Letters Home: Brighton
Dyke Road Rest Gardens, where we are performing in Brighton, is actually a graveyard! It is quite unusual but yet very picturesque.
Transcript of Podcast
Dyke Road Rest Gardens, where we are performing in Brighton, is actually a graveyard! It is quite unusual but yet very picturesque. From our point of view on the stage, we can see lovely terraced houses and also we are not too far from the sea.
It is a real challenge here because it is so cold and windy. In some ways it makes it quite a difficult environment to perform in, but nevertheless, I think we are getting some good responses from the audience and we are hopefully warming them up, literally and figuratively, over the course of the evening. Apparently last year, when the Globe tour was in Brighton, the weather was boiling, so we are slightly envious of them having had the best of the weather.
It rained right at the start of our first show here which was slightly a concern because Ben and I hadn’t had a chance to run the fight on a wet stage before. It was our ambition to have a practice run here but it didn’t quite happen so we ended up teching it live during a show! We had a quick word with each other backstage before and we said, “Let’s just take it slowly but add intensity to all the moves.” That way it should still be interesting to watch, whilst keeping us safe.
I am sad to say that our stags head has been stolen here! It was filched from off the back of our trailer when Dave and Carrie (our stage managers) were busy setting up. Jo actually saw someone carrying it in town a few minutes later but, not knowing at the time that it had been stolen, she assumed the bloke was local crew for the show and didn’t challenge him! Luckily we never really used it much, despite the fact that it forms the centrepiece of our poster image.
Brighton is very packed in terms of shows, over the weekend we have two shows a day, so in these weather conditions it will be quite gruelling. I am staying with a neighbour of John O’Mahony, who plays the Duke, just over the road from where he lives. John and his wife have had us all over to dinner and they are also feeding us in between matinee and evening performances. They are incredibly kind and it really takes the edge off having such a short gap between shows.
Gunnar x