Meet the cast for Captain Corelli's Mandolin

There are five actors and over 30 puppets in this new production of Captain Corelli's Mandolin. The show is a co-production between the Marjanishvili Theatre in Tbilisi, Georgia and the Mercury Theatre in Colchester, England. One of the actors is Georgian (Natalie Kakhidze who plays Pelagia) and four are British, three of whom are regulars at the Mercury Theatre.

In this blog we meet the three Mercury regulars.These short interviews were recorded at the start of the rehearsal process when they had just arrived in Tbilisi. Once the show has opened in Colchester we'll get their views again.

Tony Casement has been at the Mercury for twelve years and is now Associate Director at the theatre, responsible for the theatre's community and education programme. He has directed a number of shows at the theatre including The Grapes of Wrath and Journey's End as well as acting in company shows.

As well as acting and directing, Tony also writes and his television piece Turn the World Down, written with Neil Bromley for Channel 4, was nominated for a Golden Rose at the 2002 Montreux Television Festival.

Tony plays the title role in Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

Gus Gallagher plays Mandras, a fisherman on the island of Cephalonia who captures the heart of Pelagia. At the outbreak of war he goes off to join the army with disastrous results. Gus was last at the Mercury in Pinter's The Lover, which is where Levan Tsuladze first saw him. Mercury audiences will also remember him from his performance as Romeo in which he tangoed his way into the heart of Juliet and in the title role in Coriolanus.

Roger Delves-Broughton is another stalwart of the Mercury, having worked with the company since its inception. He was last seen in Arthur Miller's A View From The Bridge. Roger works all over the country, travelling from his home in rural North Wales, and when not working he is a keen birdwatcher. You can read about his twitching in his posts on this blog as he has taken every opportunity in Tbilisi to get out and enjoy the different variety of birds to be seen in the Caucasus.

Roger is also a regular member of Wildworks, a Cornish-based international company that makes landscape theatre - large scale spectacular performances and artworks that grow out of their locations. He has been in three productions: A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings; Souterrain (co-produced with the Mercury) which played all over the UK and in France; and The Beautiful Journey.

Roger plays two parts in Captain Corelli's Mandolin: the Italian Quartermaster, who has 'access to everything'; and the British Spy, who lands on the island to report back to the Allies.

In the next posting we'll meet Mike Maran who wrote the stage adaptation of the book and plays Dr Iannis, and Natalie Kakhidze who plays his daughter Pelagia

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.

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