Iron Man Juggles 50 Characters
This week I spoke to Craig Irons of theatre group South Side Players about he and colleagues, Karissa Lane and Antony Talia about their production of ‘Wheeler’s luck’. When we spoke Craig said he was knee deep in rehearsals.
The play presents an all too common conundrum with the debate of development versus preservation. When local lady Nora Cox leaves the ownership of the land to her fellow residents they are divided on whether to succumb to the development plans of mainland blow in Richard Lush or retain the pristine purity of the unspoilt town of Bell End.
Craig tells me the characters in the play make their decision by the running of a horse race. To realise the significance of this solution we have to revisit the town’s past to a time when festivals were celebrated by the running of a horse race. We travel by flash back to Bell End in 1882, when a young man called Johnny Wheeler steals both a town elder’s horse and his daughter’s heart and attempts to elope. In the process of elopement Wheeler and his girlfriend Lydia stop to help people involved in a shipwreck. Their ‘halt’ means they don’t make it to the ‘altar’. ‘Wheeler’s Luck’ is a phrase that enters the town’s folklore and refers to the fact that like John Wheeler there are the high points, the lucky moments in life but these are measured by the low points, which are some not so lucky moments.
One of the extraordinary things about this play is that although it only uses three actors (the original play only had two actors but Craig figured they could use some help!) to play 50 characters.
The differences in character portrayal is not by costume or make up but as Craig says by ‘physicality’. Instead of the masks of Greek theatrical performance of ancient times. It is up to the actors to transform into the characters by’ exaggerated, highlighted, physical action’.
With such a litany of characters how do the cast prevent making mistakes? Well, a lot of that is ‘muscle memory’ and of course the character sheets and maps that plaster the rehearsal room!
You can see ‘Wheeler’s luck’ performed by: Craig Irons, Karissa Lane & Antony Talia at the Theatre Royal, Backspace, on the following dates:
Wed 04 May 2016 7:30pm
Thu 05 May 2016 7:30pm
Fri 06 May 2016 7:30pm
Sat 07 May 2016 7:30pm
Wed 11 May 2016 7:30pm
Thu 12 May 2016 7:30pm
Fri 13 May 2016 7:30pm
Sat 14 May 2016 7:30pm
Paula Xiberras
