‘Wetwork’ has been a play that has had a long life and many cast changes! But, we have in place a final cast although with somewhat of a surprise for me!
Darren had written the play with himself in mind to play the‘put upon’ Phil who has to deal with the more erratic and dim witted Charlie. The two hit-men idea has been borrowed from Pinter’s ‘The Dumb Waiter’ through to Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’. Darren has also added the classic comedy double act, the one who isn’t that bright but thinks he is and the one who is just downright clueless!
However, circumstances changed and before we knew where we were the role of Phil has now been given to me and Darren is to play Charlie. I hasten to add that this is nothing to do with ego just necessity! I started out wanting to be an actor but became much more interested in directing so did one or two bits and pieces over the years but never feel that confident on stage preferring to disappear behind a big costume (to hide the gut!) and maybe even a funny hat! I did however find myself enjoying an acting role with Whole Hog in 2010 when co-founder Phil Regan wrote a dark thriller ‘The Last Supper’ and cast me as an aggressive kidnapper. I always fancied myself as a Ray Winstone wannabe, so with Phil’s direction that came out! It was also similar to a role I previously played in Howard Brenton’s brilliant drama on serial killer’s ‘Christie in Love’, that of a determined and scary police inspector interrogating the character of a subdued John Christie, the infamous mass murderer. So it seems shouting, cockney nutters is my niche!
Which all leads back to ‘Wetwork’ and the character of Phil, who is very much in that vein so that made me feel much more comfortable. If I could just bark out lines a la Winstone and then I could concentrate on directing the other actors! The first challenge was deciding how the character of Charlie might act and sound. Darren and I joked that at times he could border on the broad stereo-typing of Ricky Gervais’ creation ‘Derek’ but a read-through trying that confirmed that it just didn’t work! Charlie has speeches that show quite complex thought patterns (and some just downright sick!) so he was by no means an innocent like ‘Derek’.
The other two characters in the play also had new actors in the roles. Performing Arts Students Bradley Atkinson and Katie Tonks had recently been in a production of Jonathan Harvey’s new play ‘Tomorrow I’ll Be Happy’that I had just directed as part of the National Theatre Connections Festival. Both were hard working and talented and brought a new dimension to the mysterious character of ‘The Man’ and the femme fatale, Jessica. What was most pleasing was that they both fell into our way of working-take the work seriously, but not yourself too seriously! In fact myself and Darren as the seasoned pros (!) were corpsing away whilst Bradley and Katie remained focused throughout.
At the end of the rehearsal I realised how knackered I was! This acting and directing at the same time is defo a young man’s game. Mind you, Kenneth Branagh is doing it in the summer by playing in and directing ‘Macbeth’and he’s in his 50’s! Maybe it’s those 12 pies I ate before rehearsals? Back to Weightwatchers then if I’m going to survive this production!