Merlin and Morgana - Jeevan Ganatra

 Let’s start with the inspiration for this blog. Sarah dropped a message in the Gold company chat asking for “couple of sentences” (emphasis on ‘couple’) about how it felt performing at Sandal Castle (which I’ll get onto later). At this point, I was going to close Messenger and send something through later on. However, further on in Sarah’s message, she wrote “don’t look at this and shrug apathetically and leave it”, at which point, frankly, I felt personally attacked because that it literally what I just did, but I also realised that if I closed Messenger, I probably wasn’t going to send a review through. So, I stopped procrastinating and I attempted to write a short paragraph to send. As I wrote it, so many ideas of what to write came to my head, and I just knew I couldn’t write them all. I still managed to keep the review at five sentences which isn’t bad. Comma-splicing!? Me!? No, never. But we all know these things look longer than they actually are on Messenger because the phone screen is much narrower and… Who am I trying to kid? As you can see by this mostly useless first paragraph, once I get started with writing, there’s no stopping. Talking to me in real life is a different story; I can’t wait to get away! Anyway, back to the point, there we have it – the inspiration for this blog. 

 

Last year, I had only rejoined Gold Company because Sarah needed an extra cast member for the Christmas show, and had never planned on staying any longer, but I ended up making a lot of new friends, in particular Alise (also known as the rap god: MC Swaggy Shark), Cait, and Russel, so decided I’d stay on for a little while. Come January, we began going through a list of Summer show ideas, which included Macbeth and Merlin, and I obviously was rooting for Merlin all along. After a nerve-racking vote, we finally decided on that. I remember a few years back when Crimson company put on their version of Merlin, and I was genuinely so annoyed because I had just left the year before, so had missed out by such a small amount. Anyway, the following week I came to Sarah with an idea of mine; a new take on the Arthurian Legend that was a plan for a fanfiction novel. At the next Gold session, both Sarah and I pitched our ideas, and came to the conclusion that we would blend them both together. My initial idea was to have it set around a year after the Battle of Camlann, and Merlin was stuck in a time loop set by the very-much-alive Morgause where he would continue finding Morgana alive and he would train her in magic, giving her a second chance, developing somewhat of a relationship between them (I’m very much a Mergana fan!). However, in every single time loop, Morgause has been the one to resurrect Morgana, and the two unite to destroy Camelot. Merlin relives this time and time again, until he finds a way to break free, which involves him having to say goodbye to Morgana. Clearly, this is very different to the play we put on at Sandal Castle – we decided it was best to cut it down and have Merlin heal Morgana with both returning to help rebuild Camelot in the end. If you are interested in new modern Merlin stories, you should check out some fanfictions – I recommend ‘Emrys Ascending’ by Tricksterity and ‘Through the Eyes of Minerva’s Owl’ by Morena Evensong (both of which are Harry Potter crossovers). I have actually begun to write my idea as a fanfiction novel, but I’ll probably give up very soon. 

 

Wow! We still haven’t got to rehearsals yet. 

 

So, we decided to split Merlin and Morgana into two acts – the first being Sarah’s idea, the traditional Arthurian Legend, and the second being mine. In our first few weeks of rehearsals, we devised the first act, and by the time of our last local Hunt performance, I think we had finished all of it. After the show, I asked Sarah if I could have a go at writing a scene for Act 2, which she gladly said yes to, putting a lot of trust in someone who hasn’t written for three years. The first scene I wrote was when Merlin finds Morgana alive, and makes amends with her, but after a few days I went back to this and added a section where Merlin interacts one last time with Arthur, because I felt there was never any proper goodbyes in place. I really wanted to show the audience the more vulnerable side of Merlin, compared to the side of him shown in Act 1. The way Act 1 was written by Sarah was really interesting because there would be a sort-of “flashback” scene set before the Battle of Camlann, and then an interlude where we see the battle in action. As these interludes went on, the tensions rose, and as the flashbacks continued, you truly got to see the gradual downfall of Camelot. After writing one scene for Act 2, I just wanted to continue… and that’s what I did. The scenes I ended up writing (with Sarah obviously editing them afterwards) were The Aftermath of Camlann, Finding Morgana, the Healing of Morgana and the epilogue. The healing of Morgana was definitely the hardest as I had to do a bit of research into types of spirits and tried to create a backstory with them and give them a reason why they would help Merlin save Morgana. I ended up creating a story with the Spirits of Bendrui, which I honestly would love to get the chance to write more about and having gatekeepers guarding the veil between the worlds. I did also write this scene while pretty high on Codeine, so I can’t actually recall writing or researching any of this. The epilogue was easily my favourite to write – it was simple, and I enjoyed the idea that it was mirroring the opening of the play, just with a bit of pizazz (thanks Alise for teaching me how to spell that) to wrap it all up.

