Up The Duff Ambassador Review

Up the Duff

Up the Duff is an outrageously funny, crazy and quirky play involving five completely different women, one man, DIY disasters, a knitted uterus, a bucket and a crazy cousin named Janice.

I absolutely loved this play, although I wasnt entirely sure if I would like it when reading the synopsis. The cast were amazing; the characters personalities were at different ends of a scale.

One of the characters was Jess the teenager, who believes every word her cousin Janice tells her about pregnancy. She always cuts through the awkward silences and arguments between Kizzy and Teresa, by saying something unbelievably stupid or random. The entire audience were laughing at this bemused character.

This play tackles the embarrassment and dizzying emotions felt by women during pregnancy; one scene which expressed this embarrassment was a scene in which Teresa was desperate for the toilet, due to her unborn child crushing her bladder. She resorted to using a bucket on the floor, used to catch the leak from the ceiling. Unfortunately, she was then joined by a clueless Graham, who wittered on about DIY and how uncomfortable it must be to be pregnant, whilst she sat there looking more horrified by the second. This scene also left the audience in a fit of giggles.

Most of the aspects in this play are exaggerated-which makes it much more humour-filled. The characters are quite stereotypical, but this also makes the play funnier. Sometimes you knew what was about to happen next, as it is the type of comedy where lots of props are used.

Overall, this play is more aimed at women, but I am sure some men would also enjoy the performance, due to the character of Graham (who they may be able to relate to!!)

By Ellie Green
Joseph Rowntree School

A sneak peak at the dress rehearsal

Today I got the wonderful opportunity to watch the dress rehearsal of York Theatre Royal’s latest production, Up The Duff. Watching a show’s rehearsal process is always a treat. It offers an invaluable insight into the dynamic development of a play’s production, from a mere bunch of ideas to an actualised show. With just a day away from the opening performance, the dress rehearsal of Up The Duff demonstrated its endearing potential as a show which manages to encapsulate that difficult mixture of comedy and tragedy. You’ll want to laugh and cry within the same scene.

The audience at tomorrow night’s opening show has a delight on their hands. Up The Duff’s cast of engaging and recognisable characters, from the charmingly gobby teenage mum Jess to the beautiful and elusive Kizzy, manage to exhibit the joys and pains of what is about to become the biggest moment if their lives. Director Damian Cruden has done a superb job in securing the gritty realism of pregnancy combined with its comedic nuances, especially with the inclusion of midwife Sheila’s husband, Graham. He provides a diverse, male element to the opening scenes, and reminded me a little too much of my own middle-aged father when insisting on buying trivial items in B&Q as they may inevitably “come in handy”.

A particularly interesting aspect of the show is the musical interludes, which emerge at the end of each scene. They provide an entertaining snippet of tongue-in-cheek pop culture reminiscent of Mamma Mia’s infectious humor. As Charlotte pointed out in her earlier posts, the show is certainly one to be enjoyed by mothers and daughters.

Laura Connor

Up the Duff – Final week of rehearsals

The final week of rehearsal starts with a singing rehearsal. The problem with the Musical Director’s laptop has been fixed and so we are back on track with working songs into the scene transitions. From remixes of nursery rhymes to Motown classic Baby Love, the songs are clearly going to really add something to the play.

 

Throughout the week the cast have been learning and rehearsing the songs with Chris and we have been working in choreography including hilarious routines with shopping trolleys in B&Q – not to be missed! As Damian actually made a comparison to the film Mamma Mia, it confirmed my suspicions that this would be one play I have worked on that my mum will actually enjoy!  

 

As the week progressed and the songs were starting to stick in anyone’s head who even put one foot in the rehearsal room door, we moved onto focusing on physically editing the play. The final week of rehearsal is a good time to strip away excess movement which has gradually worked its way into rehearsals and look at what movement is absolutely truthful and necessary. We achieved this by starting at the beginning of the play and working our way through again. As a result, when we finished the week with a run through, the play had become physically much cleaner and more focus had been shifted on to the story being told.

 

Props and set pieces have also started to work their way into the rehearsal room. It is a prop-heavy show and the actors are mainly responsible for the movement of the props throughout the play as they take through the different scene transitions. Therefore it has been imperative to work these into the play ahead of the technical rehearsals next week. A chunk of time this week has been dedicated to ensuring that the journey’s of all props are practical and that the cast are confident with what they take responsibility for throughout the performance.

 

We also held two open rehearsals this week. These were open to any public who were interested in gaining an insight into a rehearsal process. We had a great turn out and it was encouraging to see the amount of people who were interested in the play. New plays present a challenge to audiences; people are often reluctant to take a chance on plays with no reputation to precede them. The open rehearsals were a great idea to engage people with the play at an earlier stage than the first night – and, of course, for them to spread the word of what a wonderful play this is to as many friends as possible!

