Guest Blog: Alexis Zegerman On HOLY SH!T at Kiln Theatre

What the f*ck was I thinking putting a swear word into the title of my play? I have created a marketing nightmare. Over the course of the last months of pre-production, we've lost an 'i' in favour of an '!'. And as for the posters on the Tube, the word 'Sh!t' has been turned in its entirety into four squares. Which, if I squint at them from a distance, look very nearly like four stars. I can dream...

I didn't think about marketing when I had the germ of the idea for this play three years ago. I had the premise - a Jewish couple start attending church to get their daughter into a school. I knew the major themes I wanted to explore: faith, identity, and how that changes when you become a parent. The first draft and its four characters flowed onto the page. I would spend the next three years moulding, layering, reworking, and workshopping.

I love being in a rehearsal room as a writer. I love the alchemy, of watching ideas turn into theatre, of watching words turn into a world. Indhu Rubasingham, the artistic director of Kiln Theatre, is directing the play. The four actors, Dorothea Myer-Bennett, Claire Goose, Daniel Lapaine and Daon Broni, do a great first read-through.

But there is work to be done. No sitting around a table in this rehearsal room during first week. The actors are up on their feet, and Indhu is seeing what works in the script, and what doesn't. There are cuts. New lines written. Jokes are lost if they're weighing down a scene. Puppies are drowned, darlings are killed.

I push back if there's something I'm willing to fight for in the script. I let go of others. You have to pick your battles. This is the excitement of being in the room. Of knowing that while we're rehearsing, we can always make it better. There is no definitive version until press night.

I was reminded of when I was rehearsing Mike Leigh's new play Two Thousand Years at the National Theatre as an actor. The play was being devised up until the 11th hour. The 13th hour, actually - it wasn't quite finished, and two previews had to be cancelled.

In Holy Sh!t's case, the actual theatre is still being built. I haven't been inside the new Kiln auditorium yet, but I hear it's incredible. I have offered to pound nails into the floor if it's not ready. Thankfully, I don't think that'll be necessary.

But Holy Sh!t definitely exists. What it started as, three years ago, is not so radically different to the run-through I watched today. A Jewish couple start attending church to get their daughter into a school. But it is also a million miles away. And it was always called Holy Sh!t. Losing an 'i' would be the least of it.

Holy Sh!t at Kiln Theatre 5 September-6 October

Photo credit: Mark Douet

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