University student Wyndham Brandon comes up with this idea about committing a murder just for the sake of committing such an act, he gets his friend and accomplice Charles Granillo to assist him. They kill a fellow undergraduate student, by strangulation and rope and stuff the body in a chest. Of which they then invite the victim's father, his aunt, and three well-chosen friends to come round for a party, while the body is locked inside the chest. Throughout the night, tension rises and the one question that is on the audience's lips as they are watching it is "Are these two young men, going to get away with it?".
Immaculate Murder and How to get away it -
The Review of Rope.
The Review of Rope.
I used to discuss with Nick various ideas he had about various projects that he had, and one of the things that would come up in discussions was his passion for wanting to direct this play called "Rope" which had come to the attention of the company of ten, when the play that was originally planned for the February/March slot "Strangers on a Train" got scrapped because we couldn't get the rights to do it.
My interest in this project, came about when I was reading up coming plays in the prompt corner. "Strangers on a Train" was one of them and I thought "Well, I like the sound of it". I'll go along with it and do that, but when I heard we weren't doing it anymore, given the circumstances of not getting the rights, Rope was pitched and seemed to be a suitable replacement and it's been a play of which so I'm told other members were very keen on putting forward instead.
So with Rope being chosen as the replacement, I also wondered who was going to be directing and when I saw Nick Strudwick's name, I thought "Yes" I'll do that one. Because Nick is just one of those directors who I felt like I could always say yes to. Instantly. Without much thought or consideration, given I had such a special experience on Eclipsed.
But in actual fact it was Nick that approached me to be on his stage management team for Rope because it was him who came to me in July of 2016 and asked me would I be interested and available to do it. To which, of course, I said yes. But shortly after that Eve Richardson who was the stage manager emailed me to ask me if I wanted to be an Assistant Stage Manager, to which I said "Yes".
So being on the team, Nick told me that he'd be in touch about nearer the time. And then in October 2016, the play parade where directors come to talk about their shows came along, Nick spoke about Rope in what he wanted to achieve with it and who he was looking for in regards to cast and crew. By this point, I had given thought of actually auditioning to be in the play. I remember reading it thinking "It would be cool to be Brandon or Rupert". And so I spoke to Nick about getting an audition date sorted and I came along on a night to read and gave what I can only describe as being one of the worst auditions I ever gave in my life. Anyway, I didn't get a part, no surprise to anyone. Myself out of all of them. I had a chat with Nick about casting, after he made his decisions and decided on who was going to be playing who, and to me, it made sense. It was all about pairings. And he felt that Joel Corless and Duncan Kennedy worked well as Brandon and Granillo and that Tom Dean and Mary Harris made a good pair as Raglan and Leila. And I didn't get Rupert because Nick felt that that part needed to played by an older actor, so he did, in fact, cast Russell Vincent which to me seemed like an excellent choice. He very much pressed that they should be chosen for their roles. And I think he was right.
With cast in place, it was time for what I call the meet and greet part of the whole thing which was the read through, where everyone just comes along and says "Hello" and any crew who come along get to see the cast together for the first time, and they discuss the play and read it out loud. It was there I first met Tom and Mary who were both new members and seemed from what I gather on first impressions, two very nice, friendly people. I was delighted to see Paul Manuel, whom I have worked with recently on the double bill "The Browning Version/ Black Comedy" So it's always nice to see a familiar face again. Russell I knew, but never had the opportunity to work with him properly, so the chance of that to come around was just a reward in itself. And the cast seemed to me like it was very well chosen and put together and within Nick's wishes in what he wanted and who was I to disagree with that. I think he had a good solid cast in hand and supported by a fantastic team.
With rehearsals well under way, Nick is one of those directors who doesn't believe in structuring
He very much likes people to get a grips with their characters, and so the way that he did that was to invite cast members to come to rehearsal and the whole of the rehearsal was just the cast talking amongst themselves, discussing their characters and he did a bit of what he liked to call "Hot seating" in the premise of how they think this person saw their character evolving.
