The demands on the actors

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Barrie Rutter is directing the three plays as well as acting in them as Duke of York in Henry VIand Edward IVand a murderer in Richard III. His rehearsals in the first few weeks concentrated on establishing the architecture of the scenes, on who comes on stage and when and for how long, because he needed to be sure that the text as he had cut and adapted it was playable by the 21 actors selected to play the more than 80 roles it contained. The complicated logistics of staging would only really become clear once the actors were on their feet and the physical demands of performance were no longer theoretical, It was not just a question of how fast an actor could switch from playing one role to another, but many of them were also to play an instrument in the onstage band that will feature in all the performances. Most of the actors chosen for these plays can play one or more instruments, ranging from saxophones, clarinet, drums of various kinds, trumpet, violin, and euphonium. Not only had time to be found for acting, but, in the eight weeks available to them, these actors also had to play their instruments to the standard the show’s musical director Conrad Nelson (who also has the lead role in Richard III) demands.

Maeve Larkin (violin)

Phil Corbitt (clarinet), Dave Newman (euphonium) and Simon Holland Roberts (trumpet)