Inventing the Truth (NHB Modern Plays)

Devising and Directing for the Theatre

Mike Bradwell

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781780014876
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Acting & Auditioning

An invaluable guide to the difficult arts of devising plays and directing texts, by one of the UK's leading theatre directors.

Throughout a lifetime of experience – as an actor for Mike Leigh, founder of Hull Truck, Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre, and subsequently as a freelance director – Mike Bradwell has forged a reputation as a theatrical innovator and risk-taker.

This book begins by exploring the process of devising a play by working intensively through character and improvisation with a group of actors. Using A Bed of Roses as an example, a play that he himself devised, Bradwell shows how the actors set about inventing their characters, whether within a pre-determined framework or with no strictures whatsoever. He explores how actors can then 'grow' their character, both through solo work and through interaction with the other characters. He also examines the role of the director in moulding and shaping the individual scenes, the overall action of the play, and the development of the characters within it.

The second half of the book describes in detail how the nuanced work involved in devising characters from scratch can be applied to a pre-existing text. Bradwell explains the techniques by which he encourages the actor to take possession of his or her character by investigating or inventing their whole history up to the moment the action begins. Taking as his template Jack Thorne's play When You Cure Me, which Bradwell directed at the Bush, he demonstrates the meticulous work on the text that is needed to keep the characters alive and truthful in every moment of the action.

All together, Inventing the Truth offers practitioners a unique account of the techniques involved in devising or directing plays to the highest standard. Mike Bradwell's previous book The Reluctant Escapologist won the Theatre Book Prize in 2011.

'There is a special sense of care about a Mike Bradwell production, in dramas that penetrate deeply into the secret corners of the human heart' Daily Telegraph

Also included in the book, to aid the reader's understanding of the process, are the full texts of both A Bed of Roses ('Hilariously funny, extremely moving and physically frightening... a small masterpiece' Time Out ) and Jack Thorne's When You Cure Me ('Painstakingly honest... acutely observant of the petty rivalries and jealousies that sickness provokes' - Guardian ).

'Anyone, particularly perhaps secondary school drama teachers for whom it might be a daunting prospect, wanting practical help with devising theatre should have a look at Mike Bradwell's Inventing The Truth. Not only does this former actor, Hull Truck Founder and Artistic Director of Bush Theatre, demystify all the frightening aspects of allowing people to stand up and make things up, but he is very entertaining to read.' - The Stage

WHEN YOU CURE ME

by Jack Thorne

For Chris Thorne and Fiona Bleach

When You Cure Me was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, on 16 November 2005, with the following cast:

PETER	Samuel Barnett
RACHEL	Morven Christie
JAMES	Daniel Bayle
ALICE	Lisa McDonald
ANGELA	Gwyneth Strong
Director	Mike Bradwell
Designer	Penelope Challen
Lighting Designer	Tanya Burns
Sound Designer	Nick Manning

When You Cure Me received its first workshops as part of the National Youth Theatre’s Short Nyts season in August 2004, directed by Vicky Jones. The play was subsequently commissioned by the Bush Theatre.

Characters

PETER, seventeen

RACHEL, seventeen

JAMES, seventeen

ALICE, seventeen

ANGELA, forty-two

Set

A teenage girl’s bedroom. The play takes place in Reading over a period of three months, from January to March.

Rachel’s Injuries

Rachel has a long inflamed scar down the side of her face. Surrounding the scar is severe bruising that puffs her eye. The cut gets less inflamed as the play progresses and by Act Four there’s no bruising at all, just the scar. Stiffness in the rest of her body also gradually dissipates. In particular, in Act One she has trouble with her left hand and wrist but by Act Three she’s moving it as if normal. But the main damage sustained is that Rachel can’t move her legs, and has very little movement in the base to the middle of her spine. She is bedbound and moving her body is very painful because the rest of her spine is forced to take a weight and pressure it’s not used to, but she does have some movement and some control of her bowels.

ACT ONE

1.1

17th January.

In the blackout.

PETER (soft, so soft). You awake…

The lights rise gently. She’s not awake, she’s just sort of stretching her mouth, so he sits back. This takes for ever.

