RR3

Three years ago this month, I started work at the National Theatre as an understudy in Stephen Beresford's wonderful play The Last of the Haussmans. As it was going to be performing in the Lyttelton, we were working in Rehearsal Room 2 (RR1 is for shows going to the Olivier; RR3 is for what used to be the Cottesloe and is now the Dorfman). Every lunch break, I'd walk upstairs and shuffle quietly past Rehearsal Room 3, which is on the way to the canteen. Sometime later that summer, I noticed that a new production was rehearsing in there. It was an adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, directed by Marianne Elliott; and, like many Cottesloe productions, it had sold out before it had even opened. I had a friend in the cast, so I'd hear things; and, whenever I walked past, they seemed to be creating something a bit different. I'd occasionally see people engaged in all manner of physical routines. It looked slightly military, and a bit frightening.

I had no idea that, a couple of years later, I'd be rehearsing that same play in that same room. Going through those same routines with many of the same people and speaking the same lines. It was an odd sensation, during rehearsals, to watch this video and see a sort of parallel universe. Exploring something that for us was brand new, but was already well established. We had freedom to create, of course: but I was always very aware of the fact that we were in this room, creating a new chapter of something that already existed.

In that sense, I suppose RR3 is the womb of Curious Incident. It's where it gestated, was born and then reborn (not to mention all the other productions that have taken shape in that room: I've rehearsed two or three other plays in there; and that's just me).

But, like all living things, it goes beyond that. We've performed this play in 13 towns and cities so far - there'll be another 18 before we're done - and it's also resided in the West End and on Broadway. It's an international venture now. But it began in this room.

Photo: Lyndsey Holmes