So, it’s the end of the second week of rehearsals, the dreaded half-way point, but I think we can meet it – in part – with equanimity. We’ve done a German dance, experimented with shadows, stained a lot of paper, developed some cracking music, and staggered through the whole play. We’ve spent a considerable amount of energy worrying about how to pay subtle homage to the film, without replicating – and I think yesterday we found a way forward involving a sheet and a pinspot.

We’ve also spent an inordinately protracted amount of time making the cabinet. Perhaps this is why the film got its title – maybe Hans Janowitz and Robert Weine suffered the curse of the cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Maybe they too discovered that constructing it is like the siege of Troy; it never finishes. Each time we attack it a new challenge arises – each section demands additions, strengthening, bracing and large doses of dirt splattered over them. Still, Christopher Doyle seems happy in it, which is good seeing as he spends a lot of time locked within its shadowy and intimate confines.

Speaking of which, we’ve been lucky enough to have the fantastic Idil Sukan in this week taking rehearsal shots – have a look at them.

What else? “Green” wise, we’ve done well with re-using materials – all our set for Caligari (even the accursed cabinet) will be used again for Moby-Dick, and about 75% of what we’re using across both shows has either come from our previous work or other productions.

Finally, there are still some tickets left on our 15% offer – so book now if you want a great deal.

Dudley

We are very pleased to finally announce the details of our new season at the Arcola. We start rehearsals for two plays: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Moby Dick on the 13th of January and we couldn’t be more excited. Please visit our In Production Page for more details and to book tickets as soon as they go on sale.

For the last few weeks, we at simple8 have been hard at work on developing a new piece of work for the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust award. We were selected as one of 12 finalists and asked to perform a short excerpt from our proposed work: a piece based on ‘Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes’ by Daniel Everett. This is a book detailing Everett’s own experiences as a Christian missionary attempting to learn the arcane language of the Piraha, deep in the Amazonian jungle.

It’s been a both challenging and rewarding process and we’re incredibly grateful to the OSBTT whether we win the award or not as it was a great help to be given the financial backing to spend some proper time on the project which has both intrigued and intimidated us for a while. If you’re not familiar with the book we can’t recommend it enough as it’s absolutely fascinating, but it will also give you some idea of the trepidation we are facing trying to dramatise it.

The difficulty of the material made it all the more satisfying to piece together something even remotely presentable in the space of a week. Audience reaction seemed really encouraging and it has shown us that the project has legs, which means that whatever happens with OSBTT, the week has been hugely worthwhile and hopefully, one way or another, you’ll see the results of our labour in the future.

Even more exciting is that our research and development process is now taking a very definite shape meaning we are cementing a working method with which we can approach a great variety of source material for future projects.