A Monster Calls | Rehearsal Diary Weeks 3-4

As rehearsals power ahead in London, A Monster Calls Associate Director Miranda Cromwell shares all the goings on from weeks 3 & 4 as we eagerly await the show's arrival this May!

The last two weeks have flown by; we have been working hard on the end of the first act of the play and are now beginning to tackle the second act.

We had to break up the second tale the monster shares with Conor into many layers as we are using lots of different modes of storytelling to communicate this tale. 

We began with a basic rhythm for the choreography. Dan Canham (Movement Director) wanted to establish an industrial feel for the second tale. The ensemble created choreography in pairs to a set rhythm we then added the text. Whilst Benji Bower (Composer) embellishes the music adding more instruments and detail we worked on short sections of this tale needing to lay each element in separately as there are many challenges. The ensemble are using lots of the space and manipulating the chairs and props. The storytelling needs to be crystal clear and the music needs to be worked into the text. There are many dramaturgical questions like, what do we want the audience to feel/know at each moment?

Sally Cookson (Director) acknowledged that we had spent a lot of time on this scene and it still feels as though we have lots of challenges to resolve. She described it as a perfect example of the devising process, the key is to keep going and not to get too disheartened. She also added, we have to interrogate it all the way through.

After a few days on this section and a restructuring of the dialogue and tone of the music, we crack it! It’s very satisfying to see all the elements working together to support the story.

We spent a lot of time this week working on the scenes between Conor and Mum, Conor and Grandma, and Conor and his dad. We started to build the picture of what these relationships are like for Conor and what the subtext is under the scenes. Then we add the ensemble into the scenes adding focus to the key moments within the scene.

Sally often starts this work by saying things like, let’s fill in some memories and improvisations are set up that helps the actors to build up experiences that inform the scenes. We then read and discuss the text often making small changes to the script directly influenced by those improvisations. Sometimes Adam Peck (Writer in the Room) goes away and works on a new draft of the scene when big changes to the dialogue need to happen. We often refer to the novel, we find moments that we can use to further enhance bit’s of the storytelling adding more detail.

When a scene is not feeling quite right Sally asks the actors to keep the dialogue loose, enabling them to find the right phrases and particular words whilst keeping the structure of the scene intact.

This way of working is very freeing and you can see the actors building the characters and the relationships between each other. It keeps everyone investigating the story and searching for the best way to communicate the story. Sally reminds everyone we have to make the story clear.

Once we got to the end of the first act we had our first stagger through. It was really exciting and revealing, showing us the places were the production is starting to sing and where it needs reworking. The following day, after much discussion, between Sally and Adam we work through their notes. Making the necessary changes is hard work, as it always is in theatre, but we can already see how the the storytelling has become much clearer – and, with that done, we were all able to rush off into the sunshine and relax ahead of the next week!

Miranda Cromwell (Associate Director)