Week Two - Pat Cumper In Rehearsals

It's the second week of rehearsals in Leeds for Waiting for Godot and Pat Cumper, Talawa's Artistic Director, has been part of the process:

'It felt like Spring in Leeds today. Clear, sunny, and almost warm for the time of year. And in rehearsals, things are looking livelier too. The set box is on display, the stage marked out and the tree is being represented by a broom handle in the very middle of the room. As the actors come off book, we explore more of the movement and physical comedy that sometimes accompanies and sometimes counterpoints Beckett's inimitable, intricate, interlocking text. Jeffery is working with his hat on most of the time: completely right for Vladimir. Estragon looks to his feet for his focus of activity: he's developed a very convincing hobble. As always, the challenge is to find and hold onto the arc of the scene, to feel when the pace quickens and when it slows. And most of all there are those lovely silences that Beckett wrote into the text. A silence in which to contemplate, a silence in which to regroup, a silence in which to listen, a silence in which to savour events and the memories of events. Sometimes just plain silence. Tomorrow, more of Didi and Gogo, The Boy gets on his feet and Lucky starts to speak.'