Market Boy

Dundee & Angus's rendition of Market Boy by David Eldridge takes a look into the story of Romford Market in the 1980's following the perspective of "Boy" played by Lyle Hendy. 

This performance was by FAR my most enjoyable piece as of yet, it was my final production at Dundee & Angus College and ultimately was the send off to my studies as a whole. Market Boy was extremely courageous for all actors involved taking a delve into the stereotypical themes of the Romford Market in the 80's.

I embarked on the role of 'The Trader' the boy's father figure/role model, and in himself the charismatic, sex symbol of the 80's. When initially being told about this play it sparked curiosity simply due to the fact that it's a comedy piece, something I've never majorly explored before as an actor, therefore I knew this was going to be interesting as it was something far new.

Trader proved to be an extremely challenging character within today's politics of acting, taking on intimacy training and consent to touching. Traders love language is touch therefore getting past this barrier proved to be extremely difficult for other actors. I felt like I knew Trader the moment I read the play, and I truly fell in love with the character. The contrast between Boy and Trader is evident throughout the entire play and from mine and Lyle Hendy's performance, this was clear.

The rehearsal process was tough. This play has so much going on during the entire performance, there's never really a quiet moment between few actors. One of the major skills I developed from this performance was ad-libbing during moments when it might be quiet, like for example trying on a pair of shoes. Ad-libbing during this performance was CRITICAL to keep audiences interested but also to remove any awkward quirks throughout. But to be able to do this, meant knowing the character like the back of my hand.

As previously mentioned I felt like I knew Trader the moment I read the play, it just seemed clear to me however, during rehearsals I would struggle to express this. I believe this is because I've been so used to doing dramatic pieces that it felt difficult to let loose with a comedic one.

After many conversations with Barry Henderson, the director. I finally got out of this state of mind and I believe it was the moment I put on my outfit and was able to experiment with the set and props presented.

One of the other CRITICAL skills I had to take on was audience interaction, although I had already done audience interaction like with Beauty and The Beast with Wolf, this was taken to a new level. Approaching and having conversations with audience members and still being the charismatic sex model of the 80's. Rehearsing this particular section really pushed my imagination as an actor as for the majority of the time I was just talking to chairs since no one was sitting there. But doing that made it easier to approach when someone was eventually sitting there on performance night.

Market Boy was also my first performance that was 2 hours long with an interval between. Like I mentioned with John Proctor for Crucible, this meant that I could have a long character arc with Trader.

Another challenge that we all had to face being that the performance was this long and dealing with props and set was generally just any mistakes that happened on performances and making sure they were covered well. You have more leeway with Market Boy however simply due to the fact that it's overall intention is to make audiences laugh.

I have two videos that I have presented along with the photographs. The first one is the initial entrance involving the audience interaction that I talked about earlier and the second one taking a look at covering mistakes with good improvisation.

The video with the good example of improvisation and audience interaction involes 3 people, Lyle Hendy (Boy) Myself (Trader) and Ryan (New Boy) the section that was improvised with audience interaction was involved through a missed catch to which my scene partner, Lyle responded 'nice catch' and I said 'I know' and looked to the audience. The moment just felt right, there wasn't any other explanation other than, that is the most relaxed I've ever felt on stage. I allowed my scene partners to mentally get themselves together after the moment and then continued the dialogue.