The Hothouse @ SLT

Miss Cutts is organising a day trip

2007-01-29T12:40:00.000Z

Urgent message all ministry staff and understaff.

Have located 4 escaped patients mascerading as actors/comedians at the Haymarket Theatre. I have been asked by the Boss to try to co-ordinate a reconnaissance mission.

I need to know when you are available as I will have to fill out the relevant documentation.

There are tickets available at £15.

I will happily order all together and reclaim from you personally, but need to know numbers.

Any day next week except Friday 9th.

I haven't actually checked availability for the Saturday, which I expect will book up first but the other days are ok.

Please let me know soonest

Fondest Regards

Daisy Cutts

Dissapointed

2007-01-17T19:38:00.000Z

Roote we are disapointed. The minister was handed this CCTV snapshot by a member of the press (The Stage we think). They are claiming it is a patient being abused by the staff. Those in the know here suggest it may be a member of staff being 'cow-tipped'.
As you can imagine the Minister was livid at this flagrant disregard of protocol. He made it very clear that only chairs with one very big wheel and one very small one (per side) were allowed otherwise they don't match the picture on the signs and the parking space.

PS We can assure you that your typewriters did not come from the navy stores. If they are rusty it is down to your storage and maintenance. We procured them from a private company and have no idea at all why some of them have "RMS Lusitania" stamped on them. (We gave clear instructions for that to be removed along with the crabs and sand.)

ONE WEEK TO GO!!

2007-01-15T15:33:00.000Z

Timetable of panic

2007-01-08T13:59:00.000Z

Whipper Wallace

2007-01-08T10:20:00.000Z

Does anyone here remember "Whipper-Walace"?

Photo album

2007-01-08T10:06:00.000Z

I have stuck some of the rehearsal photos up as an album.

Photo album

Sadly most are a bit blurred.
There are larger versions pictures if you want them.

Cacophony

2007-01-08T09:59:00.000Z

Chris VS's nasty noise

Cacophony wma

The ministry

2006-12-20T14:21:00.000Z

Sorry about your face Simon. It is too dark in there... We will get proper photos soon, but for now these amateur efforts will have to do.

By the way, this was the QI.com fact of the day after our rehearsal. Were they listening?

"Brazil" at the NFT

2006-12-18T10:07:00.000Z

Just in case you haven't enough to do this Christmas, here's something else for your diaries if you're interested:

The NFT is showing Terry Gilliam's Brazil on 23rd Dec at 20.15. This is one of my favourite films, and something that inspired my choice to direct Hothouse. It's a beautiful, surreal examination of bureaucracy gone mad and an example of the "steampunk" retro-future look. And generally just a blimmin' brilliant film.

"Gilliam's wondrously imaginative fable set in a faintly antiquated bureaucratic future suggestive of the surveillance nightmare of Orwell's '1984', and centred on Jonathan Pryce's clerk, a lovelorn dreamer beset by bad plumbing and illicit desires for a beautiful freedom-fighter. For all their artifice, the creation of both the 'real' and 'fantasy' worlds is utterly persuasive, so that the film succeeds both as metaphorical allegory and as an unexpectedly moving tale of one man's struggle for independence."

Blimey.

Caption compo...

2006-12-18T09:29:00.000Z

Clarifying the rules of 'zip, zap, boing'

2006-12-18T09:27:00.000Z

Roote dancing with Gibbs at Sadler's Wells Theatre

2006-12-15T13:06:00.000Z

Set layout

2006-12-06T09:43:00.000Z

This is roughly how things are going to look. The stairs have moved to the back, side on. The blocks on the floor indicate roughly where the audience seating might be. Roughly to scale, but obviously the furniture is only an approximation.

Thanks to Aidan for computery whizziness!

More rehearsal dates

2006-11-27T16:55:00.000Z

Just to confirm rehearsal dates coming up and who is called for them:

Tuesday 28th Nov, SLT, 19.30, Chris and Caroline
Thursday 30th Nov, SLT, 19.30, Peter and Simon
Sunday 3rd Nov, SLT, 18.00 – 21.00, Peter, Simon, Chris (will be blocking from beginning of act 2, so Simon, if you like you can come in at 7pm).

Tuesday 5th Dec, 19.30, Naomi's house, Ed, Simon, Caroline torture scene
Thursday 7th Dec, 19.30, Naomi's house, Simon & Caroline, post torture, character work
Sunday 10th Dec, SLT Rehearsal Room, 18.00 - 21.00, Peter, Simon, Chris, Kevin, continuing work on Act II

Hope this is ok for everyone, do let me know if there are any problems for anybody.

We have a very tight schedule for a complex play, and while we do have enough time, it relies on really making the most of the space and time we have. So far everyone has been fantastic, and even at this early stage I can see it shaping up well, so let’s keep it up!

I am loathe to scare everyone with a firm “books down” date at this stage as I know this is a demanding script with lots to learn. However, I would like everyone to be working towards being off book by mid-late December at the latest, as by this time most scenes will have been blocked and we will be onto the ‘polishing’ stage. With this tight schedule, the absence of books as soon as you can manage it would be very helpful!

The Q Camp

2006-11-21T13:46:00.000Z

Link to BBC article — Breaking camp

The Q Camp is on Wednesday, 22 November at 1100 GMT on BBC Radio 4.

