3.1: Out, Vile Jelly!

Something about the fierce winter chill in the air must have got our Canadian juices flowing tonight, because I think we did some amazing work. The focus was 3.1, in which Gloster is interrogated and blinded, Cornwall is fatally wounded, and a poor anonymous Servant gets her throat cut. Andrew has choreographed the violence to look unchoreographed: rough, brutal, and totally unpredictable.

Once the violence had been rehearsed, we looked at the lines. Equally brutal--insults and curses flying back and forth, and just as much unspoken tension, particularly between Cornwall and Regan. This was the first time Ron and Brittany had worked together, but they clicked into the roles of passive-agressive partners as if they'd been unhappily married for years. Ron is crafting a unique psychosis for Cornwall, and Brittany is starting to uncover the pressures under which Regan has suffered for so long--and the exultant, violent thrill that comes from escaping those pressures and seizing control.

You know, it's been a long, long time since I've done a show with this much violence. Ten years ago, my pals and I did a show called Superculture, which was essentially a theatrical excuse to wallow in sex and violence for two hours. I have long since chalked that impulse up to adolescent angst...but here I am again, at 31, watching my actors cut each others' throats and crush each others' eyeballs.

As Edmund might say, "the wheel has come full circle."