Director Zsuzsi Kingsnorth has got more than the production of Death and the Maiden to look forward to in July - she is expecting her first baby at the end of the month. Death and the Maiden runs from 5th - 10th July so if all goes according to plan she will have time to finish the rehearsals before becoming a Mum. Just in case though she has been working with Esther Walters as assistant director. Esther and Zsuzsi met during the 2007 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream when they were both playing fairies.
Esther has been on board from the beginning and has sat in on most of the rehearsals. She is playing an active role and puts forward her views on the production as well as taking rehearsals if Zsuzsi can't make one. She will be in a good position to take over the ropes if necessary - as long as she has a plentiful supply of diet coke.
As well as rehearsing, Zsuzsi and Esther have been out in Reading taking random photos of people in the street. Death and the Maiden is set in an unnamed South American country which has suffered under a dictatorship. In countries like Chile and Argentina one thing the governments did was to arrest people randomly from the streets. These people may have had nothing to do with any political action it was merely one method of keeping people in fear and under control. The taking of photos in Reading was a way of replicating this randomness but as Progress is not a repressive regime they did ask permission first. The photos will be on display during the run.
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