Tightening The Tale To Travel.

With just four days and one rehearsal before the flight leaves London for Halifax, Nova Scotia taking the cast of Godfather Death and it's Technical Director, but, alas, not it's Director and Devil, to The Liverpool International Theatre Festival, it is time for reflection. Have we done with this play what we wanted to do? We wanted to redefine it from the predominately two-handed, virtuoso piece it was originally written as, into an ensemble piece, which admittedly had less obvious possibilities for humour, bur with greater opportunity for atmosphere and Brechtian interplay as cast moved from audience to a storytelling event, into figures in the tale, guided and manipulated by the, now elfin, Stranger. Feedback is interesting. The set and lighting is certainly a triumph for the BBC's Nye Brown and for Peter Musto. It and is used well and worked hard by a well choreographed production. The production came within one mark of winning the Gwent Festival but in order to win in Canada, or indeed in the Wales Final, it will need to be more confident in itself. What the production lacked, and I can say this as the man responsible, was absolute belief in themselves from the whole cast. They will need to be bigger and bolder to take this from a very good production to a superb one. It needs a swagger in it's step: bigger, bolder performances from all. This is a play of two halves - the first rumbustious and comic - the comedy needs a little more underlining with timing, exaggeration and greater projection of energy in places. The second half of the play is tender, reflective and involves a change in pace and mood. This is almost there, but again needs a little more underlining. All this is about work at the margins. A strong group of actors, buoyed by their success will now make the necessary slight changes to take this on. I wonder how the Canadians and international groups will enjoy this Brechtian piece - a style of theatre which is not for all: some preferring the sense of sustained illusion and realism. I remember a wonderful German piece four years ago not being well received at all by some of the audience and certainly by adjudicators not familiar with the Brechtian tradition so strong in European theatre. So, tomorrow, in our last hour so or to address these things, we'll try and tighten it all a notch again. The cast will doubtless be more focused on lines and transporting props and costumes while I fret over polishing and squeezing a bit more out of this old tale. Hwyl. Bon voyage and Guten Nacht, meine Lieben. Vic Mills.