Rabbit Resource Pack - Frantic Assembly

pattern should mean that when one person is still there are probably a
few people moving and this separates the still person from the chaos.
When the performers are ready they all run their journeys at the same
time. They will all be of slightly different lengths but this is beneficial
because as they loop the material they will always encounter different
people in different places. We ran this sequence several times and it
threw up lots of interesting encounters between the characters. The
more we ran it the more the performers became the characters and the
subtleties and complexities of their stories and relationships came to
the surface. Not only did this open out the hidden complexities of the
text but it created a fascinating physical scene in itself.
We ran the physical routes of the characters under the actual words
and again it betrayed a vivid subtext, an intricate social politic existing
under the skin of the play. This exercise was so successful that elements
of it made it into the show!
Slippery Child
Driver is desperate to get Paul to release him from his duties for the night.
When he finds him in the forest Paul suggests they go to Driver’s sick son.
As they set off Paul becomes delirious and uncontrollable. Driver attempts
to get his mind back on the task and get them both out of the forest.
Physically we asked David Sibley and Karl Sullivan to imagine that Paul has
become a slippery child running off at all angles. Driver struggles to control
this fragile bundle of energy. They set off on this task as we filmed them. We
then looked at the footage and then went back to the material that seemed
to capture the original intention. We set small chunks of material and joined
them together until there was a strong physical routine. It was then that we
went back to the words. Just reading the words alongside the moves threw
up some beautiful accidents, things we would never have thought of if we
had approached the scene by making moves for the words. With the actors
now speaking the words as they move they had created an emotional world
that evoked so much more than the words did on their own.
Driver’s Magic
We have spoken about how we wanted driver to be different from
the others in just about every way. We talked before rehearsals about
how we wanted to create an other world quality about driver. It felt
important to give a character who is not even allowed to divulge his
own name the possession of hidden depths and qualities. He is so
much more than Driver. He is also brilliant at his job but it is his
excellence and utter professionalism that ultimately leads him to
tragedy.
When Driver enters the room he has an impact, a presence. When he
easily deals with Spin and Madeline he sets about putting the room
back in order.
Steven found a piece of music with a complicated time structure and
a syncopated rhythm that would never seem predictable. He then
worked with Karl Sullivan on the construction of a movement
sequence where Driver would sort out the room with intricate
musical precision hitting all sorts of surprising beats and notes.
We wanted this to contrast completely with the way the other
characters relate to the music. None of the others interact with their
soundtracks but Driver is clearly master of his. If the scene works
well the music is the sound of his actions rather than his actions
being movements to the music. He should seem completely in
control. All of this helps create the feeling of a highly capable man
shackled within a restrictive social order.
Physically, difficult things had to seem easy to him. He had to enjoy
what he was doing in the moment. He is alone and free on stage and
this should be a kind of freedom that dissipates upon the entrance of
Paul and Kate.
Kids Let Loose
Driver in the Woods
At the end of the last full week of rehearsals we suddenly
realised that we were missing a possibly vital scene for
Driver. We had created a scene where he receives a
phone call that clearly gives him some terrible news. The
suggestion is that he is too late to see his little boy and
the child has passed away. Following this he is seen in
the woods, numb with the pain of it all, singing the
version of Paul and Madeline’s Frank Sinatra song. We
thought that Driver had to go through some process to
get to this point. Something had to happen between the
phone call and the song.
At this extremely late stage we are talking about a
moment in the woods where Drivers emotions explode. A
physical scene where his anguish boils over and exhausts
him so that we then appreciate the stillness that he
possesses in the song. This is the scene that allows all of
Driver’s pent up rage to come to the surface. So much of
the script has him holding back emotions and bowing to
definition. We were desperate to see what driver would be
capable of outside those confines, outside the world of
Paul Cave and deep in the woods.
We usually don’t particularly like it when a writer tells the director, through a stage direction, to get physical. We feel this often separates the
words from the physicality and creates a predictable pattern to the show.
The flip side of this is when a writer tosses us a gem of a stage direction like ‘Kids let loose’ (p.25). This direction has physical scene written all
over it but the beauty is that while it is not overly prescriptive it says all it needs to say. It has all the attitude of the scene itself.
What is interesting is that its openness means that different productions will create completely different scenes from this simple instruction.
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