Early rehearsals there wasn't that much to do as far as I can recall, so it was recommended that I take some time off over Christmas while Nick and the cast worked. I went off on a three-week break over Christmas to return in early January, of which we got the rehearsal schedule and a draft of the first rota. By that time Nick was absent from rehearsals, he was there some days and then he wasn't there for some other days, and Jean Day, his productions assistant had to take over. Then we got told that Nick was taken ill and had to leave the production, and we had a guest director Terry Prince come in, to fill in for Nick while he was ill. Terry of which I knew quite well from seeing him around the theatre, various workshop exercises and things like that, but have never properly worked with him, so as I thought, oh, well this is a pleasure to get to work with the great Terry Prince as I thought of him. He was The Great Terry Prince. So it was good to get a director to cover us and give some direction, and Terry didn't put his stamp on it, he just simply made notes when necessary, worked closely with the cast and made sure everything was running smoothly with performances, and he really helped us get through it in the absence of our director. He did a brilliant job.
As rehearsals went on, you really felt things coming on and things developing at their own pace. Last few weeks of rehearsals, in particular, I thought, this really started to come through.
With this being a period drama, things like set would be crucial. The set was designed by Ian Crawford, who also did the sound. Of course, going through any script, for any play, if you're a set designer you look and think, "Oh heavens, how are we going to make the set look good?" Because with the best will of the world, set design can prove and end up being a problem for effects rather than anything else. The set had to look authentic to the time in which it was set, The play takes place in a small flat in Mayfair 1930. It also had to be taken with care, because nothing could really be out of place, so there were some restrictions and requirements to be met, but you also had a free hand to do whatever you wanted, providing it was fireproof and hazardless, not likely to cause harm to any of the cast and crew, which was essential. I was very impressed with the finished set, and the detail of the set and the overall appealing look of it, especially with different lighting, because the play starts in total darkness, the only light comes from the light of two cigarettes which Brandon and Granillo smoke. I thought it was a really top design, and looking back on it, I would put it up pretty high as being one of my favourite sets and design work on the seven shows that I have worked on so far at the Abbey Theatre.
The costume department worked really hard in making it look like they were in 1930 or whenever it was set. Props were on point, and Judith and her props team were fantastic with making sure everything was exactly right.
It was a very challenging show for lighting and sound because there was a storm, heavy rain, lots of technical ques, Nick had confidence in Ian Crawford and Russ Gordon to pull this off, Ian doing the sound and Russ doing the lights. So sound and lighting were very important for this show and having worked with Russ before, I know he knows how to make lighting work most effectively. So on both parts, those worked very well.
As part of the publicity, I arranged to get a radio interview sorted on Radio Verulam, on the Friday afternoon Out and About Show. I got Joel and Paul to come on with me. It's always nice to get cast members to come on and talk about their show, it's also fun to come on a show and just talk about it. Leading up to the Radio Interview, I did feel a bit unsure as to how we would pitch this thing, because we had to really sell it and I felt with ticket sales being low we had to help boost them. I always feel confident doing live radio, and I love being the studio and feeling the warmth of Diana and Jenny, who are both really nice people to be around. And what helped was that I had Paul and Joel with me, who were equally as fantastic as myself.
When we did then, get to the run, I felt that now was the time for everything to pull off all that hard work and for cast and crew it was the time to show, how good we all were. I was disappointed with the ticket sales, the show wasn't selling as well as it should, whether that was something to do with the weather or people just don't come out to the theatre this time of year, where it's wet and just coming into spring, I don't know. It's a time of year where ticket sales are low. But like any show, tickets pick up towards the end of the run, in the second week and I feel final results were effectively improved and picked up nicely. I heard mainly positive things about it. No one was overtly critical of it, they just talked about how tense it was at the end, and how well the cast did.
