The play is set in 1950 in a small village about half an hour away from Swansea. So the first week was about getting into the world. Myself and Sarah (Production manager) got busy in Cardiff libraries local history section finding as many images from the time as possible to inspire the actors.

Elens process is about seeing in pictures. The actor slowly takes the time to clearly picture the whole world of the play and their characters life in their imaginations. The idea being that they are immersed in the world of the play as much as possible. Elen did a lot of visualisation exercises in the first week in order to start to achieve this. We also had a minister come in and chat to us about religion in 1950’s South Wales and a lecturer in philosophy came to chat about existentialism, which was John Osborne’s interest at the time.

After thoroughly grounding the actors in the world in week one, developing together a map of the village and house where the play takes place, week 2 was about going through the scenes in detail. We have now finished act one and are half way through act 2.

John Osborne is an extraordinary writer particularly of uncomfortable moments. It’s amazing analysing the play section by section and uncovering how rich, poignant and sometimes hilarious the tangled relationships are.

Onwards to act 3…

Sita