Natural Selection - A Brand New Comedy

Natural Selection Podcast Released!

2008-05-18T22:02:00.002+01:00

A first for Theatre503 and Whippet Productions, we've released our very own Podcast recording of the Post-Show Discussion for Natural Selection, which took place on 14 May 2008.

Q&A with Paul Rigel Jenkins (Writer), Tim Roseman (Director) and cast members; Alex Beckett, Alan Cox, Lisa Diveney, Wendy Nottingham and Daniel Rigby.

Discussion led by Anthony Biggs (Education Director, Theatre503).

Running Time: 22 mins approx.

Download to your iPod or stream over the internet at:
http://www.naturalselection.theatre503.com/
(Scroll down and click the "Listen to Podcast" button)

Lead Up To First Preview-Tue 6th May; The last 48 Hours

2008-05-09T17:34:00.001+01:00

I may not look anything like Kiefer Sutherland (I’m small , Jewish, and my Gran is from Iraq) but in the last few days, the creative team behind Natural Selection and team 503 have worked tirelessly in to pull off a marvellous feat that Jack Baur in 24 would be proud of. I saw a run of the play on Saturday in the rehearsal room, and the acting is astonishing. It was now important to match that on the technical side.

Whilst England has no doubt been enjoying running after ice-cream vans (a favourite past-time for Daniel Rigby aka ‘Vlad’), playing in the parks amidst the glorious sunshine and pollen increases of the bank-holiday weekend, different things are happening at Theatre 503. The foyer area of 503 has been turned into a painting and decorating/DIY showroom, in which anyone can have a go with a roller. In the theatre itself, there is a lot of talk radio-mic’s, glazing, fenals and phil/olli. The latter names being instrumental in the construction of the set. We always knew the get-in was going to be tight and with the first preview approaching everybody is working as hard as they can in their respected fields.

Richard Howell is like Tarzan swinging from a ladder or balancing like a ballerina on a banister as he fits up a focuses the lights. Libby Watson has designed eighty shows in her career but that does not stop her from getting stuck in and doing a bit of ‘chalkin’ (an exotic process I was only recently made aware of. Using sting and blue chalk, the painter is able to mark out a straight line before he/she applies paint and in this case Libby uses it to meticulously create the tiled floor). Tara and Lizzy, the Whippet producers, demonstrate that being a producer doesn’t just mean white toothy smiles and cocktail parties. They run around non-stop; paint, lift, supervise (not boss, TARA) and make sure that people are hydrated with beer or shandy. Pip Thurlow’s official title is ‘Stage manager on the book’ and arguably he practices what he preaches; In the four weeks I have known Pip, he has never used grammatically incorrect language or swear- an incredible achievement if you consider how vulgar our cast can be! However Pip does not just police words but also the props, and alongside the ASM Beth Pitts, they have worked efficiently and as calmly as possible to meet the ambitious necessities for Natural Selection.

Other people involved, but maybe less useful;

Myself; when painting the set I fell over and left an astonishingly visible hand print. I am not practical but try my best not to create a catastrophe so near to preview night, and find my niche; hoovering...it is very difficult to make a mistake in this line of work.

Tim Roseman turns up with a cheeky smile and so many chocolates that he looks like he has robbed the local newsagents...the chocolates boost morale infinitely and he did direct a play, so maybe it’s just me in this category.

The Tech arrives and although it is a necessary evil, Richard Hammerton’s beautiful score, composed specifically for the play lifts my mood.

The preview starts... I am at the back with members of the creative team and as the lights go down the amount of note-pads and pens make it look like we are watching a scientific experiment and not a play. This feeling disappears in two seconds.

After the show, I manage to speak to a couple of the audience members full of compliments for all aspects of the productions. Their jaws drop when I subsequently tell them that this preview was actually a dress rehearsal! The production has achieved what we arguably set out to do; it makes you think and it’s very funny, in my case prompting a 45 minute discussion on the car-journey home amongst my family whose ages range from 14-88. Natural Selection is shit-hot, make sure you see it!

Post-Show Discussion on 14 May

2008-05-07T11:44:00.002+01:00

There will be a fantastic post-show discussion with the writer, cast and creative team following the performance of Natural Selection on Wednesday 14 May. Do stick around if you're coming that day, or feel free to just come along for the discussion. It's absolutely FREE! See you there!

Photo Post #2

2008-04-28T13:03:00.001+01:00

Photo Post #1

2008-04-22T15:15:00.010+01:00

On-the-sly photos direct from the rehearsal rooms for Natural Selection:

In conversation with Pandora Collins

2008-04-22T15:10:00.002+01:00

Assistant Director Josh Azouz in conversation with power-house actress Pandora Collins.

