Thursday 13 September 2012

Swimming against the tide...

I discovered something while I was rehearsing and performing all my roles in Hamlet over the summer (I played, in order, Barnado, Laertes, Guildenstern, Captain).  Not particularly profound but certainly very useful.  I discovered that the best time to go over my lines was when I was swimming.  This served two purposes very well.  First of all it stopped me laboriously counting each lane swum, mentally calculating how many more I had to swim before I had done enough (I liked to reach at least 50 if I could) whilst taking my mind completely off the chore-element of swimming which always predominates for me, at least until the endorphins kick in..  It also served as a great way of going over lines without any distractions apart from the odd splash and the occasional glance awry (when I realised that I was actually saying my lines out loud and attracting attention..)

I got in the pool and the first length was filled with my preparatory thoughts of setting props and costumes, working out where I should be and ensuring pre-show checks were done.  On the turn of Lane One, I was into the lines.."Who's there?" "He" "Tis now struck twelve, get thee to bed, Francisco" and so on.  Needless to say, I didnt go through everyone else's lines, just stuck to my cues.  This took about 35 - 40 mins (depending on whether I needed to go over anything I'd forgotten or got muddled with).  I estimated that was about 50-60 lengths.  Result.  Fit, and rehearsed.  Great stuff.  Last lane, final lines.."Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet. Mine and my father's death fall not on thee, nor mine on thee." thus dies Laertes, as my hand reaches for the rail at the end of the pool.

But now...no Hamlet, no show, no need to have the lines ready to hand.  But yet I still persist in going through them when I swim.  The timing is just right, my mind is suitably distracted from the physical temptation of giving up, and those lovely lines (Oh, heat dry up my brains, tears seven times salt burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye...Lay her in the earth and from her fair and unpolluted flesh may violets spring...) are still in my bones, still sing through my brain and I am still Laertes, Barnado, Captain, and the hapless Guildenstern.....

....I just can't quite give it up...

2 comments:

  1. I feel the same way when I go swimming, it definitely helps me to swim longer if I concentrate on something else. Sometimes I like to plan the rest of my week or go through a grocery shopping list but the distraction is definitely helpful. It's the same when I run and listen to a podcast, keeping the mind stimulated just helps. I love swimming though and one day I'd like to own my very own pool, I go on about it a bit too much and my wife has forbidden me from looking at Falcon Pools now.

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    1. and I'm still doing it, although my last performance of Hamlet was last July! I now manage to go through the play one and a half times so must be getting fitter!

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