Reflections on the Improvisation Period and writing in Indiana
Dan writes…This entry is my reflection on the period of improvisation held in January at Lakeside Theatre. Firstly it was an absolute success. The nature of the work requires an incredibly dedication and craft from the actors with whom I collaborate and the cast were impeccable: clever, creative, imaginatively accurate, and hard-working. A lot of material was generated and imaginative avenues opened up.
I have talked before about the imaginative scale of the piece – I want particularly to comment on a notion of depth: the imaginative world of Under a Tree at the End of Time is ‘deep’ – that is, it goes down a long way within the lives of the characters, and it is this quality that separates it from my previous work, and most fundamentally gives it the possibility of imaginative scale as a theatrical piece. A comparison with Our Share Of Tomorrow’s process might be useful: then, the characters were fully and richly constructed but because they had no pre-existent relationships with each other, each could be built in isolation. Also, in Our Share of Tomorrow, the oldest character was 40, and was – in terms of the direction of the imaginative life of that character and the behavioural logic it entailed – relatively linear. In Under A Tree At The End Of Time, the oldest character is 65, so that’s 25 years more ‘life’ to make than I have ever made before, and in the same period of time. There are also more characters, and most significantly there is a series of very well-established pre-existent relationships that had to be developed and made real before the narrative proper – for want of a better word – might incite: a whole marriage between Caitlyn and Jimmy. There is Ray’s life with his daughter Robyn. There’s Ray’s life before everybody. In short, there is a lot of world; but the result is (and has been) that the work we generated in this period is deep: it carries within itself an imaginative weight and consequently is of a different scale – a vertical rather than a horizontal scale, where horizontal might index ‘scale’ in a purely performative sense (think massive set, chorus lines, hundreds of people). And it will make the finished work more interesting. More complex. More real.
There’s lots of work to do now. I am going to Indiana tomorrow to (amongst other things) visit the ‘real’ village of Time, to take lots of pictures, and to begin refining and writing the material we generated into the play that Under A Tree At The End Of Time will become. As I intimated, a lot of interesting avenues appeared through improvisation: now we start to put it all together.
Day Eight | Improvisation Period to build “Under a Tree at the End of Time”
Raymond last had contact with his daughter Caitlyn when he went to visit her in Dublin. She was four years old. They played together in the park. Thirty years later, in 1981, he sends her a letter. These are their letters.
Caitlyn,
I have carried you with me all of your life. I am getting older and you are now a woman. I remember you told me I spoke funny. Please write back.
Raymond
Dear Da – Raymond.
I got your letter…
I remember you put me on your shoulders.
I am having my own baby.
So much to say..
Caitlyn Ellis (I am married)
Dear Caitlyn,
You probably thought I’d forgotten you. Sorry for that, but it was very difficult with your mother and your uncle Conor always against me. I was very happy and surprised to get your letter. When I wrote I was hoping you’d reply but I did not think it was very likely. The time you were born was a very difficult time for me. I felt bad about a lot of things including not seeing you. I would like the chance to find out something about you. I am glad you remember some of what we did and I have never forgotten you.
I bet you haven’t changed.
As you wrote, there is so much to say. I will tell you what is important now. I live in a large house in Time, Indiana, a wonderful town in the most beautiful state in America. My father built the house and I have made changes. I lived here with my wife Constance but we are no longer together. I am very pleased to hear you are expecting a baby and that you are Mrs Ellis. I am sure you have chosen a strong man.
America has been kind to me and I am successful. I remember Ireland well and the challenges of living there. Perhaps I could help you, Caitlyn, in a way I could not before. There is opportunity here. I can support you and if Mr Ellis is a willing worker he will find himself welcome and prosperous. I know people and am well-respected. I know we do not know each other but I recognised myself in you and that is what I believe can make a home. This is my offer to you, plain and simple, as am I.
Da (Raymond)
Day Seven | Improvisation Period to build “Under a Tree at the End of Time”
What has become very clear to me is that the making of Under A Tree At The End Of Time is the biggest project I have undertaken by some distance. This is a designed outcome: processually the challenge is to absolutely make a step change in terms of scale and complexity from our previous work; but in direct comparison to my previous play, Our Share Of Tomorrow, the implications of that step change are becoming much more obvious.
