Our ‘Double Top’ rehearsal last week was a special event that left us all inspired, exhausted and exhilarated. We had a visit from Ron Rose, the author of Double Top and Gareth Tudor Price who directed the original production at Hull Truck back in 2002 for John Godber. They were there to talk about the play and also to provide some guidance on a fight scene.
Ron & Gareth expanded upon the story they first told us when we were selecting this play, about how it came to fruition and the dedicated research the pair undertook in Hull, necessitating frequent visits to pubs and ladies dart matches – and no doubt the consumption of beer added creative authenticity.
Ron had written the original play many years before for 9 women and 3 men but in 2002 John Godber asked to produce it at Hull Truck – but with a maximum of 5 actors – a big re-write was needed. (Read that story in our earlier post here)
We were enthralled to hear stories from Ron about inspiration for his characters and his scriptwriting days for episodes of The Bill and Heartbeat. Their anecdotes were hilarious and kept us entertained until it was time to get down to some serious rehearsal work.
We had asked Gareth for some of his professional directorial guidance in constructing a hilarious fight sequence for the play. We explained the scene in question and after a couple of polite comments and a “Do you mind if I try a couple of ideas…” he burst into action. It was like flicking a power switch to ‘on’ and being hit with a tornado of his motivational energy.
An hour later we were exhausted, aching, but laughing and on a high. We were buzzing. And if you want to see some of the hilarious results of our fight night just have a look at the slideshow below!
Trouble viewing? Click the Fight Night header to go to the webpage
Double Top is running January 24th, 25th, 26th. Booking information can be found here.
Petuaria Players 