Joel I didn't know but seeing him audition, I knew he'd make a good Brandon. You know when you just have a certain gut feeling about something or someone for all the right reasons, as soon as he walked in and started reading so confidently I thought, I knew that he could do it. Because Brandon is a hard part to play for a young person. He has many long speeches and he's hardly ever off stage, he has a lot to do in terms of driving the play forward, as a leading role Joel met the requirements to the nail. He smashed it. Especially towards the end of the run. The last two performances I thought he smashed it. He was brilliant.
Duncan, I knew and thought he was terrific Granillo. Very sensitively portrayed and with a little help from Nick, managed to get the real emotion out of how his character was feeling. When you've committed a murder and struggle to keep it together, you feel like the walls are closing in on you and you're trapped and you think you are going to be found out at any moment and Duncan really gave off the sense of that edgy motion, which kept audiences on their toes.
Tom and Mary were both new members. Tom of which, went to same school as me. He was a beaumonter. Raglan, as far as I understood him was a very socially awkward character, the sort of person who means well, but doesn't quite know what to do with himself, and there were many moments where I could see Tom really understood that and therefore that came through to his advantage I thought.
Mary, I thought was a very good Leila. Because she looked good for that part. She is a very beautiful and glamourous young lady, she's also a very nice, friendly person too and I think that comes through. With this being her first show with the company and having literally just moved into the St Albans area fairly recently. She didn't seem intimidated by the whole thing and I think you needed that as well. When I asked her about her influences or how she prepared for the role, she told me that she watched a lot of the crown before her audition and got a lot of influences from that. She seemed to understand her character and what she wanted to do with it.
There was a short time when Tom was away on a trip with school and therefore had to miss two very important rehearsals, one of them being the first dress rehearsal. So Terry gave me the task of filling in as Raglan. So in the time leading up to before he went on his trip. I was asked to come along to rehearsals, watch Tom. How he moved and his mannerisms and everything, just help me with the task of filling in.
For the dress rehearsal, I got to dress up in my own costume and I would come on with the book and all I had to do was act out the lines as I was reading them off the book. Which was great for me, because it meant it would feel like I had got that part. It was an important thing, and a job that needed doing that was how I approached it, knowing full well I could never replace Tom. I was just there, as a body and that was it. But I was very nervous on that dress rehearsal and Mary was a star. On stage, she really looked after me and helped me get through it, and she worked a bit more closely with me than she had done before, just to help me get through. Which to me, I was very appreciative to her for that, so thank you Mary.
But the two of them, working together, was truly excellent, to the extent where you feel as if they have known each other for years and years. When that wasn't the case. But Tom and Mary work so effortlessly together, you wouldn't think they have only known each other for such a short space of time. I think the best thing that worked with the two of them was their intentive listening. This is something which Terry brought up, regularly with them, it only works if everything they hear in the play, every night they are hearing it for the first time. With that understanding in hand, I think that really helped them make the whole thing work to the best of its ability in my view.
Paul as Sir Johnstone was very tenderly portrayed I think. Sir Johnstone is someone who was completely oblivious to what true intention was going on around him. He thinks he's just coming round to look at some spare books which Brandon has inherited, when actually he is the prime target of what is a very cruel trick, in some ways very sickening. And the telephone scene where he finds out that his son hasn't come home, had everyone feeling a lot of sympathy for him. And Paul did what came naturally to him. Which was fantastic.
Beverley, you look at her and think that Mrs Debenham is a very plain character. Not much to her at all. I think it's easy to misunderstand her character. It's easy to just shrug her off as being a dithery old lady, but in actual fact, she isn't that old and she certainly isn't dithery. Beverley had such a wonderful refreshing innocence to the character which made it comical. I liked that a lot.
Zodiac who I have known for many came into the mix as Sabot. I'd call our time together and happy accident. Wherein it's nice to get back in touch with someone and spend time with them after so long.
