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First day of rehearsals for “Everything Happens (For No Reason)” and so far so good. There is a cast of three (plus the all important Disgruntled Diner character) and you can never be quite sure if the chemistry will be there from auditioning people separately, but thankfully there was much laughter, chatting and fun and all the relationships worked really well. I am feeling unusually positive about our chances of progressing further. I don’t know if I can reveal the cast yet, so I won’t, but they are my dream team for this and the potential for development is just as exciting as the short extract that we’re filming. You always worry there will be someone with an ego or who is difficult, but everyone was professional, engaged and into what we were doing. Unusually all three actors in this are also accomplished writers, which means that any weak bits should be sorted out with laser-like efficiency. Or we just end up fighting in a pile. But not today.
The only moment of contention was when the producer suggested giving one of the Indignant Diner’s two lines to one of the other characters. The Disgruntled Diner told him to fuck off. Proving what fantastic casting it was to have him. So yeah, it seems he was the difficult one. I see it now.
We put together the costumes and thought about how things might develop and what future revelations we wanted to subtly seed into the piece. It’s exciting to think that these are big decisions if we do go on to make a series, as it is grounding to remember that we might just be making a ten minute extract that no one but us and a couple of people ever see.
One of my bugbears about sci-fi is the unrealistic reactions to terrifying stuff. I don’t like it when people act all super cool, action blockbuster style about being in danger and would much prefer to see them nearly being killed by Cybermen and then venting and cursing and nearly soiling themselves, rather than coming back with a nonchalant quip. But having said that, if actors reacted correctly to everything then every episode would be 30 minutes of them freaking out. There’s a tricky transition in the script between something pretty freaky happening and the main characters going into a bit of playful banter. I think it’s workable, as I think if you were in this situation you’d assume you’d gone crazy or were asleep and it didn’t really matter how you behaved, but correctly and diligently the actors worked through how to make it all work. You want something to be real, but you also want it to be funny ultimately. But I am delighted I’ve got a cast who are engaged with this, understand the challenges and want to make it work.
I was exhausted by the end of it. It’s a weight on my shoulders knowing I was carrying the others and that the whole project could succeed or fail on the strength of how disgruntled I manage to be.
And many AIOTM fans will be sad to hear that Tam Dalyell, a man I once briefly considered pretending to be in order to steal his taxi, has passed away. Och Aye da noooo, he shall be missssssssed, Rrrrrrrrr I P, Tam mah bonny lad. Can I hav thy boooookcasssse? I will do a full tribute to him on the final audio AIOTM on 12th Feb.
