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THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE: Rehearsal Diary with Lorraine
Cheshire
Lorraine is rehearsing the role of Sadie in the Royal Exchange Theatre’s production of THE RISE AND
FALL OF LITTLE VOICE by Jim Cartwright. In the play Sadie lives next door to Little Voice and her
mother, Mari. The play is directed by Sarah Frankcom. The first performance of THE RISE AND FALL
OF LITTLE VOICE will take place at the Royal Exchange Theatre on Wednesday 21 January.
Lorraine lives in Manchester. She trained at the Manchester School of Arden and on graduating worked
for the Manchester Actors Company. On television, Lorraine has appeared in VACUMMING
COMPLETELY NUDE IN PARADISE by Jim Cartwright, COPS, CLOCKING OFF and EARLY DOORS
playing Joan Bell.
WEEK 1: 22 – 26 DECEMBER
On the first day of rehearsal one of the first things that we did was to have a look at Liz
Ascroft’s set model. Liz’s design is excellent; she’s managed to fit everything that the play
requires on one level. She’s created a lot of room on stage, which gives the Cast a lot of
options to explore in rehearsal. We also had a look at Liz’s costume designs, which are
wonderful. I’m very pleased with the costume design for Sadie, the clothes are very gaudy and
tasteless and seem to be just right for the character!
After reading through the play and discussing the characters relationships we got the play on its
feet and started rehearsing straight away. Apart from blocking the characters entrances and
exits we were able to spend most of the rehearsals moving around in the space, as we liked. I
decided very quickly that Sadie would behave very naturally in Mari’s house always entering
freely by the back door. She most likely pops into the house every day, talking to Mari and
looking after L.V. We spent some time playing around with Sadie. At first we made the character
very big and expansive when she first enters. All she says is “Ok, ok,” to everything and I
accompanied this with a lot of giggling. Gradually we brought the whole thing down several
notches and I’ll continue in rehearsals to play around with the character until I find a
performance level that both I and the Director are happy with.
This week I’ve also been exploring Sadie’s relationship with L.V. and Mari. In our final rehearsal
of the week we looked at the scene where Sadie is making lots of sandwiches and L.V. isn’t
eating and doesn’t want to perform at Mr. Boo’s Club. What struck me about this scene is how
Sadie takes on the role of carer. It’s an important scene in the play as both Ray Say and Mari see
for the first time the relationship developing between Sadie and L.V. There’s still a lot of work
to do to fully understand Sadie’s relationships with L.V. and Mari and I will be using the
rehearsals next week to explore this. Sarah Frankcom, the Director has asked me to think
about whether Sadie herself has a secret talent and how much she can hear L.V. singing through
the adjoining wall. As Sadie doesn’t have many lines to say in the play a lot has to come from the
character visually to convey what she is thinking about and establish her relationships with the
other characters. As the actress playing Sadie I cannot wear the one mask throughout the play.
Her facial expressions have to change and I think that they are key to understanding and making
the character work. I’m reading the script a lot at home to help me with this and work out
ways that I can make Sadie real on stage. At the moment what is important to me is working
out how Sadie looks at Mari and how she interacts with Ray Say.
I’m really enjoying working at the Royal Exchange, everyone is very friendly. The entire cast are
Northerners and I think for this play that’s very important. Each one of us in the Cast is quite
nervous about what we’ve taken on but also at the same time enjoying the challenge of working
on the play.
WEEK 2: 30 DECEMBER – 3 JANUARY
Roy Barraclough who is playing Mr Boo joined us at the beginning of the week. It was great to
hear him read the part. The first scene that Roy worked on was the one in which he comes to
see L.V. at her house. I was not sure how Sadie would respond to meeting him. The Director
wanted to know if Sadie would be attracted to Mr Boo. I was not sure about this but the
question threw up all sorts of different ways of looking at Mr Boo’s arrival in the scene and how
Sadie should interact with him. After working on the scene the Director said that I had to make
Sadie’s attraction to Mr Boo a gradual one.
