As Liberation rehearsals get underway, assistant director Robert Furey (Hodgkiss Director) shares his insights and observations direct from the rehearsal room in the first of his Inside Rehearsals blogs.
We started on Tuesday with a big meet-and-greet. Working on a production of this size is completely new to me, so it was incredible to see how many people were involved in making the show. Being a co-production with both the Royal Exchange and Factory International, many brilliant people worked very hard to get the show to where it is now.
After making our introductions, our director, Monique Touko, talked us through her vision for the play and then, our set designer, Paul Wills, unveiled the model box for the show and talked us through his work. I’ll keep the details a surprise for opening night, but rest assured, the show will be worth seeing for the set alone. Our composer, Ife Ogunjobi, couldn’t be there but shared a video explaining his approach to the score. What I’ve heard so far is awfully impressive; it captures the mood, the themes, and the histories of the play so beautifully. It is truly an album unto itself. After this, the team sat down, and we looked at Sunny Dolat’s costume designs. I don’t consider myself a jealous person, but I’ve rarely felt more envious than looking at the fabulous fits that our cast will be wearing to the Congress. Monique’s vision for the play features the audience assuming the role of attendees at the Congress, which is both great because it allows Manchester audiences to embody an important part of their own history and it will give a great excuse for me to dress up every night.
In the afternoon, I gave a presentation to the cast discussing the history and context of the play. The play is about such an important moment in decolonial history, there are a lot of key figures, moments and ideas that needed to be shared to ensure we all had the same understanding of events informing our work. We then settled into doing text analysis. Ntombizodwa Nyoni’s wonderful, transformative play that touches on a lot of thorny issues in the intersection of race, gender, colonialism, and activism. So it’s no surprise that there were a lot of questions, and discussion sprung forth.
The story is a personal one for anyone affected by these issues and the cast has all been open and forthcoming about what these events mean to them individually. There’s a wonderful sense of trust that has fuelled our work so far and I look forward to getting to know these talented ten cast members better. As I write this on Friday morning, we’re preparing to do an active read-through of the play, with all the cast on their feet. I’m unbearably excited to see it.