In Our Share Of Tomorrow, essentially I had to build only three lives, who all lived in isolation; and the action of the play was instigated by their meetings. Similarly, the oldest character was 40, while the protagonist was only 16, creating manageable upper limits on ‘how much life’ had to be made. Under a Tree at the End of Time has a cast of five. The oldest character is 65; and the pre-existent relationships that exist before the inciting incident of the play (forgive my Mckeeism) are much more extensive with complex mutual histories that all have to be established with integrity. The outcome of all this is that the world is much, much richer; but it makes the task of making it more demanding. Finally the action of the play covers a much greater span of time in an imaginary sense (years rather than days) and is also more ambitious in terms of structure and in terms of what the audience actually see. So it’s probably a longer play as well. This is all ‘a good thing’, and I am learning and adapting actually ‘how to do it’ everyday.
Hard work though.
Day Six | Improvisation Period to build “Under a Tree at the End of Time”
A selection of Robyn and Ray’s early memories
1964, February 14th – Robyn is born.
1967 – Robyn is 3. She is wearing dungarees and sitting in front of the television, which is showing an episode of Tom and Jerry in which different cats arrive at the gates of heaven, there are three kittens in a bag. She is building a tower with wooden blocks, the red blocks are always at the top. Ray arrives home, walks through the front door and goes to the cupboard at the back of the house. Connie is cooking in the kitchen area, she has a big pan of potatoes. She is obviously agitated. She says;
“What are you doing?”
“Cleaning my boots.”
“Where have you been”
Ray keeps repeating that he is cleaning his boots. Connie will not leave him be. He moves quickly towards her and strikes her. The pan of potatoes crashes to the floor. The tower falls down.
1968 – Robyn is 4. Robyn, Ray and Connie are sitting around the dinner table. Connie is crying and saying something about Robyn. Ray is eating slowly and looking down at the table. Robyn puts her peas in a line.
1968 – Robyn is 4. Ray runs a bath for himself and Robyn. Robyn has to answer a question correctly to have bubbles in the bath. Ray washes himself under the shower head, Robyn uses a flannel to clean her face. Ray sings to Robyn, who learns the song and joins in. The song becomes the bath time song.
Early 1969 – Robyn is 4, nearly 5. Ray takes her outside to look up at the flag they have hanging on a pole that sticks out the side of the house. He teaches her the pledge of allegiance. It is cold and raining but they stay out there until Robyn has learnt it. Connie is inside but does not interrupt.
1969 – Robyn is 5. Robyn and Connie arrive home from the store. Ray is relaxing on the porch step with the dog. Robyn says, “Look daddy, I gotta popsicle.”, “Where did you get that from?”, “The man at the garage.” Ray takes the popsicle and drops it on the dirt. He tells Robyn she must never speak to that man, that he is a bad man and a liar. He tells her to put her head down and say “Yes sir,” if he ever tries to talk to her again. Ray storms indoors. He sees Connie talking to Robyn, Robyn shakes her head and kicks dirt over the popsicle.
1970 – Robyn is 6. Robyn asks Ray if he is God. He laughs.
1971 – Robyn is 7 – Ray drives Robyn. She attends Attica Elementary School. It takes 17 minutes to get there. Connie is working at the diner almost every day and night apart from Monday evening, when she is home and cooks dinner.
1972 – Robyn is 8. Ray is outside cleaning his truck. Robyn throws a bird out her bedroom window and it lands on the front of the truck. It has cardboard and popsicle sticks stuck to it.
Ray shouts;
“What are you doing?”
Robyn tries to explain that the bird didn’t have any wings and birds have to have wings so she was trying to make some for it, so it could fly again, because birds have to fly because that’s what birds do.
Ray stamps on the birds head, to put it out of its misery. He says;
“I can tell you, there are some things that you just can’t fix.”
1972 – Robyn is 8. It is Christmas. Ray cuts down a tree to put in the house. Connie and Robyn make paper snowflakes and other decorations to put on it. Robyn hangs all the red baubles in a vertical line down the front of the tree.