We then moved onto the end of the play and looked at the scene where Mari and Sadie first
enter the burnt out house. In this scene we see Mari breakdown when she discovers that L.V.’s
bedroom is still intact and the fire has not destroyed her records. At the beginning of the scene
Sadie is full of concern for Mari but this quickly turns to hate when she destroys the records
and Sadie cannot forgive her for doing this. We could only walk the scene through as we still
have our scripts in hand. The scene is very physical and once we’re off the book we’ll really be
able to get to grips with it.
I am concerned about over playing Sadie and it’s very important to me to achieve a balance
between over and under playing the part. I will be looking at both the scenes at home to try and
find a balance.
At the end of the week we ran the first part of the act. Again I tried to find a happy medium and
not overplay her. I’m still finding this very difficulty as I do have a sense of how I should play the
character and what her journey should be but it’s very frustrating at present because the part is
so visual with little dialogue. In the production I will be wearing an anorak and on Monday I am
going to start wearing one in rehearsal. The anorak will cover me up and make the character
feel hemmed in. I hope that this will enable me to get a real sense of what it feels like to be
Sadie.
We finished the week by working on the scene where Mr Boo and Ray Say arrive at the house.
It went quite well but the Director said that I still have to find a connection with Roy’s
character and that Sadie should be excited that Mr Boo is a performer and that Ray Say is a
theatrical agent. At the end of the scene I stand by the lamppost and listen to L.V. singing. The
Director said that I have to show that I am completely captivated by L.V.’s singing. To help me
capture this moment I am going to listen to recordings of Judy Garland singing to try and
experience this.
Before finishing this week the Director told us that we all have to be careful to avoid the
characters becoming caricatures. It is important that they remain real. This weekend I will be
working on the play with this note in mind.
WEEK 3: 5 – 9 JANUARY
Monday was a very productive day. We worked on scenes from Act 1. I am beginning to
understand Sadie and the journey she takes in the play.
I got very positive feedback from the Director, especially about the scenes between Sadie and
Mari. She also said that it was inevitable that because my character has so little to say that I
could take focus away from the other actors on stage. I will make a conscious effort to prevent
this from happening, as it can be very off putting for an audience. When L.V. is singing on stage
the focus must remain on her all the time.
We have spent a lot of time this week working on Act 2, stopping and starting scenes. In this
Act every character embarks on a journey during which they experience happiness, despair and
violence. The entire cast felt very positive about working on these scenes for the first time. I
personally feel that as Sadie I am moving too quickly. I have to take into consideration her
clumsiness and weight, on stage I will be padded out which will limit how much I can move. It’s
only at the end of the play when Sadie realises that she cannot protect L.V. from Mari’s violence
that she becomes more animated.
This week, Denise Welch, (who is playing Mari) and I had a dance lesson. We also had a combat
lesson for the end of the play.
On Wednesday we ran the whole of Act 2 without stopping. The run seemed to go very fast, it
was like being on a fair ground ride! Everyone worked extremely hard. There were some
amazing moments between Emma as L.V. and Denise as Mari. It was the first time that I had seen
the ending of the play and I cried. When the Director gave the Cast her notes, she said the
good thing about the run was that she believed in the characters and the story that was being
told. She asked us to listen to each other more. We are still working on pacing the play. I was
asked by the Director to move even slower and to place less emphasis on some of my lines.
Her last note to me was to be more distant towards Mari because of what she is putting L.V.
through.
We ran the whole play in the rehearsal room. It was good to see all the different sections of the
play come together. The Director said that the end of the play is like a Greek tragedy especially
with what happens between Ray, Mari and L.V. This was our last rehearsal before moving into
the Theatre. We were told not to lose sight of the detail that we have put into our
performances in the rehearsal room.
In the Theatre we started to rehearse Act 1. As we went through it the Director gave us notes.
We used the rehearsal to get used to the space. As The Theatre is in the round you have to try
and play to as much of the audience as possible. We had to change some of the blocking to
accommodate this. Rehearsing in the Theatre was very different to working in the rehearsal
room. It was like starting work on the play again it gave the rehearsal process a new perspective
and was very exciting.
The Cast has come a long way in three weeks. I am still finding some aspects of Sadie’s
character hard to come to terms with. I will continue working hard to achieve the creditability
on stage that Sadie deserves.