Say cheese!

Helen Rutter - 23 Apr 18

The Edinburgh Festival as a family. Part 2:

The photoshoot.

This is the second instalment of my journey to the Edinburgh Festival where myself and my husband Rob Rouse are performing in a play ‘The Ladder’, which I am currently writing. We are taking the whole family up to the festival and are trying not to have a nervous breakdown on the way!

This week I organised a photoshoot for some publicity images to send out to newspapers. PR is the element of putting on a show that takes up a lot of time, generally leads to nothing, can cost a fortune and in our case brought up some neurosis in Rob!

You would think that being a stand up comic he would be at ease being in the spotlight but as the day of the shoot approached he was behaving more and more strangely. Looking for grey hairs, talking about his eye bags and rummaging through his drawers to find the right outfit. I on the other hand, sniffed the armpits of a top which was laying on the floor, dropped the kids off at school, put some mascara on and smiled for the camera.

We managed (due to the fabulous photographer: Kate Chappell) to get some great shots and ended up having a really lovely morning, but it did get me thinking about how this is all going to pan out. Rob works alone, he drives for hours to a gig, stands on stage- on his own- and then either drives home or stays in a hotel-alone.

He also has no one telling him what to do. He only takes work that he wants to and never does anything that he does not feel comfortable with, so when I excitedly announced,

“There is a photographer coming round on Wednesday morning! The kitchen needs to be a bit tidy!”

I can understand why he may have felt a little out of his comfort zone.

There is also the fact that this whole experience is breaking new ground for us both. We have never performed on stage together. It is a play that I have written, in which he is the supporting rather than the lead role. I am used to being in the background supporting his career not playing the lead in our story!

Another slightly thorny issue is that the play is loosely based on a true story (when I did actually find myself stuck up a ladder) but in adding the more dramatic elements to the play our characters are ending up as a mixture of our best and worst bits and some entirely fictional bits thrown in too!
This will give us a lot to discuss in rehearsals, but I shall save that for a future post!

The Ladder is being performed at The Edinburgh Festival this summer tickets will be available to buy in May.
The Guilded Balloon-The Dining Room.
2nd-12th August 11.15am.

Helen Rutter

View profile for posts, events and more info