1972 – Robyn is 8. Robyn asks Ray what he did in the war. Ray shuts down the conversation. He says Europe is bad and that Indiana is the only place to stay.
Early 1973 – Robyn is 8. Robyn tells Ray that the dog should not be called Teddy as he is not a Teddy, he is a dog. Ray tells her that the dog is named after President Roosevelt. From then on Robyn refers to the dog as Dog.
1973, Summer - Robyn is 9. It is Saturday, it is hot and sticky. Ray is sitting at the table. Connie and Robyn are by the sofa. Connie hits Robyn round the head, because she will not wear the dress she has bought for her. Robyn nearly tore the dress in half. It is a pink and green summer dress with flowers on it. Connie starts to cry and runs upstairs, Robyn stays on the sofa. Ray says nothing.
1974, February 14th. Robyn is 10. Robyn gets in the truck after school. He says;
“Good day?”
Robyn says;
“Yes.”
The engine makes the whole truck shake and vibrate.
Day Five | Improvisation Period to build “Under a Tree at the End of Time”
Friday’s work was building towards a major improvisation between Jimmy and Caitlyn – the details of which I will have to keep relatively secret because I suspect it will make it into the finished play in one form or another – and it was a success; the culmination of an intense week of work, and leading us into the second week with a very solid foundation from which to build. This stage of making work is always exciting and stressful: whilst I have been working with the actors for some time building up to this period, you never know if they can actually deliver accurate improvisational work until they are required to do so – hence the first few days of the first week are something of a processual leap (a series of leaps) into the unknown as we actually see whether the company can work as required. And fortunately each actor has been a great success; and working fanastically hard. The material has included events that I never could have imagined, and this necessarily shapes the potential storylines of the ultimately finished piece.
So we enter the second week with great enthusiasm. We will be joined by the wonderful actor Lawrence Werber, who will be working with Jot Davies in the imaginary life of Ray. There is a processual neatness about bringing Lawrence in at this stage, as he has a degree of ‘absence’ in the knowledge of what ‘Ray’ was doing last week, which – due to the direction the story seems to be going – is going to be very useful. (SPOILER ALERT! How do you improvise losing your memory? By legitimately not knowing…shhh.) Dr Martin Holbraad’s contributions in the first week were both extremely insightful and helpful: his particular attention to how the dissemination of knowledge operates in this process of work strengthens and refines our approach: something Real Circumstance takes extremely seriously as we continue to experiment – in situ – to become the most effective playmakers we can be.
Day Four | Improvisation Period to build “Under a Tree at the End of Time”
Caitlyn and Jimmy live in the flat. Jimmy cuts down his hours at the betting shop in order to spend a lot of time with her. He buys her a picture of a vast landscape with a solitary tree in it. She is elated. Jimmy can’t believe that Caitlyn has never been to the cinema before, and takes her to see “An Affair to Remember”. He buys her a vintage red dress. At one point Jimmy wakes up and leaves: Caitlyn panics that he has left and they argue when he returns.
They spend Christmas together. Caitlyn buys Jimmy a copy of “Catcher in the Rye” and illustrates it with a drawing of a solitary tree with two people underneath it. She signs it Caitlyn Ellis – Jimmy’s surname. Caitlyn tells Jimmy she wants a baby. Jimmy, who has secretly started to gamble again, is shocked and says he is not ready. He says he loves her and Caitlyn is appeased. Time passes and their love deepens. Caitlyn shows Jimmy love. Caitlyn asks Jimmy to marry him. Jimmy says that first he wants to visit his mother’s grave. He goes alone to his aunt’s house to get the address. He travels to the coast with Caitlyn to a churchyard. Caitlyn introduces herself to Jimmy’s mum. Jimmy breaks down.