 

New plays ensure that theatre continues to progress and thrive and it is important that audiences continue to take an interest in new work for theatre to evolve and remain relevant to contemporary audiences. Up the Duff is an incredibly accessible play; many of my friends are bringing both their mothers and their grandmothers and plenty of male friends are keen to take a look too! From teenager Jess to middle-aged couple Sheila and Graham, Up the Duff really does cater for all tastes, ages and demographics and is an exciting insight into the kind of new work being created for theatre today.

 

As we move into tech week, where all the other elements of production including set, lighting and sound will be integrated into performance, the cast are feeling that they are ready for an audience to come and enjoy the product of our rehearsal process. The only thing this play lacks at the moment is an audience and so we do hope that you will join us on a date throughout November to celebrate the arrival of this hilarious and touching new play at York Theatre Royal. 

My bump and I

Lucy explores the world outside of rehearsals with her bump still on…

Walking around the busy centre of York with my big bump on was a very odd experience! Even though I knew it wasn’t real I soon realised I had to pretend it was. If I walked too fast I got quite a lot of attention. People love a good stare. I suppose I must look at other women’s pregnancy bumps too. Fascinating to think that’s where we come from!

The lovely ladies in the charity shop kept me in there for half an hour with their anecdotes of eating coal and bladder problems. We devised an elaborate comedy routine which involved pretending I needed to sit down and when we had a customers full attention, they banged on my bump with their knuckles and shouted ‘fooled you!’

Do you know everyone was so welcoming even in the gift shop at York Minster – it didn’t dawn on me that Up The Duff wasn’t the most Christian like of titles, or explaining I was a pregnant teenager. But it was helpful talking to different women and hearing their thoughts on how I should stand and breath.

The best thing I heard was “So, what does the father think of all this?” I said, “Oh, we don’t get on” and she replied “No, I don’t think you ever do!”

Lucy Beaumont plays Jess

Cast

Up The Duff Week 2 of Rehearsals

Damian deems this week of the rehearsal process as ‘the learning phase’. It is the stage where the cast begin to know what they are doing but are still learning to trust it. This not only refers to lines and movement but to character instincts and development. It has been interesting to watch each character emerge more fully over the course of the week. Some characters have become decidedly more manipulative, others have softened as the week has progressed. Due to the multi-stranded plot, the audience is given a real insight into each character’s journey as they move through the play. As the cast have begun to define their characters more clearly, the way in which their characters relate to the different plot threads have also developed.

A large part of my involvement this week has been organising the filming for the B&Q in-store advertisements which feature in the play. I have been working with film-maker Chris Spence, to create storyboards for the three commercials we have had to create. This has been a fun element to work on, including location hunting and going head-spotting for a muscle man to work out on a gym ball (a personal highlight of the week for me!) As the play is set around Christmas, I have also been sourcing appropriate Christmas songs to run in the background so am suddenly feeling  in the festive spirit – a little too early I fear. Although I do not have a wealth of experience in film, whenever I do work on any  film projects I am reminded of the huge difference between creating work for screen and stage. Not only the lack of immediacy you encounter in film-making, with the thirty seconds of footage taking a day to film and another separate day to edit, but also the complete control you have over what the audience sees. With theatre, every moment can signal something to an audience and nothing will go unnoticed, whereas in film, you are able to command audience focus. We spent time looking at ways of highlighting the product on the screen, whilst also taking into account that it will be played out to an auditorium of potentially up to 850 people and so close-up shots were a must!

We also began to look at working the music into the play. There are a selection of songs which are performed by the cast in the transitions between the antenatal classroom and the B&Q superstore. However, Chris Madin’s (the Musical Director) laptop broke down earlier in the week and so we had to postpone for the week whilst he desperately tried to solve the crisis in London. As we started to do full run’s of the play, we had to imagine how the transitions would work and be ready to work them in first thing next week. A slight set back in the process but exciting to think how they would begin to shape the scenes when incorporated.

Another focus of the second week has been looking at – as Damian calls it, ‘pace not race’. There is a huge amount of comedy in the play and one of the best ways of hitting comic potential is through timing. We looked at creating a pace with meaning rather than rushing pace on and in the lines. Often this involves specifically focusing on different exchanges in the play and finding a natural rhythm for the piece as a whole.

As we reached the end of the week we did a full run-through in preparation for the start of our last week of rehearsals. Next week we plan to start with working on the musical numbers and we also have a few open rehearsals for the public in the evenings so plenty to be getting on with…

Charlotte Bennett
Assistant Director