Berowne

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Trystan Gravelle plays Berowne

Trystan graduated from RADA. Theatre includes: Young Shepherd in Winters Tale at the RSC, Pericles at the RSC, Barry in Leaves of Glass at the Soho Theatre, Stanley in The Birthday Party at Theatre Clywd, Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the RSC, Jacques de Boys in As You Like It at the RSC and Robert Devereaux in Frobishers Gold at the RSC.

Bulletin 1

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

Becoming an Actor
I grew up in South Wales. The arts are a big part of Welsh culture. When we go to Chapel there are the Gospel choirs. In school you are not allowed to play rugby, or any sports, for the school unless you sing or do a bit of poetry. Artistic creativity is more in the psyche of Wales than people think. So, I don’t think it is a fluke that a lot of poets or people with a poetic creativity come out of Wales. I think it is the structure of the society. And, that played a huge part of me becoming an actor.

In school poetry and singing was always important, because if you want to play sports you have to delve in there and do a bit. It was my drama teacher, Gary Nicholas, who first asked me if I wanted to audition for the part of the Artful Dodger in Oliver, for the school play. I went to an all Welsh speaking school, which is the case in Llanlli Welsh is the first language; Gary Nicholas helped me out with my English for the play and my subjects whilst I did it. He introduced me to Shakespeare and I did his drama classes and that is how my interest in acting came about.

I joined the youth theatre. After school I worked in a factory and then a construction site. Then I thought: ‘I am going to try for drama school!’ I tried and I got in. I went to RADA for three years.

Previous Shakespeare
My first theatre job was with the RSC. I played Benvolio in Peter Gill’s Romeo and Juliet and understudied Romeo who was played by Mathew Rhys. I also played Malcolm in a studio version of Macbeth, and I played Fortinbras in Hamlet and understudied Hamlet, which was great. As understudy I had designated public performances, and Toby Stephens (who was playing Hamlet) twisted his ankle, so I had to go on for him. At the time it was the best experience I had ever had. It was amazing. It was great to do and yeah, I can say I have played Hamlet. Then I played Lysander in A Midsummer Nights Dream and then William the farmer in As You Like It and Lucentio in the Taming of the Shrew and then I played the Clown in The Winter’s Tale and I have done Pericles there as well, that was a lot of the character parts.

Globe Shakespeare
I saw Mark Rylance playing Olivia in Twelfth Night which I thought was great. He won an Olivia award for that performance. I thought that was brilliant. I saw Titus Andronicus here last year, which was good, but I saw the midnight performance. You come in at twelve and you are excited and you are thinking: ‘WOW!’ But it doesn’t matter how brilliant something is, come three o’clock in the morning you are knackered and your back is breaking.

Week One of rehearsals
One thing with acting, when you go somewhere you make ties with people and then when the job finishes it is like you are having your heart ripped out. Then all of a sudden you are bonding again and it’s like the first day of school all over again. You are convincing yourself that you can smell the new paint in the corridors – and there’s no paint – it’s all psychosomatic, but have the same sort of palpitations and the same nerves meeting everybody.

Going anywhere when you are starting a new job is nerve-wracking on the first day, but just the fact that this is going to be in the open air it feels like much more, like on your first day of Rugby training, there’s something quite daunting about it, but exciting as well. It’s going to be great. It’s a lovely cast and Dominic [Dromgoole, the director] is fantastic and has really put me at ease.

First we all sat down and had the ‘meet and greet’. Then we had a read through of the play. Through the week we got down to translating the play into contemporary speech, so that everybody is clued up on what they are saying. It’s funny, you are sat round a table with six books around you and you think: ‘God if we need six books and I am doing it, the audience haven’t got a chance in hell!’ But I think you have to have faith that people will understand these stories. They will relate to these stories. We just need to do the detailed work so that we get clear images to support what we are saying. Sometimes the play might mention Diane or Athena and somebody in the cast doesn’t know who she was. Once they have an understanding of what they are saying and who they are talking about, that filters through to the audience, or I hope it does!

So that’s what we were getting grips with, and getting to know each other. It is quite a bawdy play and we have to get bawdy with each other, so we are doing the introductions, you know: ‘Hello I am Trystan’, and, ‘Hello I am Gemma’ alright now let’s talk saucy!