In the middle of World War II the authorities had a problem - what to do with those children who had been evacuated but who were too disturbed or delinquent for the average family to handle.

So when a group of earnest young conscientious objectors offered to take them off to rural Essex and "cure" their antisocial tendencies with a mixture of fresh air, unconditional love and radical democracy, nobody asked too many questions.

Read-through and rehearsals

2006-11-06T12:57:00.000Z

Our first read-through is scheduled for 12.oo midday on Sunday 12th November at SLT - meet in the bar. The read-through itself will probably be in the Green Room, followed by a bit of a chat about characters etc etc.

I will go through the rehearsal schedule on Sunday too - whilst our schedule appears fairly tight I'm planning to add some dates in between for individual character and speeches work. Nobody (except me and Aidan!) should be too swamped though as the play breaks up nicely into scenes involving two or three people.

So the countdown begins!

Sneak preview of our poster

2006-10-29T16:42:00.000Z

(with thanks to Maria)

Set v3

2006-10-23T11:35:00.000+01:00

Developing set.....all very much a work in progress.

THAT speech

2006-10-18T15:18:00.000+01:00

Some of you (Chris, Peter, I'm looking at YOU), may know that there seems to be a wee discrepancy about whether a certain speech is spoken by Roote or Lush. It's the one with the reminiscences about the 'banks of the Euphrates' etc etc a few pages previous to the scene in which Roote kicks eight bells out of Lush. The layout seems to indicate that it is Lush speaking, but it is a very uncharacteristic speech and lends itself better to Roote. Lending weight to the theory that it is Roote speaking is Gibbs' entrance at the end, where Roote is startled (have a look, you'll see what I mean).

Anyway, just to update you - I've looked at umpteen different editions and the layout is exactly the same in each, so that hasn't helped at all. We've also asked a Pinter expert (a professor who has spent his life studying Pinter), who has promised to have a look BUT in the meantime says that typos in scripts do happen, and do not get corrected when new editions come out, especially in a rarely performed play like this.

I'm going with it being Roote unless something drastic happens to make me change my mind, so sorry Chris, this bit is yours to learn!

Set v2.0

2006-10-02T09:44:00.000+01:00

James says

"Very rough out of scale sketch attached, produced before [Sunday's] meeting. Sitting room on the left, Roote's office on the right. The mesh back is shown as backlit so grey opaque."

The Cast!

2006-09-26T10:11:00.000+01:00

The Inmates

ROOTE: Christopher Vian-Smith
GIBBS: Simon Roberts
LUSH: Peter Stevens
LAMB: Ed Cartwright
MISS CUTTS: Caroline Doyle
TUBB: Kevin Leech
LOBB Derek Dempsey

The Staff

Director: Naomi Liddle
AD : Aidan Hall
Designer: James P. Denny
Assistant Lighting Designer: Chris Liddle (no, we are not related. Unless distantly...)
Technical Manager: Gavin Parker
Stage Manager: Lauri Morgan
ASM: John Thompson
Operator: Liz Chambers
Theatre Rep: Stuart Draper

Yes, we do have more crew than cast.....today Prompt Corner, tomorrow the National, dahling.

Welcome beers

2006-09-22T11:15:00.000+01:00

Naomi says:
Welcome beers in the bar!

The afternoon of Sunday 1st October has been suggested, can everyone let me know if this would/wouldn’t be convenient and we’ll go from there.

Edit: Confirmed - beers will flow from 7pm in the SLT bar on Sunday 1st.

Hothouse puns so far...

2006-09-22T11:11:00.000+01:00

Naomi has started the bad puns and says that it is ok as long as we file a report.

Punishments to be issued by the Kangaroo court in the bar.

Copies of the Text

2006-09-18T12:48:00.000+01:00

Pinter Plays: 1 (ISBN 0571178448)
The Hothouse (Pinter: Plays) (ISBN: 0571160867)

http://www.stageplays-partner.com/b.asp?id=1113 - helps fund SLT

http://buy.at/SLT - follow this link then fill in the Amazon form on the right; search for "The Hothouse (Pinter: Plays)"

Thanks Chris and Naomi

Chris said:

"Peeps.......
If you are going to order through Amazon, please get there via the BuyAt link on the SLT website.... so SLT gets a piece of the action.
Alternatively, Helen tells me it is available on Stageplays, also with a link on the SLT website.... and SLT gets 15% on that!"

Naomi said:

"I have (very brightly, I think) managed to choose a play that is currently out of print. The only format currently available in the shops is as part of Pinter Plays: 1 (ISBN 0571178448), which retails at £14.99 and also contains seven other plays. Whilst being impressive to look at on your bookshelf, this may be a bit cumbersome to work with.

BUT I have managed to pick up single second-hand copies online for around £5. Amazon have several editions available used, otherwise http://www.abebooks.co.uk/ us also very good. I personally have found this one to be a nice edition, it is also the latest (1992) so most likely to be available. I’m not really fussed about everyone having the same edition – I have looked at a few different ones and there is no difference in text – but if that edition could be everyone’s first choice then at least we stand a chance of some of us having the same page numbers! Do let me know if you have any difficulty obtaining a text. "