Rehearsal Diary, fourth entry - 24 October 2005

'Hay Fever' by Noel Coward

By Liz Lucas

Another week of rehearsals has gone by and due to cast members being missing here and there I managed to play a total of five different parts throughout the week. Keith thinks I could probably do a one woman show of the whole thing and I think he may well be right.

We had some rather splendid photographs done by a friend of Pauline's. He has made the girls look very lush and glamorous; Wendy looks coy and sweet and has the loveliest of smiles, Jo looks as though she'd be more at home with a whip and Irene is the personification of the concept of 'Drama Queen'. Very successful and so right. Well done that man.

The end is now in sight and as usual, everything is closing in on us at the last minute. How is it that no matter how prepared one seems to be it always heats up in the last couple of weeks and everyone ends up looking like Death? I expect everything will get done in the end and we will all survive the onslaught.

However, rehearsals have gone well and the play itself is looking ok. Everyone knows their lines and I know everyone's lines and Keith now knows where the toilet is so all is as it should be. I have made a silly barometer from an old photo of one blown up and stuck on a bit of MDF. It looks ok from a distance but would not bear close scrutiny. The main bugbear is the tea set, which needs to be period, if we can find one. Wendy managed to get some stuff from Lincoln College but it looks far too modern. We shall have to see what we can do. Nevertheless, the food stuff should be a laugh, if nothing else. I shall be amazed if they get through it without choking.

Colin has been a tremendous help in getting old things that look just right. I don't know what we would have done without him.

Anyway, not long to go now. I hope we're selling lots of tickets. All this hard work needs some reward!