Although it’s been a few months as of sitting down to write this, it’s a blog I always intended to write after a suitable amount of time had passed. Back in February I was cast in Sodbury Player’s production of ‘Neville’s Island’ by Tim Firth. I was immensely grateful to be cast (as well as a little gobsmacked), and it was one of the most rewarding productions I’ve ever been a part of.
For a little context, ‘Neville’s Island’ is set, surprisingly enough, on an island. Not a tropical island, but rather Rampsholme Island, Derwentwater, in the Lake District. It follows the misadventures of four out-of-condition, out-of-their depth, middle aged, middle-managers on a team building exercise. My character, marketing manager Neville, has been elected team leader and due to some over-interpretation of the clues, Neville has accidentally led them to be stranded. All four stumble from inconvenience to disaster, until the play’s climax where they believe one of them may have taken their own life (spoilers ahead …and just behind, I suppose).
When I returned to acting by joining my local amateur dramatic group back in 2017, I don’t suppose I ever really envisioned myself taking on a lead role. I’m nobody’s idea of a romantic lead, that’s for sure. I’ve loved every single role and every production I’ve done so far, no matter what the size of my part. However, there is certainly a big difference between a role that pops onto stage for a few minutes and then never pops up again and a character that is almost never actually off the stage for more than a few minutes. This blog details some thoughts on my first time tackling what can only be described as ‘a big character’.
First of all, there’s lines. When there’s only four roles in the entire show, that’s a lot of lines spread out amongst you. I’ve always prided myself on knowing my lines as early as possible. However, this is a lot easier to do when you’ve only got a handful of them. Learning Neville’s lines took a great deal of effort, and what I discovered was that I could not, at any point, afford to become complacent. With past, smaller roles, my script would be down fairly early on and then almost never picked up again. Due to the sheer volume of my lines, that script became my constant companion. This production taught me not to take line learning for granted. I also learned a few techniques for learning lines that proved invaluable.
Not only is there a lot of lines when there’s only four of you in the cast, there’s also not a lot of downtime. I found that the rehearsal process was starkly different from big ensemble shows. While you always strive to stay busy, when your role is one of twenty, there’s always going to be times when you’re just not needed in rehearsal. None of that on ‘Neville’s Island’. While we made sure to take breaks, it became very clear very early that there were almost no scenes when I wasn’t on. This show helped me improve my stamina, physical and mental, in maintaining a performance throughout an entire show.
It also meant I got plenty of opportunities for what, I think, I look for most in a play. Namely, the chance to really interact, in depth, with some excellent actors all portraying solid, strong characters. I could not have asked for better cast mates, and throughout the show there were plenty of scenes with all four of us as well as some fantastic duologues. Our director’s philosophy is that we’re all up on that stage to make each other look good. Give me a really good scene with another actor over a lengthy monologue any day.
Now, the character himself. As well as being my first title character, I’d say Neville was the first character that I really got the chance to get to know. He is perhaps a little too much of a nerd for his own good, but not quite as smart as he thinks he is. He is a caring, compassionate man, whose tether holds out until the very end of the play. He is a husband and father to twin girls, and it’s suggested that he has to constantly play the peacekeeper at home. That leads into his role in the team and on the island. He strives to keep the peace at all times, sacrificing his own comfort for others and volunteering to do anything if it’ll keep the peace. This, however, is not necessarily a strength in this play.
The biggest revelation about Neville came during a rehearsal. I’d just finished filming in Cardiff and had driven straight to rehearsal, having been up since 6am. I soldiered through, giving it my all, but there was no denying I was tired. This, I’m convinced, played a part in the epiphany I had about Neville as a character. We’d just been rehearsing a scene in which Gordon is thoroughly having a go at both Angus and Roy, but quickly focusing his attention on Roy. Throughout most of this scene, Neville does very little apart from make a few half-hearted attempts to calm things down. Ultimately he stands by and watches as Gordon bullies Roy until it’s too late. That, in a moment of fatigue, was when it really hit me. Neville was a bystander. A coward.
I very nearly had to ask the director if I could slip away for a moment. I have no shame in admitting that. It shocked me, and quite frankly it upset me a little. Yes, I was tired, but it was more than that. This character, this man I had been slowly getting to know over the previous few months, was the sort of person I find it hard to look upon favourably. Namely, someone who can stand by and watch others being attacked. I got over the shock, and of course from that point onwards this revelation greatly informed my performance. I accepted him for who he was. Someone with the best of intentions but not always the greatest degree of courage.
While it is never a good thing for any actor to ‘phone in’ a performance, it’s hard with some small roles to feel as though you are really embracing the character. You wait for your cue, pop on, say your lines, then disappear. Then you do it again the next night. A good actor will, of course, take those lines and own them. However I do believe that from an entirely selfish point of view, the longer one inhabits the character, the easier and more satisfying it is to do so. I’ve had roles where I just pop up with very little substance, but the role of Neville allowed me my first real chance to let a character take over.
As I said, Neville spends most of the play trying to keep the peace between the other three. The main source of the group’s anguish is Gordon, whose constant grumbling and cruel jokes push everyone to their limit. By the end of the play, the other three men become convinced that their colleague, Roy, has taken his own life somewhere on the island. Neville initially reacts by fetching his notebook and beginning to write the ‘captain’s report’, but it soon turns into an all-out attack on Gordon, who Neville blames for everything. I saw this as Neville initially going into a kind of shock over Roy’s apparent demise, taking some kind of comfort in the mundane task of writing a report. However, that shock soon gives way to anger. I’ve seen other productions where the actor playing Neville kept his cool throughout this final scene, and frankly I wasn’t impressed.
This is a man who has done his utmost to keep everyone happy and safe throughout this whole exercise. Then, he becomes convinced that one of his team has taken his own life, something snaps. I mean, it would, wouldn’t it? Working with the director, we identified the precise moment where I could just completely flip out, and when that moment came, I went for it.
It’s one thing to rehearse a scene, in the rehearsal room, having maybe done that scene multiple times that night. It is quite another to perform it in front of an audience. Looking back, I was probably more restrained in the rehearsal room. When it came to show night, even I knew that people who knew me would be surprised with how angry I seemed. That, however, is precisely the point. It wasn’t my anger, it was Neville’s. That was the moment, every night we did the show, when I truly didn’t feel like myself. The character took over. I was just a passenger.
There is no sense in denying that I’m going to miss ‘Neville’s Island’, even though it’s already been nearly three months since the show ended. That, however, is the nature of amateur theatre. We do a show, we love it, and then we move on. I would love to get the chance to talk to some professional actors who’ve inhabited a character onstage for months or maybe even years and get their thoughts on what happens when a character takes over.
In the meantime, it’s onwards and upwards, as always. I hope I do get the chance to really take on a character again, but that isn’t necessarily up to me. Having been on the other side of the casting process last year, I know how hard it can be to decide who to match with which character. However, I maintain that there is no such thing as small roles, only small actors. If you’re a part of a production, play your part and make it your own. It all adds up to a spectacular night of theatre, and none of you could do it without everyone else there.
David R Lord 