The Play Produced

STEAMING byNEUDUNN

Esther Weatherill discusses her production for the Miller Centre, Caterham

On first reading, STEAMING could appear to be an easy play to direct. ix characters, an off-stage male voice and one set is unlikely to be beyond the resources of many group . However. this play, set in the "Turkish" of a run down public baths, require to begin with a very authentic and practical set. There is some essential nudity - one can't take a bath with one's clothes on! The play was first perfomled in 1981 and explores the problems of six wo m en from different backgrounds and upbringings. They meet regularly to bathe, relax and share their troubles at the run down baths now threatened with closure. The individual problems of the group are ultimately submerged in their unsuccessful fight to save their baths. CAST The Miller Centre has a small intimate theatre seating 194 and it was difficult initially for Josie, the central character, and Dawn, Mrs Meadows' simpleton daughter, to be prepared to undress casually in front of members of the public whom they could meet next day in the local supermarket! Although the nudity was not emphasized during auditions or rehearsals, we had to make the two actresses playing these parts aware that fmally, they would have to walk round the stage without their clothes on as casually as they would in their own bathrooms. Josie is a good looking, slightly common

woman in her thirties, whose life revolves round expensive clothes and sex. With her husband in jail and her son in Borstal, she prefers not to work and endures her violent German lover because he pays the bills. The part demands, however, rather more from the actress playing it than that she is prepared to strip. The part includes several long monologues, during which the audience' s interest must be maintained. Above all the actress playing the part must make Josie'S transition from amiable but empty headed tart to the articulate spokesman for the women at the baths credible and convincing. The message of the play depends 0 11 this transition. From the text Dawn could be interpreted just as a retarded woman in her mid thirties, but the part allows scope [or much more than this. We played her for humour and pathos with an infectious laugh, an insatiable lust for food which might be her way of compensating for the "unspoken incident" with a policeman at sixteen that had changed her personality. Our Dawn developed during the action of the play from a gauche, giggling daughter to a strong willed person defying her mother and unwilling to subdue her feelings wi th tranquillizers. The character of Mrs. Meadows brings a considerable amount of laughter to the play. Her asides about her cat, Dawn's "problem" and her leaking roof are in some cases apparently spoken at random to fill a pause or change the mood of the scene. The part is not easy; Mrs. Meadows deteriorates in health during the course of the play, spends a considerable time in Act II

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lying on a bed telling Dawn not to be cheeky. She must not, however, be turned into a nagging old woman or caricatured for cheap laughs; hers is a very important part which brings old values and standards to the play. When reading the script it is easy to confuse the characters of Nancy and Jane, the two divorced middle class women who frequent the baths . T here is, however, a considerable difference between them and this inust be emphasized as much as possible both visually

stage or his speeches can be pre­recorded. SET DESIGN The set is undoubtedly the biggest technical difficulty of this play. The "cold plunge, a sunken tiled bath with steps leading down into it" is a focal point in tbe set and essential t create the atmosphere o[ the play. The stage at the M iller Centre i quire small, 24ft x 19ft, so we constructed an upper and lower level. The lower level contained three beds, a rest chair, Violet' table and two extra upright chair .

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and by characterization. Jane is a self-motivated mature student who sees her future "with a first class degree in Arabic" lecturing on middle-eastem history while taking tourists up and down the Nile. She is self-sufficient, hard working and well educated . Nancy on the other hand is an introvert who married young and became dependent on her husband both emotionally and fmancially . Through life she has been subservient and lacking in self esteem. By the end of the play, however, she has absorbed some of Jane's confidence and a little of josie's forthrighmess. Violet the baths anendant, with her off-stage arguments with Bill, demonstrates many of the underlying feminist values expressed by the three younger women. She is out-spoken, tough and practical, prepared to sort out the leaking pipes herself or take on the manager verbally when he imposes upon her good nature or interferes with "her ladies" comfort. She's a true East Ender with a big heart and a kind word for those in need. Bill the off stage male anendant can be played live from the side of the

The main entrance was on thi level, centre left facing the audience with an exit off left to Violet's kitchen and small office. A hatch down left allowed Violet to carry on a conversation with members of the cast on stage as if she was in the kitchen. Centre right was Mrs. Meadows's bed with practical curtains, behind which she and Dawn were supposed to undress. However, the space was so small that a curtained area in the right flat allowed them to escape off stage to change, unseen by the audience. The lower and upper sections of the stage were joined by three steps stage right and left. At the top of the upper level up left were three lockers which extended off stage giving the impression of a continuous line of lockers. This was, however, another concealed exit area where Nancy could dress in a hurry at the end of Act I scene 1. We put up a sign with an arrow marked "toilets", indicating she was changing in the toilets. Centre back was the plunge. We used a 6ft x 4ft child's paddling pool filled with water. Steps either side led down to this pool, which was completely hidden by a "glass"

