a long pause. We had reached the moment when Corelli arrives in the village and addresses the villagers.There are three characters in the jeep plus a number of villagers standing and watching. Levan turned to me with a grave expression: 'Roger, we will need more puppeteers'. So, can we a) find the budget for three more puppeteers and b) arrange UK visas for them in time? It'll be alright on the night.


The first read through


The rehearsal process is quite different to the way in which the Mercury company is used to working. They are used to working in a rehearsal room without a set and with rehearsal props and furniture but with this show all elements are brought together at the same time. As the production is so visual, it is important for the Director to be able to see the finished effect as it takes shape.

Most of the first day on stage was taken up with the first scene - only a few lines of text but a mountain of technical effects. Dr Iannis (Mike Maran) is sitting at his wife's grave chatting to her. In the background villagers are climbing the hill to the church carrying candles and singing to pray for the sick. Iannis decides to join them. At this point the scene transforms and the live actor is replaced by his puppet. It is a beautiful moment but also crucial for the audience as it is the first moment when they realise that the characters on stage are both actors and puppets. They will hopefully marvel at the beauty - and does it matter if they don't know that those few seconds took nearly four hours to create?