*CREDITS*
The Welsh must have a good phrase for the end of the world.
Why do you say that?
Dylan Thomas must have written about it. Written a poem or something.
Of course, he wrote Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.
Well, there you go.
- I did a bit for the BBC. - Did you?
"Rage!
"Rage against the dying of the light!"
Do you know what it is in the original Welsh?
How do you mean?
I thought it was translated.
Translated?
Yeah, do you know what he originally wrote?
He originally wrote, "Do not go gentle into that good night".
- In English? - Yes!
That's disappointing.
- Cachu hwch. - What does that mean?
Total fucking disaster.
Kakhee hochhh!
Sounds like you're throwing up.
- Kakhee hoch. - Cachu hwch.
- Kakhee fuckin' hoch. - No, now you've gone Scouse.
- Cachu hwch. - Cachu hwch.
Cachu hwch.
I could be Welsh. I could definitely be Welsh.
- We would never let you in. - You'd love to have me.
You'd beg to have me!
We have been fighting the Scots off for centuries.
We're not going to let you in now.
Cachu hwch!
Uh!
- David, can you hear me? - I can. I can't see you, though.
- Have you got the camera on? - Uh, no.
I've been driving, so this is just an old-fashioned phone call.
- Oh, without video? - No video.
Oh, primitive.
Can I moot an idea with you?
There's a word you don't hear every day.
What word? Moot?
You also use semicolons in your e-mails, I've noted.
Yes, well, I'm trying to cut back on that.
Look, is there a version of this lockdown
where we carry on with rehearsals?
- Rehearsals? - Yeah. Look, bear with me.
What if we spend two or three hours a day discussing the play?
Then, when the theatres reopen, we've got something ready to go.
Everyone else wastes six weeks. We swan into town.
The British public will need entertainment.
You think the British public need
Six Characters In Search Of An Author?
- It's funny. - It's Italian.
We'll make it funnier if we rehearse.
You speak fluent Italian, do you?
Si, ho studiato Italiano a l'universita.
Well, I speak a little German, a tiny bit of French.
But how do we do it?
Um, have you got Zoom?
- I'm using a Portal. - Well, I'm SimonEvans1983.
If you can find me in app, we could chat.
Georgia?
Just give me a minute, hang on, I'll go inside.
Look on the screen.
- Yeah. - No, look at the screen.
The top right hand corner, there's, like, a preferences bar thing.
- You just need to go down... - Yeah. I'll just let you do it.
David!
- Hi, Simon. - Hi! Like this!
- Yeah, it worked. - We'll do it like this.
- Is it working? - So far, yeah.
Georgia's here. She just...
- Hi. Hi, Georgia. - Hi, Simon, nice to meet you.
Lovely to meet you too.
Sorry about the play, it's a real shame.
- Thank you, yeah. - Real fucking shame.
We've got to keep rehearsing.
- Oh, how? - With this.
Like this.
Have you, um, have you spoken to Michael?
Have you?
Well...
I just think it'd be better coming from you.
- I'm not the director. - Yes, but he's your friend.
He's not going to like it.
- You don't know that. - Mum?
Yeah, I'm here, hold on!
He never really warmed to the play.
- Well, that'll change. - Or to Simon.
I don't understand why he was doing it, then.
Well, for me, I think.
Well, then maybe he'll do this for you too.
Dad?
Yeah, just coming!
- You seem weirdly keen on this. - Not weirdly keen.
- I just think it'd be good for you. - What do you mean?
Remember when we went away for the weekend
and we got snowed in, just us and the kids,
you went a little bit mad, didn't you?
You started spelling everything backwards in your own head.
- Yeah. - Mmm.
I just don't think I could deal with that again.
So I think the distraction would be good for...
- For you. - For me, yeah.
Mum! Dad!
Hold on a minute!
- It's started already, hasn't it? - It has, yeah. I'll call him.
Michael?
- Michael? - David.
- You all right? - Give me a minute.
What are you looking at?
I'm worried that I'm in a Hitchcock film.
What do you mean?
The birds are coming back to Port Talbot.
That's nice. You all right?
- Just adjusting. You all right? - Yeah, not bad.
Started spelling words backwards in your head yet?
I have a bit, yeah.
Have you tried Finsbury Park?
- It's Krap Yrubsnif! - I almost had it.
Krap Yrubsnif! I shouldn't be telling you,
you're the one who does it.
It's not a skill set, it's a compulsion.
Anna's got me painting.
- Oh, is she there with you? - Yeah, she is.
We were up early this morning to capture the dawn.
Well, our family all sketched pineapples yesterday.
Oh.
How did you get on?
I'll show you mine if you show me yours.
- Seems fair. - Right.
One second.
I see you, you little feathered shit.
Very good.
Yeah. And yours?
- You did that? - Yeah, just this morning.
- Fuck off! - What?
- You did not paint that this morning. - Yes, I did.
- You did not paint that this morning. - I did!
I don't believe you.
- You drew the pineapple. - My pineapple is shit.
- Oh, it just needs a bit of shading. - Oh, shut up.
Little charcoal.
When did you learn so much about art?
- I learned it for a role. - Which role?
David Frost.
What, could he paint?
Are you angry with me for having a hobby?
Evidently, yeah.
Yeah, can I moot an idea with you?
You don't use the word "moot".
