A very queer night indeed (scene 1)

I endeavoured to sustain an optimistic demeanour, but from the word go i had a ravishing pessimistic sod dribbling in my ear (he was obviously exasperated by our conventions, but what do you expect.) Miles is somewhat voluptuously pretty, a youthful complexion that makes me slobber. I just had to take him on, though i did regret my cock-minded decision.

Miles and myself arrived fashionably late, only to realise the patriarch hadn't yet arrived. The atmosphere was somewhat flaccid (just like my apprentice's penis before i gave it a torrent of sucking and swallowing,) I contributed in deflating the tense bubble to little avail. James eventually made his entrance, though i was preoccupied with miles and his complete disregard to honour! what an ungrateful tulip. Miles and his repugnant attitude really ticked me off. During our traditional score of the national Anthem, he even decided to FUCK OFF! I WAS STUNNED, FLABBERGASTED AND MORTIFIED! Though i had to compose myself, being a dignified man of stature.

This is a version from the unedited script where Miles sticks it out till the end.

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The Riot Club

21st September

This all started in the cab on the way to the Bull’s Head in Kidsbury. My sponsor Toby was extremely pissed off with me and I had no idea why, it wasn’t until we arrived that he confronted me and said that it was because I had moved some of my things from my room because he had told me that I was about to have my room trashed by the Riot Club and I didn’t want my computer, my stereo and my family heirloom, Kingsley Bear broken and/or destroyed.
It wasn’t long before more people started arriving, but no one knew where James, the president of the Riot Club was because he didn’t contact anyone so we were all left in the dark of where the president was.

We all tried to get the party started and were all trying to get into the Riot Club spirit, and as we all found out people were making their own contributions to the club. For example, Guy had “customised” the menu by making it more “Riot Club”, Harry had booked a prostitute, Hugo had written a poem because he heard that is what they did at every dinner and Dimitri had arranged for us to get out of the country for the night via his own private jet.

I have to say that I was extremely overwhelmed by all of this because my brother had been in the Riot Club and has then been known as a legend and he told me stories about what they did and I felt honoured to be apart of this.

Unfortunately, not everything went to plan because with Guy’s main course, he had arranged for us to have a ten bird roast, one bird for each of us, but as it turns out, there was only nine birds. This didn’t really bother me but the others wanted to complain but I didn’t see the point because there was enough food to go around, its not like we were left starving.

Harry’s prostitute wasn’t what we expected because apparently it wasn’t in here job description to give blow jobs to 9 men under the table so she left and there we sat blow jobless.
The landlord wasn’t too thrilled with the prostitute being there so she had to quickly leave out of the window before he called the police.

After the prostitute and Chris had left, Alistair decided to have a rant about Chris and the prostitute, which I have to say that I agreed with what he said because we shouldn’t be treated like this, its like they don’t know who we are!

During desert, I shared how much I hated my home being treated like an amusement park and I found out that others felt the same way that I did.

Soon after, Dimitri told us to look under our place mats where he had left Icelandic money for us and he told us that we were going to Iceland tonight.

Dimitri’s plan to get us out of the country didn’t go down too well because none of us was too excited and what was the point in only going for the night then we would have to come back.

Toby had been passed out for quite a while and had decided to wake up, but not as himself, as Lord Riot and he did the most amazing speech that made us realise that what we were doing wasn’t Riot Club behaviour. I have to say, I couldn’t take him seriously and I couldn’t stop laughing for the most of it.

Not long after, Rachel, Chris’s daughter came in to clear the table and Harry got the brilliant idea to play a quick game of Chelsea trots.

Hugo lost the first round, but counter forfeited James and he had to drink a bottle down in one.

Guy lost the next round and he had to kiss Rachel which she wasn’t very happy about but Guy layed one on her anyway whether she liked it or not. I don’t think that she liked the kiss very much and stormed out.

We decided that it was room trashing time because it is traditional for the Riot Club to trash the room, pay for the damage and leave. This is what I had been waiting for all night, this is the moment for me to live what my brother had previously lived in the Riot Club, this is what we had been known for, but during the awesome room trash, Chris came in and saw what we were doing.

He wasn’t too pleased by what he saw but Alistair explained to him what was happening and that we were going to pay for the damage so he might as well leave us to it, but Chris wouldn’t back down and he changed the subject to his daughter and how we could have a sexual assault conviction.

It was at that moment that something changed in Alistair and he decided to hit him once, some others did the same, but Toby took it too far and was beating the living shit out of him – literally.
I have to say that I am not proud to admit this but in sheer panic I started to cry.
None of us knew what to do, the land lord could die, but who will go down for it?

We came down to the conclusion that Alistair would go down and the rest of us would go free.