Josh Azouz: You are a pretty classy actress- I believe you have just come from working at the National theatre with Katie Mitchell on ‘Women of Troy’. Can you tell me how it all started and some of your early experiences of the theatre?

Pandora Collins: Well the reason I wanted to be an actress is because of Jodi Foster in Bugsy Malone. Yeah I just thought she was brilliant, and I wanted to do that. My first experience at the theatre was Guys & Dolls at the National with Bob Hoskins and Julie McKenzie. It was just so thrilling - I was totally knocked out and not only bought the record but stared at the pictures in the inlay and learnt all the words. It was so exciting and such a spectacle. I remember thinking what could be better than doing that every evening.

JA: So with Bugsy and Guys & Dolls, we have a bit of New York gangster theme...

PC: Well my mum was born in New York...also my parents were both massive film buffs and because I was an only child, I was often plonked in front of the TV and grew up watching a lot of American films so maybe that is where the interest lies...

Since of the age of eight I was acting in school and because my talents didn’t lie in academia or sport I just carved out a little niche. Any opportunities to do any sort of acting, play readings, competitions were pounced upon. After my A Levels, I went to drama school, and yes it’s been sporadic ever since....my most interesting side-job was selling Oysters in Whitechapel- so very Dickensian. After going to Guildhall drama school my first job was at Stoke on Trent and then I played bass guitar in an all-female band for about eighteen months before realising that I am supposed to be an actress!

JA: Could you pick out a few highlights in the last ten years?

PC: Over the last couple of years things have enormously improved for me. If you sit around waiting for the phone to ring you will have a nervous breakdown, so I teamed up with a friend of mine, a writer who also wasn’t getting that much work and we created a one woman show for the Edinburgh festival. This subsequently transferred to the New End theatre-Tim Roseman directed- and the whole experience just made me a lot tougher, self-reliant and proactive. As a result of this show, I got into a real momentum and in the last year have worked for six months with Shared Experience and six months at the National, places I’ve always wanted to work, so it was dreams coming true. I don’t think I really knew what I was doing for the first ten years, but as you get older...i don’t know, you maybe get older and wiser...a bit.

JA: What attracted you to Natural Selection at Theatre 503?

PC: The play is funny and very ambitious, and ambitious things must be tried. I also just really wanted to work at 503, even when it was the Latchmere...its a good space with a really brilliant audience and a great reputation. I was up for the challenge of doing something so epic in a beautiful theatre that does have constraints. It is an original play and I haven’t ever seen anything like it.

Part of the attraction was of course playing the role of Fenella. She is a suburban woman who has had certain pressure put on her by her family and her friends and is a very recognisable type of person. Fenella has high aspirations and wants to make something of herself, which means wanting to be a mother, have a husband with a good job and occupy the right place in social society. It’s easy to judge those sorts of characters as very superficial and the real test is not just to show her as a total ogre but for me and Tim to work out ways for the audience to sympathise with her. Fenella is very funny and although is very different has elements in her character which are not dissimilar to Margot in ‘The Good Life’. There is this one particular episode when Margot has a breakdown because she doesn’t think she is funny and thinks she has lost her sense of humour. It’s all quite endearing and I think Fenella takes herself and the world so seriously that she never gets the joke, which could be very funny.

JA: Natural Selection explores a number of colossal ideas and your character in particular comes into contact with marketplace of designer babies. If we found ourselves in a parallel world where natural conception was no longer possible...this sounds like a nightmare, why am I asking this...but if you, Pandora Collins, had to pick a few traits for your child, what would you choose?

PC: Nothing physical...I just hope they wouldn’t get my asthama, hayfever, or bad eye sight. It’s like the same as asking someone what they look for in a partner in those lonely heart columns. Everybody responds in the same way, demanding them to be kind, funny and intelligent. Well what would I want? Of course intelligence and generosity but that is what we are brought up to want. A child with both a musical and a sporting ability probably makes life a bit easier and probably quite fun. I don’t know- maybe I’m not very ambitious for my children. Some people out there, might actually be able to choose it all

JA: Yes possibly you are too balanced for the above question to be a reasonable one...moving swiftly on...If you could choose a skin of a fruit or a vegetable to be your skin, what would you choose and why?

(After understandable suspicions, having just been probed on designer babies, Pandora finally decides to maybe reveal her fruit/vegetable....)

