War Time Spirit

Well conversation seems somewhat quiet on this site- not much activity as yet- Thanks Becky for those sites, do take the time to look over them. The BBC archive is just the most wonderful resource, if you haven't looked it up yet do

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/33/a4403233.shtml

I want to speak a little about the 'Home Front' during the war and the role of our audiences in our production. British people are an odd breed of human being. From the lower to the upper classes there is something ineffably eccentric about our populous. Even the most outwardly 'conformist' being conforms in any manner of idiosyncratic fashions. Marmite, Gossip, Last of the Summer wine, the need slip by unnoticed, stiff upper lip.

We share many of our idiosyncrasies with our European, American, African and Oceanic siblings, they are just human traits and It would perfectly egocentric to lump the English alone for their gossiping, habitual frugality and TV dinner lifestyle. I think what does make us, as a race of human entity, unique and eccentric is in the manner, the style we do the most mundane things. The British Nuance.

The Second World War is often, rightly, looked back on through tear stained eyes. It was needless to say a seminal period in world history which tore families apart and burdened all who took part with a lifetime of memories many of us today can scarcely imagine sharing. And yet through this the British remained unwaveringly stoic and cheerful. Ironically bar the onset of strange footballing celebrations in 1966, it was unquestionably one of the, superficially at least, cordant, unified and joyous periods of modern British history. There was a sense of unity and shared purpose that brought people together and conjured that ineffable war spirit that has left its indelible mark on the Britain we live in today. It still surfaces occasionally, most recently on the streets of Windsor for the Queen's 80th, it sometimes surfaces on New Years Eve and even Christmas time. It can spur on a small personal level in a 'lock in' in a local pub, or on a national level like when London won the Olympic's bid last summer.

Nostalgia is a great word that conjures images of Anderson Shelters, Glen Miller and a world seen through rose tinted glasses. And that is an important notion, in my opinion, War Time camaraderie and spirit was a defense mechanism, a defiance, that helped people deal with a world that was rapidly spiraling out of control, an extension of the much famed 'Gallows' humor. It was perhaps a mask, that was well worn but aided people living in a time when death really was for breakfast every day, and for lunch and for tea.

Thus Nostalgia is always painted in rose tints, glossing over the painful and the sad, yet when we conjure it this summer, for conjure it we must, the experiences of this ENSA group through the last 4-5 years will have bonded them into the tightest possible unit, where everyone had their roles, their duties and everyone knew everyone else’s habits , lifestyle, nuance and foible. Thus as a group, we have three weeks to tap into this, to gel as a group and to give ourselves fully to entering into the 1940's mindset. You can turn up to rehearsals with as much baggage both physical and emotional as you need. But when you are in the rehearsal space, you must be given entirely to your character. This might seem at a level an overly simplistic comment but this is not an easy thing to do, it is easy to say you will do it, but actually forgetting yourself for hours on end is no mean feat. Thus from the 5th I will be trying to gradually blur your identity into a collective body, sounds odd and may feel odd as you will be have a rehearsal uniform which I ask you wear always from the 5th whilst rehearsing. But the rehearsal room will be our portal back. And I make no apologies for the 'time traveling' connotations that suggests. I cannot stress enough the scale of the task ahead, to do this well and to do this 'properly' you cannot sail through this rehearsal period. It must truly challenge you, and you must let yourself be challenged. As I keep reiterating I do not want a production that when we look back on it blurs into the heady haze of Elizabethan Fop that is the staple diet of outdoor theatre.

Many people speak of the rehearsal space as a 'sacred' ground, the art of rehearsal and performance a 'sacred' act, and as ever there is truth to this. There is something alchemic in the air in rehearsals, when something works, when the ingredients buzz of each other that creates a result that can sometimes be truly ineffable in its explanation. I'm not purporting a Grotowski or Staniewski esque production where the audience leave visibly taken aback and immersed by what they have seen; we are dealing with a Shakespearean Comedy after all, but I do want the audience to leave soaked in nostalgia, unified and excited by what they have seen, where their own cares and worries have been lifted into the night by what they have seen.

Please use this blog, continue the research and I await a busy week starting on the 29th May