 

Then it came to casting, where I was cast as Merlin (honestly my dream role), alongside Alise as Morgana, and Layla as Arthur, who (or whom – I don’t know) I would spend the majority of time acting with. That’s when it hit me. I have to learn lines. After about 30 hours of procrastination saying that I had too much on (I didn’t), I got them all learnt. It was a matter of prioritisation, and that’s why my lines for Brexit (The Musical) and Much Ado About Nothing are very much lacking. Now if you couldn’t tell already, I’m a huge Merlin fanboy – in fact, I still remember very clearly when we performed in the National Theatre, and Colin Morgan was there at the same time. Imagine being within 100 metres of where Colin Morgan has stood! I even have the Merlin action figures and the Top Trumps! Anyway, we realised we only had about 5 rehearsals to bring this play to life, and so learning lines and characterisation had to be done very quick. Somehow, despite my pessimism, we got it done. However, there were two moments when I felt really defeated during these rehearsals:

1.     Learning to click – basically, I struggled to click to the point where everyone in Gold took the mick out of me, and then somehow (mentioning no names – Ahem, Sam), this spread to Black company. It was even suggested that Layla clicked for me behind my back! As a strong, independent, young, alpha male, I wasn’t having any of this. I learnt to click ‘after it was deemed impossible’. But it all went embarrassingly wrong at the performance…

2.     Dancing – so unlike the clicking, I never really got to grips with this. For some reason, Sarah wanted to have us dance to some folk music, and she choreographed this very footwork-dependent dance for us all to learn. I’m not gonna lie, after being told to get my life together, I actually managed to do it at a reasonable pace, but it was pointed out that I looked like I had a 5 second delay on. 

 

*Audibly Sighs*

 

(If you want to find out the meaning behind that joke, then read my Brexit The Musical blog when it comes out later in July…… good one Jeev, now you actually have to write one!)

 

I have a list of 17 points I would like to get into this blog, and with less than a day to write it; so far, I’ve checked off six bullet points, so I’m going to crack on and power through this with no ‘self-indulgent twaddle’ as Sarah would say. 

(Edit – Apologies, but I lied)

 

My initial thought for costume was to wear brown trousers, a brown belt and a scuffed-up beige t-shirt. This honestly would’ve been a pain to find, so it really helped when Sarah said all blacks. A sigh of relief. However, for some odd reason, after searching around all of Leeds and Wakefield, I literally couldn’t find a basic black shirt, which wasn’t great for two reasons; 1) I needed it for work and 2) I needed it for the play. Luckily, Alise lended me her fancy (it’s from Zara – look at me, I don’t even think I’d be allowed in there), floaty black shirt which literally took me ten minutes to put on because the buttons are on the wrong (or right, depending on how you look at it) side. In terms of props, Merlin only had three, which I left last minute as usual. The first was a wisteria flower, and I actually did order one from John Lewis, but it was a metre long so that was pretty much useless (I mean, who even needs that!). I ended up using a plastic flower I had in the house which looked reasonably similar. The next prop was a medicine vial, and I actually used one of my sister’s old perfume bottles and just took the sticker off. Apologies again to Alise if this was overpowering and made her brain all foggy when she had to pretend to drink it. The last was a knife, and this was provided by Sarah. So many laughs came about because of this knife. The knife was… I don’t even know how to put it… Floppy! The knife was floppy! Limp! And we had to pretend like it was hard during the play, and ‘I just couldn’t…I couldn’t’ stop laughing at it. But as always, safety comes first. 

 

Usually, with a Yew Tree play, at least one page of my script will fall off (never as bad as what Alice and John have done to their Brexit scripts though). However, we had got to two weeks before the play, and mine was in perfect condition. That is, until we rehearsed the ‘restoring Morgana’s memories’ section and Alise somehow accidentally managed to tear a page out of my script. I mean, it was bound to happen at some point; it’s just I was so so close, but alas…  

 

The soundtrack for Merlin and Morgana was comprised of a few tracks from movies and tv shows like HTTYD, and it was important that we created a sound distinctly different to BBC’s Merlin, with us only using one official track in the end. If you’ve ever seen Lost, one of the most memorable and emotional moments for me is in Season 1 Episode 19, when we learn about John Locke’s history about how his father betrayed him, and we see him crouched over the hatch, after making a terrible mistake on the island costing someone their life, crying “why have you done this to me!?”. Having the very same music as that scene playing for Arthur’s death is what made it so…… Beautiful.    

