As We Enter the Auditorium, the Stage Is Open to Us
Mood Music
Welcome to this introduction to Mood Music, a new play by Joe Penhall at The Old Vic theatre. It is directed by Roger Michell. The performance lasts for two hours with an interval of 20 minutes and contains smoking and some strong language. The audio described performance is on Tuesday 29 May at 7.30pm. There will be a touch tour at 6pm. The touch tour is free but please contact the theatre box office to reserve a place. The box office number is 0344 871 7628.
Mood Music is described on the theatre’s website as ‘a timely new play about power, passion and the price of creativity. In a top London recording studio, Cat a young songwriter, her producer Bernard, their lawyers and psychotherapists go to battle over who owns a hit song.’
As we enter the auditorium, the stage is open to us.
A simple rectangular stage thrusts out through the theatre's proscenium arch and into the auditorium - so far that the first seven rows of seats have been removed to accommodate it. The stage measures about five metres across and ten metres front to back and has a silver grey sheen. Some of the removed front row seats have been repositioned on either side of the thrust.
The theatre's own permanent stage is left as an open space – a black void – at the very back of which is a large screen - about five metres square. This is lit an intense blue - and silhouetted against the light are four simple chairs.
The main stage area is divided roughly in two. The rear half is cluttered with items from a recording studio. To the left is a keyboard and amp. It faces into the space, with a double piano stool to its left. There's a microphone on top. Behind this keyboard is another large speaker. To the right is a drum kit. Three guitars, one electric, the other two acoustic, rest upright on stands in front of a guitar amp. Around the studio are scattered a number of metal chairs and other paraphernalia; black flight-cases, their edges reinforced with metal, coffee cups, bottles of water, music stands. Dominating the centre of this space is a large tan leather armchair with wide straight arms you could rest a cup on.
The front half of the stage, surrounded on three sides by audience, is empty but for a couple of metal legged chairs. Suspended from a lighting rig high above the stage space are about 30 microphones, all different types and sizes. They hover some three metres over the action.
The play is set in the present day and there are six characters.
The first two characters we meet are singer songwriter CAT and her psychotherapist VANESSA. Cat is 19 with a flawless complexion and large bright eyes. Her long, strawberry blonde hair is drawn tightly back from her face and fastened in a high pony tail, which swings and swishes when she tosses her head. Cat is casually dressed in black leggings with three white stripes down the outside of the leg and matching trainers. A grey tee-shirt hangs below the bottom of her baggy, faded blue jumper. She has expressive hands. Her long, slender fingers stretch, and reach when impassioned she searches for an appropriate word. Her fists clench tight to emphasise a point. Her face reflects every emotion.
Vanessa is a slim figure in her 40s. Compared to Cat, she's held and contained - dressed in a dark blue, fitted shirt, the open neck revealing a delicate silver necklace. Her pale grey pleated skirt hangs limply below her knee and she wears lace up beige trainers. Vanessa's jaw length, blonde hair is uncombed and tucked behind her ears. Serious and unsmiling, her brow often furrows in a frown as she listens intently to Cat, her spectacles clutched tightly in her fists.
Bernard is an ageing musician and Cat’s producer. He’s a slight, wiry figure with sharp features and deep set dark eyes. Bernard's thick dark hair is swept back from his forehead and curls to just above his collar with just the merest hint of grey beginning to appear at his temples. Bernard maintains an air of crumpled trendiness, in faded blue jeans and a black poppered shirt, open at the neck to reveal a glimpse of the grey tee-shirt underneath. His converse baseball boots are old and beaten up. He has a lived-in face and is a mass of contradictions, veering through a catalogue of instantly changing moods, from apparently innocent incomprehension to wild fury. Sometimes he slouches back in his armchair, limbs sprawled, a self-satisfied smile on his lips or he folds his arms dismissively across his chest with a look of triumph. When working at the keyboard, he wears dark rimmed glasses which instantly make him appear serious and focussed.
Ramsay is Bernard’s therapist. A tall man in his 40s he has neat brown hair and a trimmed beard. His dress is smartly casual. A pale blue linen shirt, open at the neck neck, is worn with khaki chinos and an air-force blue cotton jacket. He pads about the space in soft brown suede boots, hands thrust in his trouser pockets - a calm and serious presence, allowing himself the faintest of smiles.
Cat’s lawyer is Miles. He is a short compact figure, clean cut and dark skinned with close cropped black hair and the air of a busy, competent professional. Like other characters, he wears his dark grey shirt open at the neck, but the cut of his lovat jacket is more formal and businesslike. It's worn with well pressed grey trousers and tan Chelsea boots.
Bernard’s lawyer is a complete contrast. Seymour is a stout, shambling figure with a florid complexion and heavy stubbly jowls. His frizzy light brown hair is receding and untamed - framing his face like a wiry halo. He wears an expensive but casual jacket - a cotton bomber jacket with collar, cuffs and hem edged with mustard coloured elastic. It hangs open to show a dark blue shirt. Tied around his neck is a long petrol blue silk scarf. Baggy navy blue trousers are teamed with navy blue leather trainers, their soles a gleaming white. Seymour seems to bounce around the space, grinning and blinking incredulously through his heavy dark-framed glasses.
The simple, open, almost abstract design allows the action to be fluid, moving to different, often un-specified locations without break. Characters move the metal chairs around at the front of the space and get together in different combinations. People arrive in the space without introduction - and may contribute only one or two lines before leaving - sometimes to sit on one of the four chairs silhouetted in front of the screen at the very back. Often a character on stage will speak a line and it's not immediately apparent who they are talking to. It's only when someone responds that it become clear. At other times a character will have a conversation with two other people, but it becomes obvious that the two strands of this conversation happened at different times and in different places. The only solid location is the studio itself, where Bernard and Cat play their instruments and write their songs.
Cat is played by Seána Kerslake
Vanessa is played by Jemma Redgrave
Bernard is played by Ben Chaplin
Ramsey is played by Pip Carter
Miles is played by Kurt Egyiawan
Seymour is played by Neil Stuke
The Writer is Joe Penhall
The Director is Roger Michell
The Set Designer is Hildegard Bechtler
Costume Designs by Dinah Collin
Composer and Music Supervisor is David Arnold~
Lighting is by Rick Fisher
Sound is by John Leonard
The Musical Director is Will Stuart