Here’s a picture of the theatre space yesterday – as the designers and crew worked to construct our ‘in the round’ set, with 360˚ video projection.  It’s the first time the space has been used this way at the New National Theatre in Tokyo, so everyone is very excited to see the set go in.  The design team is really top quality, full of great ideas and a strong drive to get things as perfect as possible.  The video is all animations – and looks fantastic, as images from stars to scooters to dinosaurs circle around us – drawing on the fantasy worlds of the characters.  At the centre of all the design though is the ‘brown paper exercise’ in which business consultant Ken Lomax makes all the employees in our play’s fictional firm, ‘IS-Bio’ take part.  This brown paper exercise starts to overtake everyone’s lives, and we see it grow on the video, while it also invades the real-life set. 

As the set was being constructed in the theatre, I had my final few days in the rehearsal room with the actors.  On Tuesday last week we planned to start doing daily run-throughs, but after the first of these, Yuko, who plays the scientist Iffy Scott, and who is at the heart of the play, got very sick and had to be off rehearsals for two days. Even when she came back she was quite weak for a couple more days.  So instead of run-throughs we worked on lots of the scenes where Iffy is less important – looking at all of the details, and particularly at the relationships between two of the ‘pairs’ of characters in the play – Mr and Mrs Grant (the aging boss, who thinks managers should be ‘like sheepdogs’ and his wife, who really does all the work for him), and Jasper and Jenny – (the young scientists who think they hate each other but don’t really).  It was a tough few days for Kosuke, who plays Ken Lomax, the ‘efficiency expert’, as most of his scenes are with Iffy Scott, so he was often rehearsing by himself.  However, we got lots done – including loads of work on the movement sequences.  Once Yuko was back properly she worked hard to catch up, and I spent a lot of time with her and Kosuke.  We worked over the weekend; by Monday and Tuesday everything was settling into place and we had some really good run-throughs.

We also tried out some of the suggestions for Welsh tunes to feature in two crucial scenes of the play.  In the end we’ve chosen one well known oldie – Stereophonics’ The Bartender and The Thief, and a very new track, Sweet Baboo’s Let’s Go Swimming Wild.  For the scene where we’re using Let’s Go Swimming Wild the other strong contender was Riot by Bullet for My Valentine.  Have a listen to both tracks – they couldn’t be more different – and see if you can guess what kind of a scene the music was for!

And we found time during the week to have another of our rehearsal visits – this one from two scientists who work in companies a bit like the one in our play (though much better managed I’m sure).  I think we all expected them to be very different to the scientists in the play, but we should have trusted our writer Alan, because these scientists were like real-life versions of our characters, with a lot of the same ambitions, conflicts and ideas.  They also told us that all the scientific information mentioned in the play (there isn’t too much but what’s there is very important to the plot) was spot on.  Well done Alan!  Here’s a picture of our scientists with the two young researchers in the play – Jasper (played by Yusei) and Jenny (played by Haruka). In the photo the real scientists have just been drawing explanations of their experiments on the brown paper. (Something Jasper does in the play.)

Oh and that’s our producer, Mariko in the background, sitting in a wheelchair as she’s just broken her ankle.  It was one of those weeks!

So, tomorrow we begin ‘technical rehearsal’, where all the work with the actors in the rehearsal room joins up with all of the design and production work.  As a director I always look forward to this stage of the production – particularly if, as in this case, I feel that the actors are well rehearsed and ready.  It’s a very different phase for the director – instead of working intimately with the actors, you are at the centre of a huge theatre machine, trying out every lighting, sound and video cue, every exit and entrance to make sure that the whole production is balanced and has the right rhythms and feel.  It’s thrilling to be at the centre of so much expertise and creativity and to be making such crucial decisions for the play.

The technical rehearsal will take three to four days, then we’ll have around three dress rehearsals before our opening night – a final chance to fix anything that still needs work, and for the actors to really get a sense of what the full production feels like.  We open on Tuesday night to press, guests and the public, at 7pm Tokyo time, 11am in Wales.  Think of us while your having your elevenses and wish us ‘break a leg’ (but no more broken ankles!)