A lovely big group this week, Colin, Jethro, Tristan, Ben, Paul, Damian, John, Alan, Portia, Alex and myself. Lots of hugs.

The intention this week was to finish the first sweep through the play. We looked at sections 28, 30-34 and finally, perversely, section 8.

Notes

Remember the blame ball, the ball of blame. If the police walk in, as they could at any moment, you don't want to be caught holding it.

An extenstion of the anthisesis exercise - literally moving further into or away from subjects as you talk.

It's important here to remeber to play solutions, not problems. IE Don't complain about the situation, change it. Giving someone an unfocussed bundle of your emotions is not going to help, a clear argument will. This isn't to say you won't have emotions. Lines like 'f*****g hell' are not just exclamations, they are there to change something.

Rule reality. This is a cosmic arugment. Your performative speech has real power, the words you say on stage can really change things, by saying something (i.e. I'm getting realeased) you can make it so. By arguing better than everyone else you will confirm your safety.

Section 8 - see if you can tease out of each other their true feeling, behind their great game playing.

Line Changes

Jethro suggested I make a combined page of line changes, which I will do and paste here. For those that are up to date, here are the ones for today's session. There are some I didn't bother mentioning in rehearsal so check.

PG 44 (Section 27) Cut 5 lines from Mark 'I don't understand how this has happened' (nr top of the page) to Gandhi 'You don't know that.' So it now runs

Gandhi: It's not going to change, is it?
Mark: This is ridiculous, they've got to let us know.

PG 45 Change Tom's line 'It's one of you. I hate to say it but I think it's definitely one of you.' to TOM: Let's think about this logically. The way I see it it's got to be one of you. One of you's getting executed. One of you's getting sent down.

pg 45 Cut Tom 'At the end of the day you two are protestors, I'm a policeman. It's got to be one of you. Replace with:

Mark: Look at me. I'm in Lycra for Christ's sake.
Tom: I'm getting released.
Mark: You don't know that.
Tom: They're not going to execute me.
Gandhi: I'm not getting executed.

PG 46 Mark's line at the top of the page, under the stage direction 'Back to the mirror'. Cut the bit in Bold.

Hey! Hello? Can somebody please do something? This is a disgrace.

pg 49 Gandhi's line four from the top. Add in the bit in bold

Gandhi: They said it was a suspicion. In my interview they said it was a suspicion. They said they found things at your picnic. Suspicious things. They said they foudn suspicious materials.

A few lines down change the syntax in Gandhi's line about the bombs so now it reads.

Gandhi: Yes you did. You could've made a bomb from your picnic hamper if you wanted, it's easy.

At the end of the same line change 'I'm sure I saw apples.' to Did you have apples?

Change Mark's reply 'Yeah', to 'It was a picnic.'

Next line cut Gandhi's 'Perfect.' (So the line starts 'Get about twelve ounces of apple seeds...)

Gandhi - A few lines down cut the bits in bold.

Gandhi: I used to make them when I was a kid. Only Little ones. My Dad was a chemistry teacher when he was younger. It's really easy. If they wanted to say you were going to make a bomb they could.

pg 51 Change TOM's 'Don't lie to me' which is about 9 lines up to 'You're lying.' (NB this is the second, 'Don't lie to me' not the one higher up)

pg 52 From Tom's line 'You weren't there for the protest' Cut the bits in bold, and add in the bit in italics.

Tom: You weren't there for the protest. You had a bomb didn't you? What was it? Homemade? Did you sit in your flat with your sick little Paki Dad coughing and wheezing next to you while you wired it up? 'It's alright Dad, I'll make them listen, I'll make them pay for this. Was that how it was? Homemade, stick a few nails in there just to be sure?
Mark: You're going to get me killed. They'll think I organised it. You know that, right?
Gandhi: **** you.
Mark: Things like this; it This takes away everything I've wored for. Everything I've done.

PG 56 Tom's last line 'Right. Well. Sorry Mark. I don't really know what to say.' Cut 'Good luck.' and replace with 'Chin up.'


PG 12 Mark's line We all need arrests, officer.' Cut 'officer' So it is just 'We all need arrests.'

PG 5 Change the Policeman's line four from the top that starts 'Look in that mirror' entirely to this:

Mark: Whatever you say officer.
Policeman: Look in those mirrors. You know what's behind that glass? That's your audience. Oh yes. There's people back there who can see and hear everything that's going on. Judge you. Form opinions. Get you down on tape. Little eyes and little lenses, little cameras, and everything you do in here, every thing, is evidence. You think about that. I'll be back in a minute.


Thanks so much for your patience and understanding in making these changes - this is a growing piece of work. I've been writing this play for three years now and so many times I thought it was 'done'; your generosity it helping me push it further is humbling. Thanks.