And of course Russell, whom after seeing him in "My Boy Jack" has always been one of these actors who I inspire to. He played the crafty and sharp, intuitive Rupert Cadell. Who was a poet and war veteran who is like a detective in the play, he has a tremendous stage presence, in which you knew that Russell was on stage and he doesn't even need to say a single word. He has the experience on his back, he's very concentrated and dedicated to his role, and the hard work pays off in the impact that he gives off and the audience responds to that. In the early rehearsals, he seemed to understand the other characters as well as his own, like Brandon and Granillo in particular. He was also very tenderly rehearsed by Nick and he gave him a very good foundation stone for the character. Which again, helped him a lot.
It came to the last night, and for me, I felt proud and sad at the same time. I didn't want it to end, but I felt very proud for what he have achieved and it really did feel like a team effort. There has been one other occasion that I can think where I have felt that way before, and that was "Eclipsed". I was very saddened to see it end, and I have post-show blues, which isn't a natural thing for me to develop.
I got an email from Eve, my stage manager after the show ended and she said this and I quote. "I hope you have made more friends in the business. I am sure they will be around for quite a while." I think she's right on that account.
But the amazing thing here is that this all starts and ends with Nick.
Nick died just before the run of "Rope". So he never saw that finished. I went to his funeral, and there were some wonderful tributes and homages to Nick. I think what came across at that funeral service was how loved he was by everybody who knew him, and what a lovely guy he was.
I have so much to be grateful to Nick for. He not only gave me "Rope" he also gave me "Eclipsed", and "Eclipsed" was a whole life-changing experience. I think what I got from him was something very special, something which, I don't feel I will ever get from another director like him again, so, you know, Thank You.
With rehearsals well under way, Nick is one of those directors who doesn't believe in structuring
He very much likes people to get a grips with their characters, and so the way that he did that was to invite cast members to come to rehearsal and the whole of the rehearsal was just the cast talking amongst themselves, discussing their characters and he did a bit of what he liked to call "Hot seating" in the premise of how they think this person saw their character evolving.
Early rehearsals there wasn't that much to do as far as I can recall, so it was recommended that I take some time off over Christmas while Nick and the cast worked. I went off on a three-week break over Christmas to return in early January, of which we got the rehearsal schedule and a draft of the first rota. By that time Nick was absent from rehearsals, he was there some days and then he wasn't there for some other days, and Jean Day, his productions assistant had to take over. Then we got told that Nick was taken ill and had to leave the production, and we had a guest director Terry Prince come in, to fill in for Nick while he was ill. Terry of which I knew quite well from seeing him around the theatre, various workshop exercises and things like that, but have never properly worked with him, so as I thought, oh, well this is a pleasure to get to work with the great Terry Prince as I thought of him. He was The Great Terry Prince. So it was good to get a director to cover us and give some direction, and Terry didn't put his stamp on it, he just simply made notes when necessary, worked closely with the cast and made sure everything was running smoothly with performances, and he really helped us get through it in the absence of our director. He did a brilliant job.
As rehearsals went on, you really felt things coming on and things developing at their own pace. Last few weeks of rehearsals, in particular, I thought, this really started to come through.
With this being a period drama, things like set would be crucial. The set was designed by Ian Crawford, who also did the sound. Of course, going through any script, for any play, if you're a set designer you look and think, "Oh heavens, how are we going to make the set look good?" Because with the best will of the world, set design can prove and end up being a problem for effects rather than anything else. The set had to look authentic to the time in which it was set, The play takes place in a small flat in Mayfair 1930. It also had to be taken with care, because nothing could really be out of place, so there were some restrictions and requirements to be met, but you also had a free hand to do whatever you wanted, providing it was fireproof and hazardless, not likely to cause harm to any of the cast and crew, which was essential. I was very impressed with the finished set, and the detail of the set and the overall appealing look of it, especially with different lighting, because the play starts in total darkness, the only light comes from the light of two cigarettes which Brandon and Granillo smoke. I thought it was a really top design, and looking back on it, I would put it up pretty high as being one of my favourite sets and design work on the seven shows that I have worked on so far at the Abbey Theatre.