She moves again.

Rach…

Pause.

Rach…

Pause.

(Louder.) Rachel…

Pause. The lights are at full brightness.

Rachel, you awake…

RACHEL. Wha…

PETER (reaching out and touching her arm again, his hand rests on the side of the bed). Hi.

Pause.

Rachel?

RACHEL. Uh… Di’ you?

She retches like she’s about to throw up, but stops herself. Pause.

PETER. Bad dream, or…

RACHEL (takes his hand in hers). No.

Pause. He tries to take his hand away, but he doesn’t know how.

I need to pee…

PETER. Okay.

RACHEL. I, uh…

PETER. Shall I call your mum or…

RACHEL. No. Don’t call her.

PETER. Okay. Are you…

RACHEL. Can you do it?

PETER. Really? Sure.

RACHEL. There’s a pan under the bed.

PETER. Okay.

He grasps under the bed, which is pretty cluttered, for the bedpan.

(Desperately casual.) What does it look like?

RACHEL. Blue.

PETER. Yeah.

He re-emerges with it.

RACHEL. There should be a, there’s a insert under there too – just cardboard – there’s a stack of them – they just slot in – the insert should…

He finds the cardboard insert.

PETER. Is this…

RACHEL. Yeah. Pass it here, it sort of clips in.

PETER. No. I can do it…

He inserts it clumsily and then he goes to the end of the bed and lifts her legs, quite roughly. He’s improvising and being slightly rough with it, so that when he attempts to slide the bedpan underneath, she immediately falls off.

RACHEL (warning). Peter…

PETER. Am I… What?

RACHEL. You’re being rough… a bit…

PETER. Oh…

Beat.

RACHEL. Um. My knickers…

PETER. Yeah.

He does so gently, and blindly, sliding them off her by the knicker-straps, and being careful not to look. Then he holds the knickers, unsure of what to do with them.

RACHEL. Do you want to… get Mum…

PETER (puts the knickers in his pocket with confidence). It’s okay.

He hesitates and then gently lifts her legs and slides the bedpan on.

RACHEL. You have to keep hold of me, so I don’t – Sorry, I don’t want to slip off.

PETER. No. No. It’s fine.

RACHEL. I just don’t want Mum sniffing…

PETER. It’s fine. I’m pleased.

He holds her by the hips, trying to keep this as non-sexual as possible. From the floor below we faintly hear the sound of The Archers theme music kicking off.

Pause. She hasn’t started peeing yet, she’s sweating slightly, this is very difficult.

Okay?

RACHEL. Yeah.

Pause.

I’m slipping, grip tighter…

PETER. Like this.

RACHEL. Yeah.

PETER tightens and doesn’t know which way to look, so he just looks at her, and she stares at him and they’re stuck like this and it’s perfect and horrible. Then, finally, she starts to pee. It’s hard for her to pee, and she only gives up a pathetic amount, but it seems to make a huge clattering noise as it dribbles into the cardboard bedpan. PETER doesn’t breathe until she finishes.

You need to get me the toilet tissue.

PETER. Is that…? Are you balanced?

RACHEL (moves her own hands in order to steady herself). Yeah.

He gently lets go, leaving her balancing on the bedpan whilst he finds the toilet paper. He finds it.

PETER. Do you…

RACHEL. Yeah. Give it here.

He hands her the toilet roll, she wipes herself whilst looking precariously balanced. He moves as if to help at one point, but holds back. She deposits the tissue in the bedpan.

You empty it in the toilet – and there’s a bin in there – for the, uh, insert.

PETER. Okay…

He reaches in again, helps her balance herself, and then slides her off the bedpan.

RACHEL. Don’t look at it – there’ll be blood…

PETER. Okay.

He takes the bedpan out of the room, carefully averting his eyes. We’re left with just her. She shif...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Making It Up: Techniques Towards Devising a Play
• A Bed of Roses by Mike Bradwell
• Blinding Gloucester: Working with a Text
• When You Cure Me by Jack Thorne
• About the Author
• Other Titles by this Author
• Performing Rights and Copyright Information