THE PLAY PRO,DUCED "

MY FAT FRIEND by Charles Laurence

John Ahern discusses his production for The Centralian Players, Watford

Summer 1998. We were facing a production in mid-October with few actors available, and, perhaps more importantly, no producer. During one of the group's summer evening get­togethers, in an off-guarded moment (after a few glasses of wine), [ had said something to the effect that [ wouldn't mind doing MY FAT FRIEND again, having been in a production some twenty years earlier. One committee meeting later I was being asked to go ahead'

It was now nearly August, and urgent action was required. Auditions were not promising. MFF is a comedy for one woman and three men. Four people turned up. Two ladies for "Vicky" and two men for "Tom" - super! Telephone calls were made, one of which unearthed a young man who, despite only having played one previous role, was brave enough to tackle "James" (Scots accent to be worked upon). It was now too late to turn back, so I decided to play "Henry" myself - in for a penny... ! We began rehearsals the first week in August without "Tom" who was on holiday for two weeks.

I decided to update the play and this meant deleting / altering certain lines, and changing famous names referred to for a more topical modern equivalent. We also considered the political "incorrectness" of some aspects of the play, but argued that as none of it had malicious intent, it could and should be left alone.

PLOT AND CH~~~.gEiffi . ,: Vicky who owns a book shop is an attractive, intelligent and normally good humoured woman. When we first meet her however, she is grossly overweight, wearing her "last resort" dress. As a result she is depressed, moody "nd lonely, at least in the romantic sense. She has two lodge'rs, James, a studious but somewhat naive Scottish youth who helps in the shop and works in an "au pair" capacity at the house, and Henry a not-so-young gay man who loses no opportunity to tease her about her size. When a handsome bronzed customer (Tom) seems attracted to Vicky, Henry taunts her into slimming. With Tom away on business abroad for two months, Vicky sets to work with grim determination, and, supported by her two friends, hard exercise and diet, she manages to reduce to a slimline version of her former self. When Tom returns to find himself faced with the new, confident, sylph-like Vicky, his disappointment is only too apparent. It was the old Vicky he had been dreaming about, the one that attracted him in the first place. Vicky is alone once more, to be consoled (up to a point) by Henry.

A word about my interpretation of these characters; Vicky, who at first appears somewhat frumpy becomes happy and contented after meeting Tom. Then as the pounds fall away the new, inner, independent woman emerges. Henry should not be played as the "limp wristed" stereotype ('70s style). It is, I believe, best to suggest the character with the voice, and only exaggerate the campness in those exchanges where he deliberately sends hinlseLf up. Beneath the waspish wit and cynicism there is a sensitive, caring and mostly lonely man. The audience

should also be made aware of the great bond of affection and understanding between Henry and Vicky, and this is made clear in th first scene of the play, and is also the key to the last scene. James's naivety should be endearing, not irritating, and Tom, who has the inevitable task of being the "villain" of the piece, must appear totally genuine, whilst suggesting a certain lack of worldliness, particularl ' in the reunion scene.

Our normal rehearsul venue was unavailable, but fortunately we were offered the use of a garage which is in fact larger than our stage area. TI,is proved to be a real bonus as we were able to mark out a permanent set, and move in items of furniture and props. With time not exactly on our side, and Tom on holiday f abandoned the planned read-through and concentrated on basic

blocking, with the Stage Manager standing in • Tom. With only two or three characters on stoll!. most of the time, movement was not inhibited our lack of space. There was also an advantag" in my being directly involved in the action, as enabled me to "feel" when things w re comfortable. Initially I allowed my charaet r little freedom of movement in order to keer things flowing, but by the end of the first fO UT weeks we had established a pattern which we rarely changed. James had the somewha difficult task of spending a great deal of time in the kitchen apparently busy without detracting from the main action. He was also having to work on improving his Scots accent, somethin~ he stuck to with great determination (I think he ended up near Edinburgh).

