Oedipus Rex: Night 4 (Saturday)

The final night of Oedipus Rex at the Leper Chapel, the last night of in situ:'s 2008 Summer Season and the end of a two-and-a-quarter-year journey for the actors.

We started back in April 2006 with a handful of sketches which we worked up into performances and linked together over four terms of work. Last year's performance was an achievement for all of us, but when we reconvened a week ago we realised there was a lot of work to do. We all knew our lines, but the people who'd watched the video of last year's performance agreed it wasn't as good as we remembered (and it was filmed on what I thought was the best night!)

This year has been very different. The read throughs early in the rehearsals told us what we knew and what we needed to learn. The performance came together quickly, but soon exceeded what we'd previously attempted - partly by knocking about 20 minutes off, although no lines were removed.

It's hot again tonight, so we again drink plenty of water. But there are no nerves - and I don't even bother with a stroll to the toilet. And yet again we manage to perform at the same level as the previous two nights.

Someone tells us after that it's the first time they'd heard chorus work like ours and understood what is being said. Others are similarly complimentary.

We leave on a high and return to Richard's for the aftershow party. There are rumours of another Shakespeare next year. The Tempest? Or Twelfth Night? Whatever, it is looking unlikely that I will be taking part, but I do have other plans.

Oedipus Rex: Night 3 (Friday)

On the way to the chapel I hear on the radio that today is the hottest day of year so far. It certainly feels like it and we're all gulping down water after our vocal warm-up. Within five minutes of completing my discourse on Chinatown and its parallels with Oedipus Rex, I'm thirsty again.

I'm surprised by the consistency we're achieving, compared to last year - and even this year's performance of The Winter's Tale. Our performance level, increased through practise early in the week and cranked up by the opening night adrenaline, seems to have stuck at around 95% of the level of that opening evening. Everyone is confident and enjoying performing. And tomorrow's the last night...

Oedipus Rex: Night 2 (Thursday)

I feel different driving to the performance tonight, but it's a while before I realise why. I think I'm starting to enjoy it. After the year putting this together and the weekend dusting it off and rehearsing, I know my lines and I know the performance. I feel confident.

Tonight we've sold thirty tickets - with walk-ups, another near sell-out. And instead of having to drag people along, the advance publicity in the local press seems to be bringing in more people we don't know, who want to see the performance of their own volition. We can't even say it's because we're doing Shakespeare this time.

The level of interest increases our desire to perform well and we come close to matching the level of the opening night. There are very few slips or missed lines and our movement as a group is again good. Somewhere we add another five minutes, as I notice I am heading for the door around 9:20pm, but the story doesn't seem to be suffering.

Remarkably, we're already halfway - only two nights left.

Oedipus Rex: Opening Night (Wednesday)

I don't feel the usual nerves, I know my lines and everyone seems confident. We've sold 30 tickets, which means we'll be very close to selling out with people paying on the door.

The usual rituals are observed: changing into costume, a trip to the toilet and a vocal warm-up. Soon director Richard Spaul is outside The Leper Chapel explaining to the audience what will happen while we're inside, ready, waiting for him to return and join us. We're blindfolded, walking slowly, groping for the door, then we're outside, spouting our various discourses which are connected in different ways to the story.

At the signal we all remove our blindfolds and head into the chapel. The audience filter in as we form a circle, ready to begin the story. The hard work we've done over the weekend pays off. The choruses are tighter and punchier. The interjections confident. Only a very occasional line goes astray, the presence of an audience causing a surge of adrenaline which is driving everyone on.

By 9:15pm we're slow-walking towards the door for the emotional finale. We've shaved over twenty minutes off the running time by speeding up some of the scene transitions and choruses, resulting in a much more satisfying presentation.

We celebrate with an aftershow curry. Looking forward to tomorrow night...

Oedipus Rex - final rehearsal

An exhausting night, topped off with a full run through.

After three days, we stagger through a flat performance and make some big mistakes, which get worse as we attempt to correct them afterwards.

The feeling after is one of anti-climax. Surely we haven't come this far to fall flat on our faces?

Oedipus Rex - third rehearsal

Knowing the text, we concentrate on tightening up some of the choruses, speeding up some of the rhythms, reducing the volume of others.

