As the leaves begin to turn this autumn, so my thoughts begin to turn to next autumn, when I hope to have a tour in place for This Evil Thing (the Edinburgh run of which I have just about recovered from – including putting a little of the weight back on that I shed through 23 sweat-drenched performances). And hopefully a London run, too.
Watch this space.
29th August 2016
And so it’s over…the Edinburgh adventure.
Bit blue today, but greatly cheered by the comment below posted on my website – all the more meaningful as it comes from an ex-serviceman…
“Mr Mears, I saw your show yesterday, (28th), and found it extremely enjoyable, (although I don’t think enjoyable is an appropriate word for such a serious subject matter!) Certainly, it was thought provoking and led to a long discussion between my 16 yr old daughter and I afterwards.
August 23rd
So, here I am in the final week of Edinburgh…and audiences for This Evil Thing are slowly building, but with over 3,000 (yes, three thousand) shows to choose from, it’s not easy persuading folk to see my show rather than the other 2,999.
In the first week, the List (Scotland’s version of Time Out) reviewed the play and it was a glowing review with not one bad thing to say – but it only received three stars. The star system is, alas, so important in Edinburgh – one star more or less can make the difference between someone deciding to see a show or not.
Monday 8th August
So, I have opened THIS EVIL THING at New Town Theatre, Edinburgh, with the help of my brilliant team, director Ros Hutt and sound designer Mark Noble. Various teething problems with lighting boards and so on, but the incredibly mature and experienced Mark (aged 24) has dealt with them all.
First two performances last week went very well, including the two who travelled down from Dunblane and were very moved by the whole experience.
First two previews gone very well! One audience member who travelled down from Dunblane was very emotional at the end.
Also a nice interview here with some background to the piece.
Tickets for THIS EVIL THING now on sale here.
Flyer for THIS EVIL THING below
MICHAEL MEARS Flyer for THIS EVIL THING
Michael Mears
This time next week I will be safely tucked up in bed – in Edinburgh!!
Would it have been simpler to climb Kilimanjaro than mount THIS EVIL THING? Yes, quite probably. But I don’t regret tackling this hugely ambitious project for one moment.
And with such a great team – director Ros Hutt, designer Mark Friend, sound designer Mark Noble, lighting designer Zoe Spurr and stage manager Jane Andrews. And not forgetting Taylor and Foley who made the nine wooden crates.
Tickets for THIS EVIL THING now on sale here.
Flyer for THIS EVIL THING below
MICHAEL MEARS Flyer for THIS EVIL THING
Michael Mears
July 22nd
Hard at work, running chunks of the play now, and indeed the whole play, and although I know all the lines (AND, I think, am saying them in the right order), there is still the little matter of the choreography of the crates to master – the nine wooden crates that are now playing such an integral part in the production.
When the action of the play shifts to France, I have to move them from where they have been assembled to suggest a prison cell in Richmond Castle, to create a French pier or jetty, while some evocative accordion music plays. It’s almost like doing a dance…but myself and director Ros Hutt soon realise there isn’t quite enough music in which to achieve this ‘scene-change’ … so Ros suggests ten seconds more of accordion. But the play is already a minute or two over its allotted length of 75 minutes for Edinburgh, so I say, ‘Let me try it with just five seconds more,’ – and that does seem to solve the problem. Apart from Bible and the spud.
July 17th
Wonderful recording session this week with two musicians, and four singers from the Helen Chadwick Song Theatre to record music for This Evil Thing.
There is a congregation singing a hymn in chapel at one point in the play, there is a burst of ‘In An English Country Garden’ at another, and ‘I do like to be beside the sea’ when the conscientious objectors are surprised, once they’ve been shipped to France, by being given 24 hours liberty in Boulogne (to ‘think things over’ – whether they really want to carry their protest all the way to the threat of being court-martialled).
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July 9th
How to suggest simply but evocatively so many different locations in my play THIS EVIL THING? A ten feet deep pit in which a C.O. is imprisoned, a Methodist chapel, a work camp outside Aberdeen, a hospital tent, a seaside pier, the House of Commons, an English country garden, a prison cell in Richmond Castle… the list goes on…
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Sunday June 26th
Had a quick tot up today of all the characters I will portray in This Evil Thing (some with only one line to speak) and it came to 52. Phew. 52 characters in 75 minutes!
Monday June 27th
I am working with brilliant young sound designer Mark Noble on the soundscape for This Evil Thing. Some of the 52 plus characters I will be playing will be pre-recorded – for example, prisoners who were subject to the infamous ‘No Talking’ rule: we want to record some of their ‘thoughts’, what they would have said could they have spoken.
Michael Mears 