Edinburgh

And so, we travel further north. This week and next we're at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh. It's always a little disorientating to arrive in a new city and try and find another new place of work. Fortunately, it was quite easy to spot this week.

Today, we had an opportunity to meet some of the audience after the matinee. These post show Q&As are optional, but I nearly always try and attend them: for the simple reason that I'm always interested in what an audience has to say. I've always felt quite strongly that theatre is for them, and that these chances to discuss the show with them are invaluable.

I don't think I've ever been involved in a play that seems to mean quite as much to so many people. There were a lot of teenagers in this afternoon, and one very touchingly expressed that he was autistic, and how much the play had inspired him.

This happens quite a bit. We get letters and messages from people, often on the autistic spectrum, conveying just what the play has meant to them. One I'll never forget was from a young lady, telling us that she felt very acutely that her state of mind had been completely represented by this play. She identified so strongly with Christopher's view of the world that she said that she was coming again, with her parents this time, so that they might understand her more.

I don't pretend for a minute that this play chimes to that extent with every person that sees it; but it's quite moving to learn of those for whom it really seems to mean a huge amount to.

Changes

Touring, as writer David Hepworth has pointed out, "is simultaneously the most boring experience in the world and the most exciting one". In our company, the reason for both of these sensations is that, pretty much every week, we change cities. We travel to another venue. Sometimes we stay for a couple of weeks; but, more often than not, we arrive on a Tuesday, do eight shows, and then leave on the Saturday night or Sunday morning.

Tuesdays, therefore, are long days. They involve arriving at a new theatre in a new town and running through nearly all of the play, at performance level, before doing the first night there. It's like doing an extra show.

In addition, we have to run through all the physical sequences before every performance. Every lift and every fight. With a show of this nature, we can't afford to leave anything to chance.

Of course, by the time we arrive, much of the work has been done. The crew has already been there for hours; they've assembled not just the set, but a hideously complicated array of lights, speakers and various bits of equipment that the actors never really need to understand or deal with.

The first time I ever did a tour - over twenty years ago now - someone played me this. It stands as a testament to what goes on behind the scenes: a tribute to those people who do all the work that the rest of us just take for granted.

Cardiff

We're coming to the end of a week's residence at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. Not only is it the largest venue we've played to date, but it has a deep significance for our two Welsh cast members Jessica Williams and Joshua Jenkins. Here's an interview with them both, in which they explain just how excited they are to be bringing this show to their native country.

Nottingham

This week and last week, we've been playing at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. On a tour like this, we get to experience a wide variety of theatres. They may mostly take roughly the same capacity - although there will be a couple of venues on this tour that seat over 2000 people - but the architecture, sightlines and acoustics can vary hugely.

 

The Theatre Royal, Nottingham is a beautiful building that celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. During the building of the theatre, the world saw the end of the American Civil War, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the publishing of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, the founding of the US Secret Service, the first ascent of the Matterhorn and the introduction of the speed limit in Great Britain (2mph in the town and 4mph in the country).

In March 1865, they began cutting the turf to commence the construction process. On 25th September, the completed theatre opened with The School For Scandal.

That's six months from marking out the site to the finished product. Aside from everything that happened in that brief period, it says something about 19th century builders, doesn't it?

Cast

(Lyndsey Holmes, Chris Ashby, Kieran Garland, Clare Perkins, Paul Sockett, Edward Grace, John McAndrew (back to camera), Joshua Jenkins, Ann Marcuson, Emmanuella Cole, Stuart Laing, Jessica Williams)

At this stage, I should probably introduce the 15 actors that make up the touring cast of Curious Incident. In alphabetical order, they are:

Geraldine Alexander
Chris Ashby
Emmanuella Cole
Kieran Garland
Edward Grace
Lucas Hare
Gina Isaac
Joshua Jenkins
Roberta Kerr
Stuart Laing
Ann Marcuson
John McAndrew
Clare Perkins
Paul Sockett
Jessica Williams

There are 11 actors with speaking parts on stage for every show. In addition, because of the nature of the production, we have a few actors who are mainly engaged in helping with physical sequences - who also understudy the speaking roles - and two actors who share the part of Christopher Boone.

We rehearsed for 6 weeks throughout November and December last year - with a huge and necessary emphasis on the physical side of things, guided primarily by Scott Graham and Delphine Gaborit of Frantic Assembly - and were led by our Associate Director Katy Rudd and Resident Director Kim Pearce; in addition to Marianne Elliott, director of this production in all its forms since its inception at the National Theatre in 2012.

This production has played for nearly 3 years in various locations: on the South Bank, at two theatres in the West End, and on Broadway. I'm proud to say that the largest crowd it has played to so far is 1,718 people: at the Lowry, Salford on 10th January 2015.

Those who've seen our show will know the significance of Polperro, a small port on the south coast of Cornwall: Christopher clearly recalls the day that he, his father and his late mother spent there when he was 9. He remembers his mother swimming in the sea, and her exclamation "Bloody Nora, it's cold!" Whilst in Plymouth in March, most of us travelled to Polperro one Sunday and paid our own little tribute: partly for posterity and partly for fun (thanks to Lyndsey Holmes for the video).

First

It's not an April Fool: I've started a blog. If this were television news, I'd start by saying "You join us..." So:

You join us in Nottingham: the 10th venue (of 31), the 106th show (at time of writing), the second season, the sixth month of the job.

Right now, all I can hear over the Tannoy is the sound of an audience. It sounds large and comprised mostly of children. These are common factors that would be easy to take for granted; but (a) it's exciting to be in a show that's such a success - we seldom play to audiences of less than 1000 - and (b) it's wonderful to be doing this show to so many children (11+ is the recommended age). In a time where reality television has such a stronghold over that generation, it feels important to be doing something that's so defiantly theatrical; perhaps to children that haven't seen a great deal of theatre. All that's really required to enjoy this play is an imagination and an open mind: even if that mind isn't quite as extraordinary as that of Christopher Boone, the play's protagonist.

Before this tour began, I marked the places that we'll be visiting on a map, mainly for the benefit of my son at home. I hope that readers of this blog might stick with it and follow us around, from little red dot to little red dot.