During the dime of working on our play The Double Dealer we have learned a lot about not only the play itself but also the whole restoration period as well. In the final weeks of working on the restoration project I have found that once you have the lines in place and you understand what is not only going on with your character but also with all of the others you gain an understanding of the whole play enough to focus on the depth of the character you are playing.
Through the final stages of the rehearsal process I found myself really beginning to understand the character of Cynthia and those around her and their relationships, I have also found how she moves especially working with the character shoes, practice skirts and fans you really begin to grasp a sense of how they would have moved or acted with these specific items and the corsets make a huge difference as to how you sit stand and move as they restrict your movement in such a way that you have to move like a lady of the day would have because you have no other physical choice.
I have found through the rehearsals that learning lines was quite difficult because restoration is a mix between modern and shakespearian theatre and so you have the language of a shakespeare play but no rhythm which makes learning the lines a lot harder than it needs to be. That being said it was interesting as a challenge because it gave you a lot more to think about with the character and the play itself because you were spending a lot more time thinking about how the language and the lines all fitted in with each other.
overall I feel that this whole rehearsal process has been difficult and challenging but at the same time a wonderful experience, it has been fascinating to learn about the history of not only the play but the era itself and how restoration theatre came to be.