There are two acts with three scenes in each and plenty of scope to vary the pace within each scene, which was the next objective, along with character dev~lopment which we regularly discussed at this stage. Apart from the obvious . there are certain things the audience should be made aware of, i.e. that Henry is fun (despite the fact he ridicules anything that moves); that Jame, is unworldly and out of his depth (except in the kitchen or bookshop) and that Vicky, although depressed by her weight problem, is also a fun lad y. It is all in the script and just needs some flesh on the bones.

There are severa l key moments that I believe are worth taking a little extra care over; e.g. in th(' first scene Vicky threatens to evict Henry, but they both collapse into giggles, and this is a good time to understand their affection and closeness. Tom's first meeting with Vicky and later in Act Two their reunion which becomes a non-event, are scenes which we also spent some time on. Much can be made of James's discomfort (usually at the hands of Henry) and his attempts to "escape" when he senses that Henry and Vicky are about to fight. It perhaps goes without saying that the final scene between Vicky and Henry should be quite touching and, by comparison, low key.

I am always preaching (often to the converted) that half of acting is reacting. It is most important to keep remembering that advice. Many of the laughs arise from these reactions and at times we unashamedly milked the situations.

We have one rehearsal on the stage prior to the dress rehearsal, and this also serves as the technical. We needed to spend some time rehearsing scene changes as they obviously needed to be as swift as possible. The main problem is the end of Act Two Scene 1 when the sauna is struck and the Christmas decorations need setting. To the credit of the stage crew (who also helped greatly with costume changes) not once did our "change music" run out, and the whole production was kept moving. With a twenty minute interval we found the overall running time was two and a half hours.

The stage is not over-large. The proscenium is 18ft wide and the depth about 12ft from the setting line. Wing space is minimal at

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approximately sft either side. There is a small apton extending about 2ft 6ins which sometimes enables the odd chair/table to be set each side of the proscenium. We construct the set over the rn'o Sundays prior to production week, and have certain restrictions as the hall is used for other purposes in between. I had obviously prepared a scale ground plan before commencing rehearsals, and although some small modifications were necessary, the basic plan survived.

I wanted to preserve the "feel" of the original set, so as usual it became a compromise between maximising the available space, whilst retaining an interesting picture. A rostrum (approx. lO'x4'1") was set up left against the rear wall to break up the level, and provide the "landing" area, with the bathroom door left, and the stairs opposite going up centre. In reality oi course, the stairs went nowhere (except out of Sight). Fortunate[y only James had to spend any length of time upstairs and that was at the end of the play. The kitchen area up right extended across to a window just within [jne of sight. A net curtain and roller blind hid a not altogether appropriate backing. The garden door was sited below the kitchen, and to complete that ar a a shelf unit was built in front of the kitchen, and additional shelf units (centre) gave us space for drinks, glasses and other dressing. The entrance to the bookshop (left) WilS sited immediilte[y below the "bilthroom" rostrum, ilnd becilme il curtained doorwily through which could be seen false bookshelves. The cabinets in the kitchen were simply old door-fronts fixed onto narrow shelves, and although they were not practical cupboards they helped to create depth. Various small items of kitchen equipment completed the picture. By this time the living/dining ilfea was down to IS'xIS'.

FURNITURE AND:PROP.$ 0 '0

•. • .. ___ t

Furniture is always a problem and this was no exception. Ideally it should of course reflect Vicky's tilste which I imagined as being a somewhat eclectic gathering of older pieces. Just as well. Eclectic it was, (although ['m not sure that Vicky really approved), and with space at a premium we could not use ilnything too large. In the living area we used a chaise (our own, made by a member for a production of "The Heiress"), a wing armchair and a coffee table which all looked suitilb[y old. To Silve space in the dining area I decided on a gate-leg table which could be folded down as necessary, and three chilirs to begin with, one of which was moved ilfter the breakfast scene onto the apron (right), where it remained for the duration. The task of moving the chair can be handed

JANUARY

to James as part of his cleaning up duties.