Robyn continues to experience Ray’s changing behaviour, over a period of two years. Robyn and Ray go hunting. Ray – who is a good shot – misses everything. One night Robyn sees Ray outside in the middle of the field in his nightclothes and she doesn’t understand. Robyn decides that her dad’s strange behaviour is because he misses her mum. She and her friend Oliver realise that if they spin themsevels round the tree they can go back in time and bring her mum Connie back. They practice on Dog. It seems to work. Robyn goes back in time and – elated – runs up to her dad’s attic where she is forbidden to go, to tell him that it’s ok, she can bring mum back. Ray has no idea who the person coming into the attic is, and pushes her down the stairs.
Day Three | Improvisation Period to build “Under a Tree at the End of Time”
Despite their date having gone really well, Caitlyn gradually withdraws from Jimmy and there is a period of time when they barely see each other. Despondent, Jimmy withdraws as well. Fearful that she’s lost him, Caitlyn searches for Jimmy, eventually waiting outside his aunt and uncle’s house one morning. She confronts him in a very agitated state: Jimmy doesn’t understand what’s going on and brings her into the house. She asks to stay. Jimmy, mindful of his crumbling relationship with his uncle, Derek, leaves her in the house while he goes to make some enquiries about places for her to live. Caitlyn falls asleep on his bed despite being explicitly being told not to go upstairs. Cailtyn’s woken by someone coming into the house and is confront by his aunt, Rose, on the stairs: almost immediately Jimmy returns, explaining that Caitlyn is his friend and she needs somewhere to stay. Caitlyn – relaxed and happy in this environment – charms Rose, and Rose agrees that she can stay. Derek comes home and is short with Jimmy: he leaves quickly. Rose makes up a bed downstairs, however Caitlyn sneaks up in the night and falls asleep on Jimmy’s bed over the covers. The next morning, Jimmy wakes up to see her there, and watches her sleep. They wake up. They stay for a few nights. Jimmy finds a flat above a shop for Caitlyn to move into: she says she wants to live there with Jimmy. Having already planned to leave, Jimmy falls out with Derek. Time passes, and Jimmy and Caitlyn get to know each other. Caitlyn’s desire for a child grows.
Robyn and Ray
Robyn develops her school life and begins to experience Ray’s occasionally erratic behaviour. On Christmas morning 1976, Ray sets three places at the breakfast table when there are only two of them, and makes far too much food. He covers his mistake by telling Robyn that he’d laid a place for Santa. In the New Year 1977 Ray returns from his swim in the creek and is perturbed that he cannot find his work overalls. He calls to Robyn to find his work overalls. Robyn is confused because Ray hasn’t worked in the garage for years. Sometime a few months later, Ray reminisces about playing in the park with Robyn: she doesn’t remember this at all.
Watch footage here:
Day Two | Improvisation Period to build “Under a Tree at the End of Time”
Caitlyn and Jimmy have a number of encounters in the cafe. Caitlyn spends some days worrying that she had said too much and embarrassed herself. One Thursday morning, Jimmy wants his coffee to take out, and Caitlyn thinks this is because he doesn’t want to see her: this makes her cry. Jimmy comes back to the cafe at lunchtime and brings her flowers, which is the best thing ever: no-one has ever brought Caitlyn flowers before. He leaves and says goodbye to Poppy, while Caitlyn puts the flowers in a vase. On the Saturday night they go on a date to Maloney’s pub. They touch upon their previous lives, but are very cautious. Caitlyn asks Jimmy if he has any children: he lies and says no. Caitlyn tells Jimmy that she wants to have children. They go to another bar and listen to live music. Caitlyn dances for Jimmy. He walks her home: it’s really cold. He gives her his coat. They say goodbye on the doorstep.
The goal for Day Three is to solidify their relationship, their growing closeness and what they know about each other. Therefore we will improvise a year of their relationship in non real time. In real time, we will improvise a key event, which may occur in the final play.
Robyn and Ray
Robyn is starting to experience her own sexuality, but with the lack of her mother it is confusing for her. Ray goes to pick her up from school and drives home of the wrong side of the road.
We improvised Ray in Caitlyn’s early life. 1951 in Dublin: Ray takes Caitlyn, aged 4, to the park. He carries her on his shoulders, and then they sit in a pub and listen to music. When they get home, Connor is there and he tells Ray to leave. He shouts at Caitlyn and she runs upstairs.