Everyone is still tired from the weekend. Tanya says she feels unwell and leaves early.

We finish off with a speed run which seems to go well. Katrina fills in for Tanya, her Russian accent owing more than a little to Robbie Coltrane's in Goldeneye.

It's difficult to know if we've gone as far as we can or if more work is needed.

With Sore feet: Oedipus Rex - second rehearsal

More active today, we do several speed runs, which cement the text more strongly and introduce some of the staging headaches.

The longer, more active day is even more tiring than the first and several sets of eyes are drooping after the traditional in situ: picnic lunch on the grass outside the Leper Chapel.

The weekend's work on the text has got it really polished, so we will spend the remaining two rehearsals on improving choruses and interjections, followed by a speed run through.

Oedipus Rex - first rehearsal

The Oedipus group reconvene after just over a year to pull the show back together. Some of us went on to work on The Winter's Tale after last year's performance, some on the Ratman project, others we've simply missed.

Everyone's worked on getting their lines back up to scratch and is looking forward to getting started. Is this how professional actors work, I wonder? They know the whole Shakespeare canon and joining a new production is simply a matter of taking the script off the mind's shelf?

Director Richard is off to a wedding this afternoon, so we've decided to start an hour early, but 9:00am on a Saturday morning isn't the problem I'd imagined. We spend the whole day on dialogue. We sit in a circle, use the script less and less, relying on others to provide missing or incorrect lines, which makes them easier to learn.

Regular tea breaks keep us concentrated, but it's tiring. After four or five read throughs we feel we've made progress, so in the early afternoon, with Everton fans already arriving to see the match at Cambridge United's Abbey Stadium over the road, we finish.

All wrapped up: Oedipus Rex - Night 6 (Friday)

It's been a great week, sometimes hectic, occasionally stressful and finally, exhilarating.

Now it's the last night of in situ: Oedipus Rex and we finish with another sellout. Beforehand, director Richard Spaul is scurrying around to find additional seating, saying "Some people have turned up on the door and I don't want to turn them away... it's not a problem we usually face with in situ:."

Simon and Katrina's wedding has meant some rearrangement to the week-long run. Productions usually open on a Monday night with an intimate performance to an audience in the high teens. Numbers build through the week to capacity crowds at the weekend. Opening on Saturday gave us a greater sense of occasion, which helped the the cast pull out all the stops.

The final night seemed smoother. We tighten things up so it's shorter than the previous last night. Ian amends "...I wouldn't have ended up... c-c-c-c-c-c-copulating with my mother..." in his climactic speech to "f-f-f-f-f-f-f-FUCKING...!" on Richard's suggestion. Though since I wasn't at last night's aftershow party, it came as a complete surprise to me. I kept dwelling on the cue I failed to get, making it appear as if I'd forgotten my line (Jane later admits she saw her family in the front row and thought about the grief her sister would give her if she screwed up!), but few noticed.

I feel more relief than when our previous one-off performances were complete. After the one-term, one-performance piece "Metamorphosis" I felt sad that we'd never do it again. A week starts to seem a long time - particularly with a full-time day job and a young daughter - and getting it right has meant a lot of preparation, but we did ourselves justice with the performances we gave.

Now... the wedding tomorrow followed by a week's holiday in Orford, Suffolk. I think I'll need it.

Oedipus Rex - Night 5

Another healthy crowd ahead of Friday night's sell out.

This one was slow, we all agreed after. Why was that? There was no lack of energy, there was plenty of drama. Strange.

Only one left now...

Gaining momentum - Oedipus Rex: Night 4 (Wednesday)

Twice as many in the audience tonight as on Monday and Tuesday, which makes it feel as we're building up to something, with the same expected tomorrow night and a probably sell out on Friday. And then..? After 15 months work, we're going to miss it when it finishes.

It didn't occur to me until afterward how well it went tonight. The cast arrived on time and did a much better warm up than last night, which seemed to improve concentration. I still don't think I've nailed my prologue speech about "Chinatown", but I wasn't worrying about that once we got inside The Leper Chapel. The performance level seemed more consistent, the energy seemed better channelled into the performance, there were no injuries and no strained voices.

More young neighbourhood theatre critics turned up to watch the ending outside, but refrained from offering commment.

