Dear Diary, love the Faust cast #3

Diary of Runar Freyr Gislason who plays Valentine, Greta’s brother in Faust

Groundhog day in London
Well now I’m starting to get to know how it is to be an actor in London.

We do 7 shows a week: every evening except Sundays and twice on Saturdays. I have sometimes felt that the actors I’ve seen on stage in the West End are either tired or saving themselves and now I understand them – it’s quite tough doing the show every evening, especially as the show is so physical. We always wake up a bit stiff and we use the day to warm up and get into gear for the evening’s performance.

Here in London you walk a lot. It’s unbelievable how easy you find it to walk everywhere in a big city when you can hardly walk to the show in Iceland – what’s that all about?

We’re having great fun. It’s really nice to be in London this time of the year – a bit of an extension from the summer and it’s great getting to know the city. We’re getting visits from friends and family in Iceland – the other day I had 5 of my good friends who came to see Press Night and soon my boy who is 7 is coming to visit! That’s going to be something special! We’re going to look at the city, go to the zoo, visit some children’s museums but the highlight is going to be play father and son football in Hyde Park.

There are some people in the group who are going to buy bicycles – this will come in handy for a man like me who hates the tubes.

We live in a neighbourhood called Southwark, in South London, by London Bridge and E&C – it’s a great neighbourhood and has been developing over the recent years. It’s takes 7 minutes (exactly!) to walk to the theatre and just under an hour to walk to Covent Garden. What I like to do is walk along the South Bank and look over the river.That’s what I’m going to do now in the sun and the good weather. Plus I’m going dream about my new bicycle.

Backstage
I’m sitting in my dressing room and am waiting for my entrance… Just dressed in white briefs, a tall coat and a black hat (costume!). I’m just about to be a devil that bounces around on the net. Ha ha ha ha – this is my life’s work!

The director asked me to find my inner devil where I say nothing…. it reminds me a bit of animal improvisation at theatre school but I promise to do as well as I can.

After that I will go backstage, run 3 floors and put on my white doctor’s costume to deliver 2 sentences on stage. And after that I will go back to the third floor to throw myself 4 meters into the net just to then throw myself off the net down onto the stage.

It’s probably good for me to burn off some extra weight!

Hilmir is hurt

Hilmir cut himself down to his shin bone during the show tonight…. we’d already done 30 minutes of the show and he slipped in one of the windows in the set and got a deep cut in his shin and bled quite a lot.

He managed to keep on going – he’s a total hero! He hung on until the interval where he then got first aid…when they saw the cut, there was no way the show could carry on and Hilmir had to go to hospital straight away…

The audience were told that we had to cancel the 2^nd half of the show

While H was in the hospital waiting for someone to stitch him up, we sat in the theatre bar, hoping that he will be fine and that we can carry on with the show.

Fingers crossed. Heal Hilmir

Hilmir lives!
This is all going to be fine – H is going to live (as we suspected). He’s been bandaged together and hopefully everything is going to be fine. The city theatre and the Young Vic can count themselves lucky – he’s ok!

Just spoke to H and named him ‘the return of the king’ and he said he knew he’d be back, or everyone would be in a bit of a shock. Wishing him a quick recovery!

Just finishing off

London Day 4 (early September)

Great news from London – we’ve been well looked after at the Young Vic theatre. Right now, everybody is working hard on the stage and finishing up with the set. While this is going on, the actors are hanging backstage. The technical rehearsal will then start – that’s when all the lights and sound will be put together and also when the actors find their ways to come in and off stage. As the people who have seen the show know, we enter and exit the stage from many different places!

Today, Svava the gymnast shot out the pit as Lilith and everything went to plan.  During that, I sat nervously watching this lovely girl being shot across the stage.  Unnur has also been flown about on the trapeze, so we’re in a good place. Einar and Diddi from the stage crew are really happy with everyone who’s working here and say that they’re swapping experiences with the staff here at the Young Vic. So our boys will come back with more experience from this trip, like most of us probably will as well. So this will be a long day but without a doubt, lots of fun.