The set design for Rope.
The costume department worked really hard in making it look like they were in 1930 or whenever it was set. Props were on point, and Judith and her props team were fantastic with making sure everything was exactly right.
It was a very challenging show for lighting and sound because there was a storm, heavy rain, lots of technical ques, Nick had confidence in Ian Crawford and Russ Gordon to pull this off, Ian doing the sound and Russ doing the lights. So sound and lighting were very important for this show and having worked with Russ before, I know he knows how to make lighting work most effectively. So on both parts, those worked very well.
As part of the publicity, I arranged to get a radio interview sorted on Radio Verulam, on the Friday afternoon Out and About Show. I got Joel and Paul to come on with me. It's always nice to get cast members to come on and talk about their show, it's also fun to come on a show and just talk about it. Leading up to the Radio Interview, I did feel a bit unsure as to how we would pitch this thing, because we had to really sell it and I felt with ticket sales being low we had to help boost them. I always feel confident doing live radio, and I love being the studio and feeling the warmth of Diana and Jenny, who are both really nice people to be around. And what helped was that I had Paul and Joel with me, who were equally as fantastic as myself.
Me, Joel (Right) and Paul (Left) on Radio Verulam Out and About Show, Friday 17th February 2017.
When we did then, get to the run, I felt that now was the time for everything to pull off all that hard work and for cast and crew it was the time to show, how good we all were. I was disappointed with the ticket sales, the show wasn't selling as well as it should, whether that was something to do with the weather or people just don't come out to the theatre this time of year, where it's wet and just coming into spring, I don't know. It's a time of year where ticket sales are low. But like any show, tickets pick up towards the end of the run, in the second week and I feel final results were effectively improved and picked up nicely. I heard mainly positive things about it. No one was overtly critical of it, they just talked about how tense it was at the end, and how well the cast did.
The Cast and Crew of "Rope" - February/March 2017.
Joel I didn't know but seeing him audition, I knew he'd make a good Brandon. You know when you just have a certain gut feeling about something or someone for all the right reasons, as soon as he walked in and started reading so confidently I thought, I knew that he could do it. Because Brandon is a hard part to play for a young person. He has many long speeches and he's hardly ever off stage, he has a lot to do in terms of driving the play forward, as a leading role Joel met the requirements to the nail. He smashed it. Especially towards the end of the run. The last two performances I thought he smashed it. He was brilliant.
Duncan, I knew and thought he was terrific Granillo. Very sensitively portrayed and with a little help from Nick, managed to get the real emotion out of how his character was feeling. When you've committed a murder and struggle to keep it together, you feel like the walls are closing in on you and you're trapped and you think you are going to be found out at any moment and Duncan really gave off the sense of that edgy motion, which kept audiences on their toes.
Tom and Mary were both new members. Tom of which, went to same school as me. He was a beaumonter. Raglan, as far as I understood him was a very socially awkward character, the sort of person who means well, but doesn't quite know what to do with himself, and there were many moments where I could see Tom really understood that and therefore that came through to his advantage I thought.
Mary, I thought was a very good Leila. Because she looked good for that part. She is a very beautiful and glamourous young lady, she's also a very nice, friendly person too and I think that comes through. With this being her first show with the company and having literally just moved into the St Albans area fairly recently. She didn't seem intimidated by the whole thing and I think you needed that as well. When I asked her about her influences or how she prepared for the role, she told me that she watched a lot of the crown before her audition and got a lot of influences from that. She seemed to understand her character and what she wanted to do with it.
There was a short time when Tom was away on a trip with school and therefore had to miss two very important rehearsals, one of them being the first dress rehearsal. So Terry gave me the task of filling in as Raglan. So in the time leading up to before he went on his trip. I was asked to come along to rehearsals, watch Tom. How he moved and his mannerisms and everything, just help me with the task of filling in.