The "mini-salma" was made for us, and the insides packed with an old duvct to give a padded effect. The control panel \VilS created from an old washing machine facia pane!, with the logo removed, and a small torch placed behind a tiny hole to give the "on" effect. The other props caused little problem, although we did have to purchase some Christmas cards. I don't wish to teach any Grannies to suck eggs, but I would advise thnt the change­over to the Christmas scene (Act Two Scene 2) is planned well in advance to avoid unnecessary delay to the action. Attempts to hire a small dresser for the living area came to nothing. We faxed four companies but had only one reply and that item was too large. In the end we settled for a small cabinet.

The problem here is of course Vicky's "fatness". This was achieved by building up [ayers of padding on a lycra swimsuit. On top of this went a large completely padded bra, followed by an old tee­shirt which was lavered around the arms. The whole thing was held in place at the bottom by a very large pair of knickers' Two wigs were used, one a short straight "Victoria Wood" style which made the ilctress's face look round, the other a layered softly coiffured look, which she nicknamed the "Li[y Silvilge". Our Vicky donned her "fat" apparel at the last possible moment - for a hour or so there was absolutely no chance of a visit to the [00.

The "fat" dress which Henry teilses her about had to be long, with a high neck and long sleeves. It also had to be blue. This was made by Janet our sometimes wardrobe lady. The other item which needed to be specially made was the beach pyjamas which had to be sufficiently large to house both James and Henry, and be of a suitably garish material. Other than that costumes were not a problem, everyone wore their own clothes.

Make-up was straightforward except of course that Vicky has to be "made over" for the transformation in Act Two Scene 2.

Nothing fancy. I simply covered each acting area with cross lighting ensuring that individual areas (dining/ living/ kitchen/ landing) could be separated for the night scenes. Three table lamps and a pendant gave a nice cosy evening atmosphere, aided by the use of a gold/pink range of gels. Floods off stage covered the kitchen area during the daylight scenes. I used a combination of fades/blackouts

depending on the tag of the scene. The end oi the play worked quite well by allowing Henry to sit alone staring into space, followed by a very slow filde - before a slow curtain.

MUSIC ,

I am a great believer in good music, but over the first few weeks I had thought no further than an overall theme tune. One evening however, rehearsing Act One Scene 1, (Tom's dinner invitation to Vicky) when he says ''I'll cilll for you at seven", I found myself humming "Got a date with an angel, going to meet her at seven". From there it began.

Act One - "That Wonderful Me[ody" (Coward)

To close Scene 1 (into Scene 2) - "Got a Date With an Angel" (A[ BowLly)

To close Scene 2 (into Scene 3) ­"Love is the Sweetest Thing"(Peter Skellern)

To open Act Two - "Keep Young and Beautifu[" (Pasadena Roof Orchestra)

To herald Vicky's exercise and diet regime. Fade into James listening to Tschaikovsky on radio.

To close Scene 1 (into Scene 2 ­"Twe[ve Days of Christmas"(Bing Crosby)

(Gives time to effect Christmas decorations.)

To close Scene 2 (into Scene 3)­Vicky switches on radio. [ used "Time Heals Everything" from "Mack & Milbe[". This WilS played through to the end of the scene. As light slowly faded and curtain fell the music swelled into FOH speakers, and then faded as curtain rose on Scene 3.

No problems. The sound of chllrch bells was taken from CD effects. The telephone was recorded from modern telephone and for the Shop Bell I used a small hand bell from Salisbury Market (price £1.50). The Door Bell was practical.

CONCL~~ A thoroughly enjoyable and immensely satisfying experience. The play has some lovely moments of high comedy, balilI1ced, at just the right time with touches of sadness. There are some "show stopping" lines, (a couple of which often bring quite spontaneous applause). The most rewarding part is the audience reaction. The laughter, the apparent enjoyment. As a festival adjudicator once said of our previous production, "This is sheer entertainment", After a[1, that's what it's illl about - isn't it?

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