David Lane, Begin/End's writer on the first day of rehearsal and read through.

First rehearsal today, and the fist time I'd heard Begin/End read through since a one-day workshop as part of its development last year. The actors are great and the play seemed to read very fluidly, which was a relief! It was fascinating to hear the early contributions from Ed (music) and Paul (video) and see how far they related to my ideas about the play despite never having met either of them; there's obviously been some very hard work going on before we even got to this first day. The set looks really interesting - I won't give too much away but it's an inspired metaphor for the play's style and content and I can't wait to see how it works in performance.

There was much talk of 'layers' in the play and it was heartening to see so many people challenged by what they see as its complexity; it's always so different when you hear a play read out loud and responded to by others, and all the creative team seem excited by getting it up on its feet. The use of video and music at the level of detail Ed and Paul are working at just isn't something you really consider when writing text and I admit I was apprehensive about how it would all gel. Fortunately, it lools and sounds brilliant and will really punch up and support the play.

There have been a few little changes to the text already, tweaks and clarification but I'll be in on rehearsals once a week to see how things progress and find out what questions or discoveries the actors have got up their sleeves.