For the dress rehearsal, I got to dress up in my own costume and I would come on with the book and all I had to do was act out the lines as I was reading them off the book. Which was great for me, because it meant it would feel like I had got that part. It was an important thing, and a job that needed doing that was how I approached it, knowing full well I could never replace Tom. I was just there, as a body and that was it. But I was very nervous on that dress rehearsal and Mary was a star. On stage, she really looked after me and helped me get through it, and she worked a bit more closely with me than she had done before, just to help me get through. Which to me, I was very appreciative to her for that, so thank you Mary.
Mary Harris as Leila Arden (Left) and Tom Dean as Kenneth Raglan (Right)
But the two of them, working together, was truly excellent, to the extent where you feel as if they have known each other for years and years. When that wasn't the case. But Tom and Mary work so effortlessly together, you wouldn't think they have only known each other for such a short space of time. I think the best thing that worked with the two of them was their intentive listening. This is something which Terry brought up, regularly with them, it only works if everything they hear in the play, every night they are hearing it for the first time. With that understanding in hand, I think that really helped them make the whole thing work to the best of its ability in my view.
Paul as Sir Johnstone was very tenderly portrayed I think. Sir Johnstone is someone who was completely oblivious to what true intention was going on around him. He thinks he's just coming round to look at some spare books which Brandon has inherited, when actually he is the prime target of what is a very cruel trick, in some ways very sickening. And the telephone scene where he finds out that his son hasn't come home, had everyone feeling a lot of sympathy for him. And Paul did what came naturally to him. Which was fantastic.
Beverley, you look at her and think that Mrs Debenham is a very plain character. Not much to her at all. I think it's easy to misunderstand her character. It's easy to just shrug her off as being a dithery old lady, but in actual fact, she isn't that old and she certainly isn't dithery. Beverley had such a wonderful refreshing innocence to the character which made it comical. I liked that a lot.
Zodiac who I have known for many came into the mix as Sabot. I'd call our time together and happy accident. Wherein it's nice to get back in touch with someone and spend time with them after so long.
And of course Russell, whom after seeing him in "My Boy Jack" has always been one of these actors who I inspire to. He played the crafty and sharp, intuitive Rupert Cadell. Who was a poet and war veteran who is like a detective in the play, he has a tremendous stage presence, in which you knew that Russell was on stage and he doesn't even need to say a single word. He has the experience on his back, he's very concentrated and dedicated to his role, and the hard work pays off in the impact that he gives off and the audience responds to that. In the early rehearsals, he seemed to understand the other characters as well as his own, like Brandon and Granillo in particular. He was also very tenderly rehearsed by Nick and he gave him a very good foundation stone for the character. Which again, helped him a lot.
It came to the last night, and for me, I felt proud and sad at the same time. I didn't want it to end, but I felt very proud for what he have achieved and it really did feel like a team effort. There has been one other occasion that I can think where I have felt that way before, and that was "Eclipsed". I was very saddened to see it end, and I have post-show blues, which isn't a natural thing for me to develop.
I got an email from Eve, my stage manager after the show ended and she said this and I quote. "I hope you have made more friends in the business. I am sure they will be around for quite a while." I think she's right on that account.
But the amazing thing here is that this all starts and ends with Nick.
Nick died just before the run of "Rope". So he never saw that finished. I went to his funeral, and there were some wonderful tributes and homages to Nick. I think what came across at that funeral service was how loved he was by everybody who knew him, and what a lovely guy he was.
I have so much to be grateful to Nick for. He not only gave me "Rope" he also gave me "Eclipsed", and "Eclipsed" was a whole life-changing experience. I think what I got from him was something very special, something which, I don't feel I will ever get from another director like him again, so, you know, Thank You.
Nick Strudwick
1932 - 2017.