So we read for all of week one of rehearsals, and I think that is really important because there is nothing worse than getting up and doing something and you are not totally sure what you are saying because you will have to generalise. Then four weeks down the line you might turn round and think: ‘what does that mean?’ but you won’t want to say anything. It’s important that the director sits down and says: ‘right we’ve got to get to the crux of everything here’, which is what I think a really good director does, like Dominic. At the moment I am having a fantastic time with him, he’s very generous and puts you at ease and he’s a good laugh which is great!

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Bulletin 2

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

Week two rehearsals
In week two of rehearsals we carried on reading the play around the table. Then we started acting it out, if you like, but still around the table. We were working on clarity, so that everybody understands what everybody is saying, the intentions and the intensity behind it. Then we came and sat in a circle in the space and read the play. Then we read it sitting further out, but still in a circle and then we stood up and walked around the space reading it, to see how it gels and see what takes you. I think that’s a lovely way of working.

The Globe Stage
I have been on the Globe stage once before. I have never done a play, but I was part of the William Pole festival. I did a scene from Rule a Wife and Have a Wife with Sinead Mathews. We only rehearsed for the day and then went out there and performed it.

I am an avid fan of the Llanlli Scarlets Rugby team and I go home whenever I can to the Stadium. The Globe stage has a Stadium feel to it, more than any other theatre. It has the same sort of atmosphere. When you are rehearsing on it, it feels like modern stadiums, which are built like amphitheatres, like the Coliseum. Inside the theatre is a, kind of, deep pool of tranquillity, like when you are in an empty leisure centre. That’s how I felt rehearsing on the Globe stage. There is that serenity that you don’t get in other theatres, well I haven’t anyway.

I know it was only that one day, but I did feel (I don’t know whether it’s the colour of the building) serenity in this empty wooden space. And then when the audience are there it becomes like a bear pit. It is just like training inside a rugby ground. When it is filled up with people, it totally changes. That’s what I got from my five minutes of fame on the Globe stage.

Two shows at once
My second week was a relief because in my first week of rehearsal I was performing in the evenings at the Soho Theatre in Philip Ridley’s new play Leaves of Glass.

There’s no filter on Philip Ridley’s writing, that’s what I like about it. Philip Ridley writes about people when they are in their comfort zones. Somebody, in a talk back, said to Philip Ridley: ‘Your take on life is horrible!’ His response, and I absolutely agree with him, was that if his play has been about two brothers and their father had died, but their father was a king and the story was set back in ancient Greece then it would be acceptable, but because his play is set in contemporary London people have a problem with it.’

Philip Ridley’s plays are like Shakespeare’s. In Romeo and Juliet people are killing each other. We [the audience] are willing Romeo to kill Tybalt, because he killed Mercutio. Is that right? We are wiling people to kill each other! In King Lear Gloucester has his eyes gouged out and you know there are some people coming out of the theatre going: ‘Oh did you see that, that was a brilliant scene, that was fantastic!’ and they get really excited about it, like they are seeing some horror film.

It was really tough rehearsing Shakespeare all day and then performing a different play in the evening. Because the texture, the language is so rich in Love’s Labour’s Lost and it is a play that thrives on its linguistic tricks. The play in the night Leaves of Glass was so intense that it demands all of your energy. You have to be there in the moment, focus, focus, focus! It did sharpen my intensity (doing both plays) that was good, I am grateful for it, but I would not have wanted to have done it for more than a week.

Also, doing a part like Berowne, which is linguistically challenging, is quite daunting and I wanted to get cracking. But my head was somewhere else. Both plays demand that you are there all the time with it, and you can’t be in two places at once so it did require a lot of energy to come to the Globe in the day and do Loves’ Labour’s Lost and then put it to one side in the evening. You don’t want to, because whenever you open a script you fall in love with it, you become obsessed. It is your life’s work for those, however many, months you are doing it. But I couldn’t do that because I had to go back to the other theatre, because I was in something else.

But I was blessed and I feel really honoured that I got to work with two amazing writers, two amazing directors and two amazing casts, doing two amazing parts. It was like a dream. But a very hard one, the reality of that dream is a lot of hard work.

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