Terrible Thames

We’ve begun creating our brand new river tour Terrible Thames. We’ve got the most wonderful cast of six actors who perform the tour in pairs and yesterday we had Terry Deary himself in rehearsals helping to add more layers to the story. It’s one of the most complicated projects any one of us has worked on: the river flows at different speeds in both directions, sometimes twice the speed as it did a few hours ago, so the actors are constantly having to readjust, cut and fast forward depending on where the boat has travelled in relation to the script. It’s taken us the whole of the first week to work it out. Our sound operator joined us yesterday so now we’re putting in music and effects which add another dimension. The river is so full of life – today alone we watched five police boats shut off the river while officers on London Bridge talked down a man who had climbed over the edge; the Tower of London fired a gun salute to mark the anniversary of the Queen’s coronation and we saw five cute ducklings nestle under their mother’s wings. We’re half way through rehearsals, so today we could concentrate on the performances and it’s already moved into a new gear. It’s an adventure that’s stretching us all to the full and thank goodness the sun has come out to play!