Labour of Love– Week Three

Another busy week and another big push from all departments. As well as continuing to rehearse and shape the scenes, we also had the considerable task of finalising the filming of all the material for the transitions between scenes – the idea being that these will help us convey the passage of time, as well as providing context to the political and global events that were taking place at the time.

Our Video and Projection Designer, Duncan McLean, has created an incredibly detailed shooting list. In terms of co-ordination, this has been a huge task and each department has contributed to making it possible. A big team of people were booked in – including lots of familiar faces from the Production Team – to play other candidates, head teachers, school children, builders, people at rallies, etc. They all need costumes, and costumes appropriate for each year that we’re in – anything from 1990 to 2017! The Props Department have been working hard to make sure that everything used is authentic and helps tell the story accurately, while Wigs have had to make sure they were ready before the usual deadline of technical rehearsals, especially for central character MP David Lyons, so that the look is consistent and accurate over the years. All of this work has been done alongside the usual schedule for making the show, so it’s been an incredible effort from everyone and hopefully will pay off next week when the filming takes place. 

We’ve also started to have more members of the Creative Team in the room with us, which is great. Sound Designer, Paul Arditti, is feeding us live sound-effects for the many pieces of technology – from the latest iPhone to old fax-machines that get stuck halfway through, plus some incredible millennium tunes that are taking us all back! It’s great having the team around to react directly to what’s happening in rehearsals and to offer suggestions. All this work is supporting the text, which is such a pleasure to work on as it jumps off the page with huge heart and humour.