Amaleur S tage January 1991

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screen centre back. This was made to look like a tiled panel with frosted glass. In front of the screen was a small bench used for Jane and Nancy's Act I conversation and as a focal point for Josie to lie on when she said she felt "wicked". Because some of the cast did not wish to be seen in the nude, each end of the screen, which came shoulder high, pulled out by an extra 2ft thus allowing the actress to descend into the plunge . It was therefore possible for Jane and Nancy to enter from the steam room, a door going off stage up right on the top area, move two paces to the moving section of the hinged screen then descend two steps take off their towels and throw them over the creen. In this way neither ctress

was seen without her clothes on. Down right above Mrs. Meadows's bed was an "open sky light" fixed above the alcove of the cubicle through which was seen the " snow" and "Violet' Russian vine". We had problems in obtaining period scales SO we had to make our own out of wood and paint them to look authentic. Metal lockers were borrowed from a local school and painted to look old and banered . The bed Nancy used centre right and Mrs. Meadows's bed far right had head boards anached to enable the actresses to sit up, while Josie 's bed down stage right, facing across th tage was kept as low as possible so that the people in the front row could see above the top to the actresses on the other beds. The showers, not practical, were placed up stage either side of the plunge and made of upturned conage cheese cartons painted black. Most of the set was painted as white or green tiles and the floor was hardboard painted to match. Dark brown stains were added in various areas to give a dilapidated look. Leak marks were painted either side of the pipes up stage. The appearance of the set was of a tum of the century public baths, now neglected and in urgent need of repair. REHEARSALS The play tends to divide itself up into a series of duologues, which could be rehearsed separately. But since little indication is given in the script as to who is on stage at any given time, we found it more helpful to rehearse the full company together, except for some individual rehearsals for josie's long speeches. The play is rather static so where

Amalellr S tage Jam/my 1991

possible we introduced extra moves. Josie looking in the mirror, fetching cigarenes from the lockers and additional cups of tea brought in by Violet fo r Mrs. Meadows. These moves helped to change the focus of a ttention when conversation moved from one group of people to another. Dawn had little to do except ski p and irritate her mother. So when she was not looking vacantly into space, she coloured a picture book down right using Josie's bed as a table.

strawberry blond wig which helped the actress to capture the feel and look of Josie. She also invested in six months of keep fit classes and twelve sun bed treatments, which paid dividends w hen she undressed! Her clothes were more of a problem. Because of her wig and quick changes it was important that everything came on and off easily, bunoning down the front . Josie had an eye for the expensive and a taste for the flashy, yet little sense of style. We provided her with

The Play Produced

Care had to be taken to rehearse the eating so the cast did not have their mouths full on their cues. Any food left over Dawn piled on her plate at the end of the meal, only to realize that her eyes turned out to be bigger than her stomach. Clearing the meal had to be worked out carefully as the claner of plates tended to interfere with the sensitive dialogue between Dawn and M rs. Meadows.

UGHTING The lighting for STEAMING was not complicated. The set was brightly lit most of the time by general lighting. The sky light over Mrs. Meadows bed was covered by frosted gels so in Act I Scene II the main acting area was dimmed while open white light shone through the sky light giving a snow effect. The bench area in front of the pool was lit with soft pink gels for j osie's fantasy sequence and the end of the play. We did not use dry ice for steam. I t was felt that as the steam room was placed in the up right comer any steam coming through would be lost quickly over the main stage. Two small floods, with blue gels, were placed behind the screen near the water with a fan to move the water, thus giving a continuous ripple effect.

SOUND ~le opened the show with " Steam Heat" sung by the Pointer Sisters. This faded into "I've got to wash that man right out of my hair" which was played on Violet's small portable radio placed on her table. A small speaker was set under the table for this effect. Between the scenes and at the final curtain we played "Easy Days", again sung by the Pointer Sisters. We did not use a live Bill so the actor's voice was pre­recorded and played over a speaker set off stage up left as if coming from the upper part of the building.

FINAL NOTE The majority of the audience at the Miller Centre tend to be past middle age. When we decided to do STEAMING some eyebrows were raised both because of the nudity and swearing in the script. We did not balk at the nudity but I cut 60 lines of josie's part, namely her descriptions of her explicit love making and some of her four Iener swear words. I don't think these cuts weakened her part. Nobody walked out of any of the performances, and there was no doubt that the audience greatly enjoyed the play.

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Violet stayed on stage much longer than indicated, either writing in her anendance book or knitting and listening to odd lines addressed to no-one in particular. (During the first rehearsals without scripts, bathing costumes or leotards were used under clothing these were discarded at the first full dress rehearsal. ) The normal period of rehearsal at the Miller Centre is three nights a week for six weeks, followed by an open dress rehearsal and ten performances. Because of the nature of the play, I wanted to be sure that everyone was word perfect and physically confident by the first night. We therefore added six extra Sunday rehearsals and two open "dress" to an invited audience. COSTUME We dressed Mrs. Meadows and Dawn from the Oxfam shop in dowdy skirts, jumpers and warm top coats. Their "plastics" were made, by our wardrobe mistress, from grey shiny taffena, which was toned down to look old by brown scenic paint. When Dawn undressed she wore regulation navy blue school knickers, which she discarded in the fmal moments of the play. Nancy and Jane wore their own clothes and Violet provided twO bathing costumes, trainers and a white jacket for herself. Josie's outfits were not so easy. Wig Creations of London supplied a

jeans for the first scene, a white long tailored coat for the second entrance as she had to start the next scene undressed, a red skirt and short red coat for her third entrance, and a short mock leopard skin coat for her "I shouldn't have but I had to have it". When returning from the council meeting, she wore a black skirt and a low cut red blouse . She always wore black underwear, stockings and high heel shoes. Because the paint from the set tended to rub off, especially on wet feet, the cast wore flip flops or towelling slip on bath shoes. The towels used and worn by the cast were borrowed from a local towelling hire company. They provided us with their old stock, which we also used on the beds. Unseen velcro was stitched on the long side of the towels so they remained secure when wrapped round the actresses, giving them more confidence to move freely . josie's towel was shortened to above her knees. PROPS There are few props in the play except for banners, china, cutlery, shopping bags, towels and the Indian Meal in Act II. For this we decided on four double tin foil cartons filled with rice, curried potatoes, peas, com and pasta. The food was made well in advance, frozen and the required amount reheated nightly in a microwave.