I must admit my unfamiliarity with the story of Oedipus. My assumptions were originally based on a limited knowledge and understanding of Freud's Oedipus Complex (something we explore in one of the choruses). It wasn't until I did Robert McKee's Story Seminar that I found out Oedipus's crimes were unwitting. This reminded me of the myth of Narcissus. The definition of narcissism gives no hint that Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection without knowing what it was.

I wonder what else I don't know?

Poke Paul II - Oedipus Rex: Night 3 (Tuesday)

Another good performance, despite some lateness in the cast which affected our warm-up. My concentration was wandering ("and my thought went missing") slightly during the first scene where I have most of my lines. I managed to bring it back without relying too much on Katrina's prompting (which is part of the performance). Just as well - she later confessed she was giving me completely the wrong lines.

Ian arrived with his voice thankfully recovering, but Paul reported having been poked in the other eye last night. This prompted some safety advice from Mr. Spaul.

Each night, people stay afterwards to tell us how how much they enjoyed the performance. It's always good to hear this from in situ: members from other projects. They know how much work is involved and make useful observations on particular aspects of the performance.

Even more gratifying are the comments from those who come along not knowing quite what to expect. Every night I've spoken to people who are genuinely surprised how good the production is, how powerful the performances are, what an atmospheric venue we've chosen. How can we turn these people into supporters and advocates for in situ:?

The only witnesses to our final scene this evening were a woman, her cocker spaniel and a cloud of midges. The woman and her dog paused for half a minute, read the information signs outside The Leper Chapel and moved on.

Will they return?

(The woman, I mean. The dog I am less interested in and I will no doubt be reacquainting myself with the midges at the same time tomorrow.)

"Ai ai agagagagagagonai!!!!" - Oedipus Rex: Night 2 (Monday)

The final scene is turning into a showstopper (if that makes any sense, given that it's the ending?)

Tonight a small mixed group of teens cycling by spotted us leaving the chapel and began a one-way, shouted interrogation from the pavement which lasted well over five minutes. It was slightly annoying to start with, but got funnier as it went on: "wha' are vey doin'? - why are you walkin' so slowly? - whysat bloke crawlin' on the ground? You look like zombies!" And finally, after about three minutes: "I fink they're actin'." When we broke rank at the end and ran in for the applause, they disappeared quite sharply.

The performance was good. Different to Saturday, fewer people in the audience, but we were all conscious of not letting standards slip and worked hard to maintain focus. Energy levels may have been slightly lower, but it merely made for a different performance. We felt more relaxed and the lines came more easily as a result.

Ian's voice received a pounding on Saturday night, so he tried to nurse it through his 15 minute monologue - difficult when it's so emotionally charged. Four performances remain, so hoping he will make it.

Paul was sporting a black eye from Saturday night when he got an elbow in the face from James. A bit far to go for a bit of symbolism I thought, but no questioning the commitment.

Friday looks like another sellout, making the week nicely symmetrical, while tickets remain for the other three performances.

Oedipus Rex: Opening Night (Saturday)

The opening night of in situ:'s Oedipus Rex saw an extremely satisfying sold out show in aid of the Cambridge Preservation Society.

The full house raised the temperature in The Leper Chapel, something we could've used in the months of rehearsals through the winter. We've spent four terms meeting weekly to improvise scenes, practice choruses and develop the text with writer and director Richard Spaul. Rehearsals indicated it was coming together well, thanks in no small part to the effort put in over the previous two weeks.

My favourite memory of the day was not from the performance, but the final rehearsal in the afternoon. It was approaching 4:30pm, we'd been working for a couple of hours and were putting the final touches to the last scene. Most of the cast were slow-walking out of the chapel door and up the path. Ian - the final Oedipus - reached the doorway, thrashing about, ranting and swearing, his face wrapped in a bloodied bandage.

We're quite used to the bemused looks of cyclists and pedestrians as we filter, zombie-like towards the gate, but it's still amusing to see the reactions and wonder what people are thinking. Suddenly, a double decker bus appeared, packed upstairs and downstairs with returning afternoon shoppers. Every single mouth dropped open, heads turned with a "what the hell..?" look - and just as quickly they were gone.

I wonder if anyone came back for the performance..?!