The goals for Day Three are: more research into Ray’s illness: this will result in a whole series of events; maintain Robyn’s track, including sorting out her schooling and creating the creek in Time for clarity of detail. Does Robyn know what Ray is doing in the attic? Feed Ray into older Caitlyn’s life and develop Ray’s attitude towards Caitlyn.
Watch the footage from Day Two here:
Day One | Improvisation Period to build “Under a Tree at the End of Time”
On Tuesday 15 October 1974, Caitlyn and Jimmy meet for the first time, when they are both having a cup of tea at Poppy’s Cafe in Mount Pleasance, Liverpool. They are interested in each other: Caitlyn latches onto the pain she perceives in Jimmy, whilst Jimmy is unnerved by Cailtyn: she reminds him of a previous girlfriend and seems to have an unnatural ability to see through him. Caitlyn gets a job in the cafe and Jimmy makes excuses to go and visit her. After a few days of half-talking, they go for a walk and agree to go out to a bar one evening.
The goal for Day Two is for Jimmy and Caitlyn to have experienced their early relationship, and for us to have established their sense of need for each other.
Robyn and Ray
Tamsin worked through the events of Robyn’s younger life, clarifying details. We paid particular attention to bath time – Robyn has shared baths with her father for as long as she can remember. Raymond plays a game: if she can name state capitals, she can have bubbles in the bath. They sing “Delta Dawn” together.
We improvised her grandmother’s funeral – aged 12, Robyn went without permission but no-one noticed – and we improvised the evening in which her mother Connie walked out, leaving Time.
Robyn overhears her father falling in the attic. Unbeknownst to her, he is starting to get ill.
We also began feeding Raymond into Caitlyn’s early life. Aged 3, Caitlyn played with her father in a garden in Dublin. Ray gave her a kazoo as a present. Caitlyn showed him some leaves.
On Day Two, we will work on Robyn’s teenage years and work on what Ray’s illness is and how it manifests itself.
Watch footage from these improvisations here:
Plans for next week’s full-time improvisations
On Monday we start a two-week period of full-time improvisation. Below is a summary of the objectives for the first week of work; with the caveat that the material could go in an entirely different direction, depending upon what the cast actually do.
Caitlyn and Jimmy
Caitlyn and Jimmy have to meet and develop a relationship, which becomes isolated; so they are a meme of two. This will happen in the café. She needs to have a baby and be unable to cope with it. And the best option for her must be leave the child and go to America: to Time, Indiana.
Therefore I need to feed in Ray’s contact with Caitlyn, via her mother. This will be one long letter, which her mother will pass on to her. It will be a letter of his whole life – asking for her to come to stay because he is dying. He needs somebody to care for Robyn. Caitlyn should have had the letter for a while before she realises the baby does not love her, and there should be some correspondence between them, because Ray should be expecting a child to come with her to America – so that Robyn can expect one as well.
Simultaneously Jimmy must be prepared to leave the child too. He will also be in debt, because he has gambled everything away and now owes money. He must also have isolated himself from his aunt and uncle so that he is unable to go to them with the child.
So the major outcome of the week is that there is a child; and Caitlyn and Jimmy leave it. She is to start going mad.
Robyn and Ray
Robyn and Raymond (Jot in this instance) will spend Week One working through their lives together; giving flesh to the events we have created for them; and ‘retconning’ material back into their lives: including work Lawrence has done. This may therefore change the ownership of the Garage: now that it sells farming equipment Ray might be less willing to let it go to Jerry; so he could instead become a silent partner – or equally have made a lot more money from the sale. Once Ray starts to get ill he needs to spend more time in his attic, building the model of Time. Robyn has to become aware of that model.
We also have to include Ray in Caitlyn’s early memories.
The major outcome for the week for Robyn and Ray is that Ray starts to get ill; and that he writes to Caitlyn (– via Marie: for whom he has contact details?). Robyn must experience Ray’s illness.
Perhaps at the end of the week, Jimmy and Caitlyn will arrive in Time.
Additionally and processually: I will begin by making sure eveybody is comfortable improvising in the same way, and to explain how the recordings will work – and that there will be an anthropologist wandering around.
