Remount = attach to a new frame or setting // get on a horse in order to ride it again.
The frame in this instance is the same, Gary Owen’s ‘Love Steals Us From Loneliness’. The setting, however, is different. No longer do we find ourselves in a small, hot (and I can assure you it was unbearably hot) theatre five minutes walk from Warren Street Underground but instead back home at Chapter in Cardiff. New space (bigger space in this case) together with new challenges but as rehearsals came to a close on Friday evening, I gained the impression of a communal sense of excitement, we might just be able to make this work.
Getting ‘back on the horse’ this past week, reconnecting with this wonderful play has been enjoyable and deeply fulfilling. Like putting on your Christmas jumper and finding that it still fits (thankfully) and is as cozy as you remember. This is the first time that I’ve ever ‘remounted’ a play and it’s been fascinating to see how quickly it’s all come back together, whilst also noticing the new things that have emerged during the time we’ve been away. My fellow actors have found different inflections, tiny different nuances with physicality that have in turn changed my approach and character’s thought process.
Bringing this play back to life has also meant getting the gang/family back together and many laughs have ensued – mainly at our disbelief that, after all this time, Becca is still struggling with her lines about chips. We’ve stayed in contact as a company during the months we’ve been away. With the Chippy Lane’s founding principle being to showcase Welsh work beyond Wales, it also could be said that it’s working at connecting Welsh people beyond Wales too. We do, however, have one new member of the team, Holly, our wonderful DSM who has taken to everything like a duck to water.
Kim Pearce (our director) eased us in gently at the beginning of the week with line runs before slowly introducing blocking back into the mix. The space is slightly bigger than what we were working in before, which has (for me anyway) changed the temperature and nature of some of the moments in the play. Reconnecting with our characters was another major focus of this past week – with ‘hotseating’ sessions proving insightful and revealing.
I, for one, am extremely excited about the week that is about to follow and in particular to see how a Welsh audience react to what we have created.
Rhys Warrington plays Scott in Love Steals Us From Loneliness
Love Steals Us From Loneliness by Gary Owen is on between the 8 to 10 December at Chapter in Cardiff. Ticket are available at www.chapter.org and for more information on Chippy Lane Productions head to their website.