One means of rehearsal that has been used extensively in rehearsals for Snakes and ladders has been the use of the phone. Not that we can claim any particular uniqueness in this; with lockdown, it became quite the thing. And last year, with Roji down in Portland while we rehearsed Did and Gogo, it was an occasional thing. And Rojki has been the driving impetus this year too; he has had to move to Sheffield, for financial reasons, with London being so expensive. But he committed himself to being in the production, and so his restricted presence has been a regular part of our Tuesday rehearsals. And this weekend he comes down to London for the week, to rehearse and perform.
But Roji has only been a part of the picture. We have been plodding along with just one actual rehearsal a week. I could not really manage the journey to London more than once a week (until performance); even more pertinent, we only had a physical rehearsal space (and a slightly odd one at that) once a week. But the participants are keen to do more, recognise that, especially since they are learning lines in a foreign language, it is more of a struggle, and simply enjoy providing each other company and support.
These rehearsals are line learning exercises rather than full rehearsals, but none the less useful for that. And they can be very enjoyable. There was one memorable rehearsal which ended with me at least in tears of laughter at the antics of the various participants.
I do not always take part – they are quite capable of organising such a thing amongst themselves – but have been involved a few times, sometimes as director and line-checker (and making sure they are not simply reading from their scripts), sometimes just me and Hamed – although he is on stage throughout, my scenes are exclusively with him. And it has proved very useful for me too; I need the repetition to fix the words in my head too.
