‘buckets’: A year in review

With the past few weeks being very busy (in a good way) I’ve now got time to sit down and reflect on everything we’ve done for ‘buckets’. It’s lovely to be able to get some thoughts down on paper. Feels very strange to talk about ‘buckets’ being over as this project has been going for nearly as long as we have as a company. Back in October we were beginning a period of research and development for the show, 3 times a week we were spending up to 4 hours together talking about different parts of the play, playing around with music and just in general having a good time as a company. The show we were expecting to create was, at that point, incredibly different to the one that has been performed over the past 2 weeks. 

A rehearsal period this long is a tricky one. On the one hand it gave us plenty of time to try out new things and figure out what worked for us and what didn’t. But, on the other hand, trying to sustain enjoyment and passion for a 12 month project is very difficult, especially when we spent the first 9 months of that in different parts of the country working over Zoom. We knew the final performances weren’t going to be until 2021, so decided to start with a period of research and development last autumn. Like I said, the show at this point was different, we spent a fair amount of time during R&D focusing on how the scenes all connected to one another, who the characters were and how we could connect them from one scene to another. We came up with a through-line that centered around a mother and her dying child (jolly I know) and the journey they go on to deal with the hand they’ve been given. The actors were being asked to effectively play the same characters at different points in their life. An interesting concept, one that became confusing pretty quickly. Mainly because that's not how the play was written, and many of the scenes are short and sweet so trying to delve into complex character dynamics in that time was a challenging task. 

However, this meant that much of the work we did during that time was on character which did carry well into rehearsals. The characters themselves didn’t change as much as my vision or the show did. And unless there were clear through lines (like Lisa playing a parent in multiple scenes), or some were specifically connected (Lucy and Will play a teacher and student in multiple scenes), we began to treat each character as someone new. This was also aided by the other work we did during R&D, we focused on physical characterisation, improvisation and exploration of key themes the play explores like loss and grief. We were just putting all of this work into a new context.

I’d say the main contributing factor to how much my vision changed came down to the sheer amount of time we had available to us. From the end of R&D to the next time we got together I had a whole 2 months. During this time I was able to do a lot of thinking. I had the time to figure out what had worked and what hadn’t. As a first time director I really appreciated this time as it enabled me to become confident in my vision and almost give myself reason as to why I felt the direction of the play needed to change the way it did. What solidified it for me, I think, was when we began working on music for the play. There are some specific moments in the play where the actors are instructed to sing and I knew that there were other scenes that I wanted to be infused with music. Myself and Lucy actually made a playlist where we picked a song for each scene that we felt represented the mood and energy of the play at that time. When we then listened and talked through each one it only solidified my thinking at that point in time, that my ideas for what this show could be needed to change. Bittersweet would be the word I would now use to describe ‘buckets’. It went from something very solemn and sad, to a celebration of all the everything life deals you. What I wanted was a ‘glass half full’ energy to the show, filled with music and positivity. Something, as Lucy said in our last blog post, is very important at the moment.

We were then able to take this energy into rehearsals, the concept might have changed but our love for the play and excitement to finally be putting it all together hadn’t. Zoom is always a challenging way to rehearse. As a director I don’t particularly enjoy it, mainly because I think it is very difficult to gauge how a person is feeling when looking at them through a screen. Due to scheduling we didn’t rehearse the play in chronological order, which I had no issues with at the time but I think did become a bit of a challenge for us all once we began putting everything together. I think the phrase ‘what scene comes next’ could be the tagline of early in-person rehearsals. We did a total of 4 in-person rehearsals spread over 6 weeks before the shows. One of these we spent the entire time laughing and generally messing up. The others were (slightly) more productive. It was these specific rehearsals being so spread out that was most stressful for me. We were in the home stretch rehearsal-wise, running the piece as many times as possible, but time-wise there were weeks for me to overthink decisions and directions. 

Sitting in the audience on opening night was a strange feeling, I was both excited and scared for how the audience were going to react. I had completely forgotten what it was like to watch theatre and was constantly fighting the urge to just watch the audience the whole time. But if I’ve learned one thing about ‘buckets’, it’s that the audience is so important to the show. Not just because we had chosen to include some audience interaction but because ‘buckets’ is filled with so many beautiful moments of comic relief that you need the audience to respond to. Without it, the show feels slightly stale. 

My personal highlights of all the performances were down to the audience. There were great moments where the energy of the audience matched that of the actors, and there was in a way an unspoken rapport between them. There were also great moments where the actors interacted with the audience (big shout out to Ivan from But Why? Theatre Company for giving us a gem of audience participation and keeping Lucy on her toes in the best way possible). Each audience we had picked up on the moments of comic relief, which I loved because certain moments can be pretty heavy so being able to get that laugh afterwards lifts the energy tenfold. The thing about ‘buckets’, in my opinion, is that once you accept that each scene is its own thing, no hard connections and no underlying intention behind them other than what they-say-on-the-tin, you at that moment really understand ‘buckets’. And it felt like to me, sitting on the side lines, that this was something our audience did whole heartedly. 

Do I think it hindered us slightly having a 6 day break between performances? Yes I do. We ever so slightly lost that opening night high on the second weekend. Mainly due to time between shows and the fact that we didn’t get together again until the following weekend. But this schedule was what worked for us as a company and I think the actors did an incredible job with the energy they gave the performances, especially with the mini heatwave last weekend. But yes, with hindsight, when we do fringes again next year, I think keeping the performances as close together as possible is going to be important to us. This is what has been the best thing about ‘buckets’ though, for me at least, it's been a 12 month learning curve. There have been multiple moments where I have had the opportunity to reflect on my own process, and figure out how I like to run a rehearsal process as a director. And ultimately as Haywire we have figured out what is important to us in a show. 

I am incredibly proud of everyone involved in this project, it has been a strong start to our career as Haywire, and I am beyond excited for all the work that is to come. 

Liv