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| The view from the Gods at the Citz |
A.H:
WE’RE BACK
It has been three weeks since last I settled down to
write about the company of actors bringing the trials and tribulations of Dr
John Faustus to the stage and now, having returned to where we first started
rehearsals nearly two months ago, tonight will be the official opening of Dr Faustus at the Citizens Theatre,
Glasgow!
The two weeks of rest was predominantly spent
cleaning my dusty room and washing every piece of clothing I’d taken with me to
Leeds. There was also a wee sojourn to London to see my friend Eve Ponsonby who
is currently being amazing alongside Iain Glen and Tamsin Greig in William
Boyd’s play Longing before finally
returning to Scotland to catch fellow intern Lucy in Takin’ Over the Asylum in Edinburgh.
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| The company reunited again |
We were brought back together again last Wednesday
and to see everyone again was fantastic. By the end of the two weeks it felt
like an eternity had passed since we last saw each other, Leah, who plays
Wagner, had even managed to go to Budapest! We immediately began retrofitting
the show for the Citz. We initially began to re-tech the show before our first
preview Friday evening. We’ve since polished up certain bits, restored
Marlowe’s epilogue which serves as a warning to those who choose to overreach
their station. One of the interesting things that came out of previews is just
how well the show suits the Citz stage. Due to just how vast the Quarry Theatre
was and how far back the seats stretched to the set often seemed to exclude
those members of the audience on the periphery and also meant that Kevin
(Faustus) had to work very hard indeed to include everyone. In contrast, the
stage at the Citz is so much more intimate. Dominic, our director, described it
as a crucible space which will help to condense and retain the plays energy.
Needless to say, I’m rather excited about tonight.
Press night must be incredibly scary if you’re playing Hamlet or some other
famous titular character but for me I’m dead chuffed to be a) back at the Citz,
and b) back on home turf. Above the stage at the Citz, looking down from the
Proscenium arch are the four muses of the Theatre (you can see three of them in
the picture at the top of this blog). In the epic poems and ancient plays of
old you would invoke the Muses to provide inspiration and luck for the artistic
endeavour about to be embarked upon.
And so in the tradition of times past, and ahead of
the Press Night tonight I thought it would be rather apt to plagiarise that
other great poet of old with that most famous of invocations of the Muses:
“O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!”
William Shakespeare, Henry
V, Act I, scene i
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