Continued from Scott McGarrick’s last guest blog at www.ayoungertheatre.com/guest-blog-scott-mcgarrick-it-felt-like-a-horror-film/

The following day we arrived by taxi to the Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple. The theatre was beautiful but as a proscenium Arch theatre did present us with a new set of challenges. The play had been rehearsed as an intimate studio piece and so when we came to testing the scenes out we quickly realised we had to be a lot bigger vocally and physically.

Over the next few days we had the luxury of being able to rehearse in the theatre with Steve, which was brilliant because it allowed us to fix issues that came up with the show in Bristol and we were able to get a feel for the theatre. These rehearsals enabled us to propel the show to that next level and I felt that bigger characters in the play burst into life and evolved a step further in this space!

The first show went well but was not the best we could do it, I certainly felt that I had a lot more in the tank to give and I remember thinking as soon as I came off from my last scene I wanted to do the whole thing all over again. The second show Steve was very happy with and there was a feeling amongst us, as we routinely packed the trailer, that if we could do the show in such a big theatre then we could do it anywhere!

I should have mentioned before but I don’t quite remember when this all happened. ‘Idiot’ (our first broken-down car) was a lost cause, so he was left behind in Devon which led to the birth of BEN! Our new car, virtually the same as ‘Idiot’ in nearly every way but Ben has been with us ever since and we now trust in him implicitly! No problems all the way home to London. Even if a fault meant that every ten minutes there’d be a beep and he’d tell us the tyre pressure was low, but that’s so Ben! Oh neurotic Ben.

Next we’re off to Jersey! After a four hour ferry ride we arrived at our hotel and to our delight discovered we each had a room to ourselves, a far cry from sharing a static caravan! The following day we walked to the theatre and started teching in another really lovely theatre, in terms of size it was a midpoint between North Devon and Prema and so therefore the piece seemed to adjust nicely. The seating rake was fairly high so we had to bear that in mind. Actually whilst on the subject of seating, I challenge anyone to find a comfier seat than one of the seats at the Jersey Arts Centre!

So the show finished and we again packed everything up and the following day we were back on the ferry. We all enjoyed Jersey a lot and could probably have done with a few more days there but the show must go on… to Cheltenham and Derby that is!

Fourth Monkey Ensemble are writing a guest blog for A Younger Theatre during their tour. Find out more at www.fourthmonkey.co.uk and @FourthMonkeyTC