A night to forget

On September 21st it was the first riot event of the academic year, it was an opportunity to show the new boys what we are about and have a bit of rough fun and bants with the chaps. It didn’t turn out that way but I shall get to that later. I fluffed up a bit because Clare Thompson the scruffy dyke had her heart set on giving me an interminable rant on well academically I was doing. The chaps were a bit exasperated with me because I was a tad late but there big boys they can suck it up. I gallantly got them riled up to so that the dinner had an element of pizzazz and was lacklustre like previous years. Guy pulled one out the bag by organising the ten bird roast which was smashing, unfortunately it was one bird short which didn’t bother me but the chaps were incessant on me getting to get it knocked off the bill which I thought was rather pedantic but oh well. One part of the evening that I was literally disgusted at was the animalistic behaviour of Alistair and the other guys ridiculing me because I worked in the cooperative bank, well excuse me for having some ambition and wanting to go places outside of the club. The lot of them acted like total shits and that’s just not on, especially towards your president. The amount of time I spent trying to hown them into to decent young chaps and they do something like that its despicable. To be honest that really cut through the heart of me and somewhat subdued me for the large majority of the evening. Shortly after that Harry’s tremendously crass idea of ordering a prostitute had arrived, but that one fell through probably because she saw as I did that these chaps were being a complete bunch rawkus burks. After that I could tell the landlord was getting bit shirty with us, but it was rather amusing like watching a rowing instructor being flustered because he’s forgotten his paddle. After that we quietened down slightly and proceeded with our mass consumption of Bordeaux. Tubes had a bit of a rough time with it and passed out and during this time it was time for Chelsea trots which was a good opportunity for me to get back in the saddle and actually enjoy myself. It was a bit of fun until the chaps were way out of order and guy the squirmy creep forced the landlord’s daughter to kiss him which me and Hugo concurred that really wasn’t banta anymore. After that we did what any good Riotsman do and decimate the contents of a restaurant. Even I have to say it was pretty bloody spectacular and it even more tasty due to the fact that I was completely forest gateaud. The land lord burst in the middle of it and was majorly hacked off, this is where the night got ugly. He was shouting at Alistair for a few minutes and Ryle’s inner yob came out and decked him and some of the other boys like a pack of wolves. It was absolutely disgusting behaviour and very typically of Ryle to exert his power in front of us and on this time it was with his fists. It left us in a total panic with what to do and was just a huge sense of franticness among us. Hugo was adamant that we needed an ambulance and this eventually became the consensus. One by one every one realised that ultimately it was Alistair’s fault and he knew, it was a night to be forgotten.

Posh Blog

During the rehearsal process I have learnt how difficult it actually is not to spill water or juice on a table cloth during scene changes.

I have learnt not to act like your listening but to actually listen to what people are saying on stage no matter how many times you hear it, if you listen, the reactions would be more authentic and realistic.

I think that working with real food on stage was a big step for us because most of us are used to miming food and I think that during the scene changes when we have to put the food on the plates quickly without re-arranging any of the food, I found this quite challenging because everyone is trying to move it onto the plates quickly, it is very easy to knock the food out of someone’s hand so we all have to be careful.

I think that the rehearsal process is going really well because we have stopped the improvisation process and have now moved onto straight rehearsals.

I sometimes find it hard concentrating where we have to sit down for long periods of time and I do admit my mind does drift off and I often find myself panicking because I can’t remember what line comes next.

I think that I remember my cues well, although I do miss a few sometimes and my lines aren’t that bad, I know that I have improved and I know that by the show there won’t be any mistakes.

Blog Log

What I have learned during the rehearsal process is; to have patience while others our involved in their scene, to either concentrate, listen to my fellow co-actors and, I might learn something about my own performance while observing them. Or to run my lines in my head so they our fresh and clear in my mind.

When I get a direction e.g. be nervous, then told for the same bit of that scene, be firm and go on the offensive. Is not to get rid of my last note but to create a layer and build on each one. This is really hard to find the balance but hopefully for the audience will benefit.

I’ve learned to remember my cue to begin my line and my cue for others.
For if I fail or someone else fails to come in with their cue it holds the play and it becomes awkward on stage.

Something that is very hard is to maintain energy while sitting down for long periods. It’s not just for the play it’s the constant going over things that draw it out longer and make it more arduous, but I do understand why we go over them.

The posh process has been a great experience for me, and has laid the foundation for me to work and see what it’s like to on an ensemble with many actors. I have had many mixed emotions and feelings throughout the duration of the process. To make the production work from and acting point of view I needed to be resilient and huge part of the process is being able to take criticism and direction and move on swiftly and act professional. At times I did not always do this but this is just part of the vital learning that goes on. Most importantly it has been very enjoyable experience and has further enticed me into acting. One of the biggest aspect of posh that has struck and something that I admire is the layering and the time the director has taken to slowly build the four scenes and not rush them. The work prior to the actual rehearsal process I found extremely useful for the characters background, for example the previous circumstances exercise was great thing to do for characters to be built.

Preparing for the big push

Our last few renditions of our scenes have definitely highlighted the aspects of the production about its strengths and weaknesses, i have certainly observed that just over the last few days that certain choices by the actors and tweeking by karla have thoroughly improved the fluidity and entertainment in terms of the watching it. Because my character does not apper until half way through scene one i have had a good oppurtuniy to watch the other characters, i have particularly enjoyed much more recently the relationships between ed and toby aswell as guy and dims in the beggining parts of the play. I feel that the anger in toby coneyed by mr warner now has much more purpose and is more understanderble to the audience, this is also due to the frivolous attitude of ed which is being played convincely by katie. The tension between guy and dims is becoming more prominant which is very relevant to the realationships between the charaters in the latter stages of the play. Ibrahim is making slightly more subtle choices which paying off for harry charater which adding a better level of humour between these beggining parts of the show. I can see that nathan is in his element with alistair and displaying very good sinister streak especially in scene three which is crucial that the play shows how dog eat dog this world actually is. Chris's physicalities and mannerisms are very convincing as a landlord, this allows to show great contrast between the greatly competative nature of the riot members. Hugo of recent has made a small transcition that has developed into a character that is as cool as a fan and very is easy on the eye, this is because of the subtleties of nico that are oozing out of his demeanour. george is showing a good level of consistancy of displaying being intoxicated and enthuiastic at the same time. Aisling has had one of the toughest tasks to take playing three characters and is pulling of three very different personalities extremely well while remaining to keep the flair and compelling us at the same time. It has had its ups and downs but i can honestly say its been a brilliant experience so far and we all need to keep at it in and out of rehearsal to ensure that we produce something that we are proud of.