Nina Dogg (Lilith of the Faust cast)

Dear diary, love the Faust Cast #1

JUST ANNOUNCED: An extra performance (Wednsday 27 October, 2.45pm) of Faust now on sale.  The show sold out a few weeks ago, so buy your tickets now!

We’ve asked the Faust cast to give us permission to look into their diaries… they have graciously agreed and so for the next few days, we’ll be rolling them out here.

First up, Unnur, who plays Greta.

Day 2
Landed in Gatwick 7pm after a nice flight.
Butterflies in stomach for exciting times in London.
What are we getting ourselves into?
It’s quite exciting but also quite unpredictable.
We ate at our first Indian restaurant with the Artistic Director of the Young Vic David Lan. He told us some exciting news that I’m not going to tell now but maybe later.
Walked around the city and got very inspired by everything and realized how small Reykjavik is in comparison.
Accidentally went into the theatre where Shunt is.
Came into the Young Vic for the first time this morning. Most of us haven’t been there before but some of us have done a few shows there, like Romeo and Juliet.
It’s a really cool theatre with a great atmosphere. The auditorium seats about 450 people and there’s 40 shows being performed. It’s nearly sold out they tell me… that’s a great relief!
We had a text run in the rehearsal room. It  wasn’t too bad, afterall we did have one of the best voice coaches from London who trained us in Iceland the week before we left.
The pressure is great… what will people think about the show? Will the critics like it?
Nilli, the gymnast, damaged his stomach muscles last time when performing in Romeo & Juliet – will he survive this trip?
This is very exciting and the atmosphere in the group is great – great morale + team spirit!

London day 5
For the first time, we went on stage today where the technical people have been working day and night getting everything together… the set, the LX, the rigging, the net… all of it.
We are getting very excited to run-through on set and to check out all the gymnastic tricks in the show especially as our first preview is on Saturday and it’s a full-house!

We actors have been going through our lines practicing our English for the play and running through the whole play for the past 4 days in the rehearsal room.
Svava the gymnast was shot up from the pit for the first time yesterday.  It’s mostly her and Nilli who are sacrificed when we need stunts tried out  (guinea pigs). Great fun for them!

It went really well and I think it’s even more effective than in Iceland because the distance that  Nina will be shot from in the theatre is much further than in Reykjavik. There was a great report about us in Time Out yesterday – some pictures and an interview with Gisli as well.
It seems to be that a buzz is starting here in London for our Vesturport Icelandic company production of Faust.
Now I’m going to walk over to the theatre and try to squeeze myself into the corset for the first technical rehearsal.

2nd week in London
This is our 2nd week in London and the first preview is over… it was a strange feeling to stand in front of a full house for the first time last Saturday, acting in English and trying to make it look effortless!

The technical wasn’t quite there yet but we have a week to finalize this and make the show perfect. The audience reception was great, the applause was amazing. The pressure is great on us though – we are working on changes but Gisli the director is very conscious to let us rest between rehearsals so we won’t overexert ourselves and to keep our strength up. Some of us are getting ill but they’ll get well soon we hope!

Someone’s Facebook status – the best piece of theatre they’ve ever experienced yesterday! Go and see Faust.

The actual Press Night is next Friday 1 October, where all the critics and guests will come along. It’s been great having been able to do previews to full houses for a whole week to practice and perfect our English as well as our performances. But nevertheless there will probably be a bit of a nervousness on that night!

Our hotel apartments are great, it’s where we recharge out batteries for what is coming up and do the British thing and sit down and have a pint after work where we discuss ideas and what can be improved. Could I get used to this life? Yes!
Will everything get together on Friday? Will Nina Dogg land in the net?
Will I remember my lines?
Will Hilmir find his inner devil?
Who knows? Who knows?