Production Diary: Cold-Reading for 'Greyjoy' at the Pilch

Production Diary: Cold-Reading for Greyjoy at the Michael Pilch Studio

Saturday 31st January: Going in Head-First

The incredibly talented Rebecca Harper, whom I first encountered as the producer of our 2024 Macbeth but have since seen perform in Your Funeral (an all-round creative force), has now written a play, Greyjoy, that's being put on at the Pilch by her and Tom Onslow's Blackstar Productions (like the Bowie album). Part of the play involves cold-readers, who know nothing about the plot ahead of time, but are given a script as they go onstage, and have to perform it aloud as they read it for the first time. Thinking this sounded like a fun idea, and a good way to dip my toe back into OUDS without rehearsals, I volunteered to be one of these cold-readers. 

When I arrive at the Pilch on Saturday evening, I am greeted by Tom and the rest of the play's friendly cast and crew (though Rebecca sadly cannot make it). There are five of us cold-readers, and each of us is given a sheet of paper with a brief description of our character. The others are Esther O'Neill, Rosie Lawson, Sebastian Cynne, and Xander Lewis. I haven't met any of them, or the cast, before, and neither do any of them know of me. This does feel a little odd, since last year there was scarcely an OUDS show without anyone I had performed with in the cast, but it's a nice opportunity to meet some new people. The cast and crew seem excited about the character I have been given; my brief reads, 'prone to panicking'. The obscenely funny, seasoned improv-er Sali Adams has just played the same part in today's matinee, so I have big shoes to fill...

Assistant Director Avani Rao gives us the run-down of how the night will work: We are playing medical students taking a practical, situational exam on our ability to assess and interact with patients. In a given order, we will each be beckoned from our seats in the audience, whisked into lab coats, and given scripts before being thrust onstage to perform 2 separate scenes.

Thankfully, I am not going first, but even watching Esther start us off does not entirely quell my nerves. I've got to figure out a script on the spot, and hopefully be funny, in front of a full house - I only pray that the text on the script is big enough to read under stage lights. 

Soon, it is my turn. I am taken backstage by Avani, and the helpful Stage Manager Holly Dodd does a great job of getting me feeling ready to go on. My two short scenes go like a blur (they only last a couple of minutes each, and adrenaline make them feel even faster). Thankfully, nothing goes dreadfully wrong (despite going onstage for the second scene and seeing, "Read this section when offstage, because you won't have time for it when you're on"), and I am encouraged by some decent laughs. 

For the rest of the evening, we get to relax and watch the play: a really brilliantly written piece about grief, the culture of the medical profession, and how it interacts with performance. It is a pleasure to watch Zee Obeng (as a struggling actor volunteering as a mock patient) and Bobby Tregear (as a burnt-out worker on the maternity ward, dragged into supervising our exams) give brilliant performances, and the development of their characters' relationship intrigues. The biggest surprise of the evening is that (as I know beforehand but somehow forget) there are in fact only four cold-readers per evening. Shortly after Xander's scene begins, he discards his script and starts on an emotional monologue: for a split second, I actually think he's gone off-script. Of course, he is actually part of the cast, but has totally fooled me by pretending to be one of us up to this point. This twist is genuinely shocking for the audience and myself alike, thanks to perfect execution on behalf of Xander and the rest of the team. 

So, what did I learn from my evening as a cold-reader? That I can no longer rely on knowing or even knowing of the majority of people making theatre in OUDS, but that Oxford's stages are in safe hands with the newer cohort; that student theatre still has plenty of surprises for me; and, most importantly, that it's always a good idea to throw yourself onstage with a new group of people, even if one has not read their script beforehand...

Huge thanks are due to Rebecca for involving us all in such a unique and creative project, to the crew at Blackstar for taking such good care of us, to the cast for bouncing off their impromptu scene partners so well, and to all for putting on a great show.