KNOT HEART - Almeida Theatre

In the Rehearsal RoomLisa Dillon in rehearsalPhoto: Matt Humphreydecided to relax and go with the flow.I see this happen especially with Scene 10. Lucy is at the City Roads crisis centre and finds that hermother is there uninvited. This is almost a parallel to a previous scene in the play but as Lucy haschanged, there is an exposing light over the mother daughter relationship that I can see Michael istrying to pull out. The blocking has Lucy physically stuck a lot more, with moments where she is quiteliterally stuck between a rock and a hard place (Marina being the rock and Barbara the hard place!).It’s very freeing and indeed does raise the stakes for Lucy who is trapped between these authoritativefigures emotionally and now physically too.Margot also gets a bit of a treat this week as we are visited by fight director Bret Yount (although I’mnot sure ‘treat’ is quite the word she would use). At one point during the play Margot’s characterBarbara has to slap a drug addict who is harassing her daughter for money. Bret’s job is to make thisslap believable for an audience whilst keeping it safe for Kieran, the recipient of this honour! Margot isclearly not comfortable with violence (even the fake kind), and at first struggles to take ownership ofthe action. It’s absolutely choreographed and everything from the angle of Margot’s body to where onKieran’s face she should aim, to the cue word that would signal the slap, is marked precisely. Thismechanical approach can really take an actor outside of their character for a moment and Margot hasto remind herself of the circumstances that lead to this moment. Once rehearsed a number of timesin the context of the scene, she starts to own the moment more and I even wonder if she’s secretlystarting to enjoy smacking Kieran about a bit!In other news, as Lisa Dillon is currently performing in another production simultaneously with thisone, she has had the commendable duty throughout this process of spending her days in therehearsal room and her nights on stage. But a matinee day calls, so Margot and Abigail have thepleasure of my company as Lisa’s stand-in for the rehearsal. I’m basically there to walk through thescene and read in Lisa’s lines so the other actors have somebody to work off.I feel somewhat bemused by my half-hearted performance. The trained actor within wants to reallycommit and throw myself into the dramatics of it all but I fear my attempts at this will only bedistracting. I also recognise the absolute ownership Lisa has taken of her role over the weeks andeven if I wanted to, there would be no inhabiting Lucy as she has done so profoundly. It is at29Resource Pack: The Knot of the Heart