The Deep Blue Sea is the production currently in rehearsal by the Infinity Stage Company. This diary covers their rehearsal process from the first week of rehearsals to the final night. When Hester Collyer is found by her neighbours in the aftermath of a failed suicide attempt, the story of her tempestuous affair with a former RAF pilot and the breakdown of her marriage to a High Court judge begins to emerge. The following 24 hours follows Hester as she decides whether or not she can continue to live. The production runs at the University of Birmingham’s Guild of Students on the 6th, 7th and 8th of May, with ticket info available shortly. This weeks entry is completed by Jade Corbett, who plays Mrs Elton.
Even from just a few weeks of rehearsals, I can already tell that The Deep Blue Sea is going to be so much fun to rehearse and perform, and the whole cast is throwing themselves into the tasks set for us! Already Harry has clearly evolved as a director… his favourite game has progressed from Blood Potato to Ninja, though I’m not sure what this says about him. Our rehearsals this week have been a mixture of background research and actually starting to stage the performance, which is amazing!
On Friday we began answering the 114 questions that had been compiled through our group script reading sessions, adding more personal ones as we went along that affected our own, specific characters. This has been a really beneficial way to tackle to text, as it allows us to really understand and explore our roles. Hopefully, by creating background stories for everyone, we can fully immerse ourselves in their ‘world’ and present a more intricate, realistic portrayal of the text.
On Sunday, after more silliness and games, we began a full ‘rough run’ of the show, not worrying about the quality of acting, mistakes or blocking. I found this really exciting, as it allowed us to properly imagine the basic outline of what the final result might be like! It also made us realise how funny stage directions are to try and follow if you’re in completely the wrong place… demonstrated notably by Iain walking all the way across the stage just to awkwardly touch Sophie’s hand.
Now that our rehearsals are properly underway, I feel that we have all well and truly tackled the script head on, though a lot of the process so far has involved lying on the floor, from my perspective at least. I also feel very ready for a Deep Blue Sea social *hint hint* with this lovely group of people.
The Deep Blue Sea 