Yeah, I do.
I've never heard you use that word before.
I mean, I have, historically, I have used it.
Simon uses that word.
Does he?
Sorry, Simon wants to rehearse a play
over the internet?
- It'll be fun, it's a funny play. - Is it?
We'll make it funny.
- You know Simon speaks Italian? - I speak Italian.
We all speak Italian, everyone speaks Italian.
So, come on, what do you think? Are you up for it?
Oh...
Hang on a minute. Thanks, babe.
Is that... Did Anna just bring you wine, Michael?
- Hi, David. - Hi, Anna.
- Hi, good to see you. - And you. It's a bit early, isn't it?
What time did you get up this morning?
Um... about eight.
Yeah, well, I was up at five for the dawn.
So I'm three hours ahead of you and it's after six. Cheers!
Did Michael show you his painting, David?
He did, yeah. Yeah.
Isn't it stunning?
I can scarcely believe it.
We're discussing Six Characters In Search Of An Author.
Oh, yeah, I heard about the cancellation, David.
That's such a shame.
David's not ready to give up on it yet.
He has an idea to cast it, and then rehearse it like this.
Could that work?
Well, I mean, in theory, you know.
And then we're ahead of everyone else.
When all the theatres reopen, we get our pick of the West End houses.
If the birds haven't taken over by then.
Has he told you about the birds?
- He mentioned a growing militia, yeah. - When will they reopen?
What are we going to do, just meet up every day ad infinitum?
"Morning, David." "Morning, Michael."
"There's nothing to be done."
"I'm beginning to come round to that opinion."
I mean, it's like something out of the damn play.
You don't do well in confinement, do you?
Look, here's how I see it, OK?
Firstly, we are not going anywhere, so it's a good way
to exercise our brain for a couple of hours every day.
Secondly... Nice to see Anna, by the way.
Yes. She's still here, so...
She's just rooting around for something in the cupboard,
so don't say anything rude.
Oh, your flies are undone.
Lucky you.
Secondly, I get to spend some time with a mate.
If something comes out of the other end of it, wonderful.
If it doesn't, we've read the play a few times.
- We've got to know a great author. - Pirandello was a fascist.
- Was he? - Yes.
Well, most writers were fairly dubious people.
I mean, look at the Marquis de Sade.
- Look at Nabokov. - Hemingway.
Orwell.
Adolf Hitler.
- Shakespeare! - Shakespeare?
Yeah, he was a rapacious, litigious landlord.
Yeah, but he'd stopped writing by then, hadn't he?
Maybe. Ooh.
- Pirandello was a fascist, you know. - Why do you say that?
Well, the play was first performed under Mussolini in 1921.
Mussolini only came to power in 1922.
So Pirandello couldn't have been a fascist
because the National Fascist Party didn't exist in Italy
until a year later.
Well, I still don't think he was very funny.
Simon has worked really hard on this.
It's a big deal for him, working with you. He said that.
- Really? - Yeah, he's always saying that.
He's always banging on about your Hamlet.
You should hear him.
Life-changing, that was, for him, he said, when he saw it. Yeah.
He was absolutely thrilled when you said you'd come on board.
- Really? - Yeah.
Oh.
David, hi.
I'm going to set up a video call with all three of us.
Is Michael on board?
He wants to hear about it from you.
OK.
Did you see his Hamlet?
No.
Ummm...
All right, never mind. Right, stand by, I'll sort it out.
- Hello. - Hello.
- Afternoon, all. Great to see you. - Afternoon, all.
- Afternoon, David. - Good to see you.
- Shall I start? - You should start, Simon.
- Sorry, David, you go ahead. - No, you should start.
- I wasn't saying anything. - David?
Simon.
- Well, this is hardly Shakespearean. - OK, well, I'll start, yeah?
OK. David, thanks for sorting this out.
Michael, it's lovely to see you again.
I know that you've got some questions.
Why don't I just try and summarise where we're at
and then we can take it from there? Sound all right?
Fine by me.
Yeah.
OK, so I'm suggesting that we carry on casting this thing
and we rehearse it like this.
It won't feel natural, but we could discuss the play
and maybe even stage a little bit of it, and we might find
that we've got something people need when this whole thing passes.
Why do you want to do this, Simon?
- Honestly? - Honestly.
_
Oh.
Hmm.
I think he was about to talk about your Hamlet.
- I want my name first. - What?
- On the poster. - There isn't a poster.
"Michael Sheen and David Tennant in Six Characters".
- No. - Why not?
- You were first in Good Omens. - So?
So it's my turn.
God, that's so childish.
- It's not about turns. - Yes, it is.
- No, it isn't. - Yes, it is.
- No, it isn't! - Yes, it is.
It's about alphabetical order.
- No, it isn't. - Yes, it is.
Sheen comes before Tennant.
David comes before Michael.
- That's not how it works. - So that's one point each.
- Have you got a middle name? - Yeah.
What is it?
- John. - Christopher!
Christopher! Fuck off.
Two points to moi. Un point to you.
- You made that up. - No, I didn't.
- Yeah. - What are you doing?
I'm checking Wikipedia.
Oh, for...
Michael Christopher Sheen
and David John Tennant in Six Characters In Search Of An Author.
It also says you're a cu...
Sync & corrections by emeline-whovian www.addic7ed.com