 

Let’s skip forward to the rehearsal before the play. There were quite a few absences for various reasons, but we managed to go through the play, fixing any issues as we went along, and I can’t lie, I actually felt prepared for a show. Although, I have to admit, my mind was somewhere else in that session. The day before I was at the Good Food Show, and I had made the decision to get pet chickens. With a little more persuasion, I may soon have three absolutely crazy chickens flapping around my garden. Did you know you could get chickens that look like llamas!? Right, back to the point. 

 

Sunday 19^th June 2022 – Performance Day

 

Sarah: Arrive at 1pm!

Me, who lives literally 2 minutes away: (still late)

 

Okay so yes, I was late, but at the same time, I was among the first 6 of the cast to arrive. Unfortunately, we found out that Cait, who had played Gwen, wasn’t able to perform with us, and so Fern managed to step in. However, to Cait, if you’re reading this, you have been a massive part of the cast and helped bring this play to life, not to mention how much you are a part of the Yew Tree family. I promise you that your time as Guinevere is not over yet. 

We had a two-hour rehearsal at Sandal Castle to get used to the space, and make sure the sound was working correctly (Ash did a great job of this). During this time, we were victims of the local hecklers (if you wanna see some scripted hecklers, come along to see Brexit The Musical in July), saw a plentiful supply of dogs (including the most adorable golden-brown, white-striped Cavapoo), and unfortunately witnessed someone using the beautiful historic grounds as a loo. At around 2:15pm, Sarah gave us a short break, where most of us went over to the café and got a drink (mentioning no names, some got chocolate cake) and then we gathered back ready to perform. As always, my mum turned up 45 minutes early, probably expecting a traffic jam of people queued up all around the Castle pathway. This brings us to the performance. Actually, wait, no it doesn’t. Fooled you! You thought this was nearly over! Little do you know, but I’ve still got 9 things on my list to check off. 

 

Having never performed theatre in the open-air, I was ever so slightly weary (which I now know how to pronounce without a heavy Yorkshire accent). You know, there’s a lot that could go wrong: the weather, the locals giving us “looks”, the sound not connecting, and the weather again. Oh, and hayfever! The fact that we weren’t able to check our script on the side of the “stage” was concerning because I usually know all my lines, but never know what order they come in. However, to put it simply, Sandal Castle was the perfect place to perform, and it went better than I think we all hoped it would. The backdrop of the castle ruins truly added to the atmosphere of Camelot, and the historic significance of the castle really helped bring it to life in our own minds. I’m so glad that we had to opportunity to perform there! Throughout the four hours there, Sarah had a strict rule that we didn’t break any ankles, but frankly all I wanted to do was be running up that hill, because I know it doesn’t hurt me. If I only could… Okay, pop culture reference completed. 

 

There isn’t much to say about the play itself. It went so well, and we got some great reviews afterwards. Everyone had their lines right, and everyone had some great characterisation. To top it all off, the play even went in the correct order. I loved every minute of performing this show and finally being able to bring it to life, at Sandal Castle as well of all places. On second thoughts, there was actually one moment which I showed some visible frustration. Like I said before, I learnt to click, but my hands were so sore on the day of the performance for reasons that will take ageeees to explain (I cut my nails too short), and it was just a very embarrassing moment. As we took our final bows, I don’t think I’ve ever had a bigger smile across my face. I do want to say as well that doing Lamda with Sarah for the past couple of months really helped with my characterisation, voice and just acting in general. It was great to see my family there to watch, along with others like Cait, Olli and Ellie, and I’m so glad you guys enjoyed it… well, at least I hope you did. I had a little chat with Jo from NODA who wrote a lovely review of the play, and I won’t lie, afterwards I did look around on top of the hill behind us to see if the NODA President was there on a throne-like deck chair, but I already knew he wasn’t because I would’ve spotted those eccentric gold chains a whole kingdom away. I really hope everyone has got used to my sense and style of humour by now, otherwise I might be receiving some concerning messages after this. 

 

So, there we have it. A played based on the Arthurian Legend that I co-wrote with Sarah that I have genuinely wanted to be able to put on for so many years now - Merlin and Morgana. 

‘Nobody will ever forget what you did. I’ll never forget.’

 

See you in the next blog,

Jeevan : )