PC: I guess it would be nice to have soft or smooth skin. A nectarine or a peach are both a little fuzzy and I think I already have enough of that in me. I would choose an apricot because it is small, soft, and there is something pure and healthy about them. It may also be rather aspirational on my part to have the skin of an apricot because I reckon it has quite a hardy skin. If I was thicker skinned, I would be less of a neurotic maniac and let things bounce off me but I wouldn’t want the skin of a pineapple, because that might mean no friends. After all, one doesn’t want to be too waxy- although, what about an un-waxed lemon? I mean that would be great. You would smell fantastic and have a skin that is both hard and smooth.

Pandora Collins finally decided on an un-waxed lemon.

To see and smell (the theatre is very intimate) this fantastic un-waxed lemon strutting her stuff, check out Paul Jenkins’ ‘Natural Selection’ which is directed by Tim Roseman and runs from 6th-31st May at Theatre503.

Rehearsal Reflections with Josh Azouz (Day One)

2008-04-14T12:55:00.000+01:00

Assistant Director, Josh Azouz, reflects on Day One of rehearsals for Natural Selection.

Hello people, so this is the crack. ‘Natural Selection’ an epic comedy by Paul Jenkins (a regular writer on Casualty and Eastenders) makes its UK premiere at Theatre 503 in May. The company is large for fringe standards...we have seven big name actors (Alan Cox, Wendy Nottingham, Richard Heap, Lisa Diveney, Pandora Collins, Daniel Rigby and Alex Beckett). From the word go, director Tim Roseman highlighted that we were to punch above our salary weight and go for the very highest calibre stage actors. CV’s aside, I can safely say that having watched two weeks of rehearsals, we have a marvellous and unique cast.

Day One

We are rehearsing at the Out of Joint building in Finsbury Park and have been advised to try and travel together because there are groups of youths who loiter and cause problems. If the situation ever gets so bad that we are under siege and cannot leave the rehearsal room (Tim may secretly want this...as we only have three weeks rehearsal) at least we will not go hungry. Pip Thurlow, our wonderful stage manager and the industrious Whippet production team (Tara, Lizzy and Tom) have kindly stocked the room with biscuits and fruit. These may be rationed down as the days go on, but it’s a great start.

After munching a bit, kick-starting our senses with a cup of coffee and introducing ourselves...the day begins with big statements from Gene David Kirk, (programming director at 503) and Tim Roseman (Joint artistic director at 503)...think Mel Gibson in Braveheart without the blue and white face paint or Russell Crowe in Gladiator without the tunic or sandals. Time Out lists “Theatre 503 as one of the top 5 new writing venues in London”, alongside the Royal Court, and despite not receiving a penny of public money mounts at least eleven productions a year. This alone seems to justify their ‘fearless’ tag-line without even considering the epic nature of ‘Natural Selection’. It is incredibly exciting, we have a great comic script in which seven well drawn characters explore the diverse realities and unrealities of designer babies, Welsh terrorists, archaeological discoveries and shopping neurosis in Sainsbury’s. The ‘fearless’ tag line of the writing extends to the creative team- the designer Libby Watson has managed to create an extraordinary set which accommodates for 22 scenes and 16 different places ranging from coal fields to suit shops, hospitals and a particularly seedy bar called the Boarhouse. After a model showing we place our chairs in the ubiquitous drama circle and do the first read-through after which everyone seems to be in high spirits. Tim’s easy going manner allows the rehearsal room to become a comic arena and the gags are thick and fast, politically correct and incorrect. Despite everybody being so warm and friendly I’m actually a little intimidated by the sharpness of the humour. The actors are so quick and dry- it looks like the next few weeks are going to be a lot of fun.

After lunch we start to examine the play scene by scene, discussing characters and unpacking some of the themes. The play is very rich and one could spend weeks discussing the ideas, but with a limited rehearsal period, we cannot unfortunately indulge ourselves too much. Tim outlines that if the audience come out with big smiles and stroll to pizza express in Clapham, having been pleasantly entertained then we have not done justice to the play. Likewise if they just come out with deep frowns then we have also got it wrong. The success of the play lies in finding that fine balance where we are able to make people laugh a lot but also communicate some of the darker sides of the story, which are integral to the parallel dystopian world that Paul Jenkins has written.

It is on this note that we start to make lists of the differences and similarities between our world and the play’s. In the world of ‘Natural Selection’, Wales has been re-named West Anglia, whilst England seems to be part of a nation with geographically ambiguous borders called the Homelands Whole towns are closed for Ramadan, there are military curfews and soldiers posted outside Starbucks....I shan’t say any more people lest you don’t come and see it.

I leave the first day feeling tired but very inspired...the rhyme may be trite but the sentiment was genuine.