We're now five days into rehearsals for this years Latitude tour and summer musical comedy, The Great British Country Fete. It’s a very exciting time. Our cast of three multi-talented actors, Gabriel Vick, Graham Lappin and Katie Brayben have all dived headlong into the text and music with gusto. From a musical perspective all of the numbers have now been taught, but we keeping adding new elements on a daily basis. Today, after delving into The Bush storeroom, it appeared that we actually own two accordions (nobody at The Bush seemed aware of this). We immediately set Gabriel the task of playing it, and by mid-afternoon he was already skilled in the art of playing in the style of a hilariously angry Bulgarian. Thus we’ve added another instrument to the already rapidly growing list which includes keyboards, guitars, tambourines, triangles, drums, trumpets, recorders, melodicas, kazoos and a gourd. How many of these will actually make it to the final show is yet to be seen, but if we fit the gourd in somewhere it’ll make a certain composer very happy.
This leads me on to the state of the rehearsal room. Being a comedy, you’d expect the process to be quite lively, but I have never laughed so much and so hard in all of my life. Under Anthea Williams’ direction, the comic creativity of the cast is truly astonishing. They consistently bring new ideas and energy to Russell Kane’s script, which is already very funny. From the absurd to the ridiculous, the show contains a wide variety of dribble-inducing, pant-wetting moments, but (hopefully) maintains a beating heart of integrity. My personal highlights so far have to be Katie Brayben’s back-bending portrayal of an elderly xenophobic jam maker, and the absurd musical stylings of three Bulgarian migrant workers.
We’ve had such a laugh rehearsing so far, all I can hope is that the laughter will be echoed and amplified by the audiences. We’re around two weeks from opening on tour in Oxford, and I’m very much looking forward to it. If rehearsals continue with the same pace, energy and pure comic madness, then we’ll all be in for a very fun, lively and musical summer indeed.