Thread by @AdamLenson

In the year running up to the show I kept having visions of Charlotte Brontë walking into a stage and plugging a cabled microphone into the ground. Of connecting her voice into the PA. Of rooting herself to the story. That's how the show opens. #WastedWatchParty

In a world of handheld wireless mics, I just had this feeling that the Brontës were too rock and roll for that. They needed cables. They were tethered to their home, to each other. They were plugged in to their stories #WastedWatchParty

It was sometimes HELL to rehearse. Cables are chaotic. They don't do the same thing every time. They won't be tamed. The cables became the fifth Brontë and we named them CABLE MONSTER #WastedWatchParty

I had this notion that they would unplug and replug their mics into different parts of the stage. I told sound designer Mike Thacker we would only need four mics. Then I realised it was easier to move actors than cabled mics so we ended up with 12 #WastedWatchParty

The aesthetic of the production is based on a rock concert. The props are things that would be at a concert, mics, sheet music, flight cases, capos. The script has naturalistic stage directions but notes that "verisimilitude may not always be the best choice" #WastedWatchParty

Here we go #WastedWatchParty

Woo @natashajbarnes #WastedWatchParty

I agonised about whether we should have a real table. In the end. It felt like imagination was important for the audience. It was all the Brontës had #WastedWatchParty

Gig / documentary. Snapping back and forth between scenes, interviews, songs. A madly ingenious structure that Carl Miller created. Genuinely never seen anything else like it onstage #WastedWatchParty

The toy soldiers are a Capo, a battery, a plectrum and a small plectrum box #WastedWatchParty

Four Brontës sitting at the table #WastedWatchParty

Chris Ash kept meaning to write a fourth part for Branwell for the Tiny Magazines quartet but in the end it was much funnier not giving him a line. It shows even as kids that his Sisters are much his superior #WastedWatchParty

"It's a town, it's glassy" Glasstown #WastedWatchParty

"I am currently in the experiencing phase and not the finishing off phase." Branwell is a mood I recognise. #WastedWatchParty

The square central stage is based on the dimensions of the parlour where the Brontës wrote all of their novels. The room they all lived their lives inside #WastedWatchParty

Brontë rhymes with Monty. It is a made up name. A misspelling of Brunty from when their father Patrick went to Cambridge. He thought it looked cool so kept it added the umlaut so people stressed it correctly.

.@mollyblynch loved her cabled mic and cable monster. Even when I suggested cutting the cables to make life easier she begged me not to. The Brontës live in those cables #WastedWatchParty

"The elm does not tell the beech how to grow" good advice from Emily #WastedWatchParty

"We cannot go on holiday to Glasstown. It's imaginary, we invented it" The boundary between fantasy and reality never quite apparent for Emily #WastedWatchParty

Emily's dog is an amplifier. And yes he beatboxes. Thanks to @NathanGregory91 #WastedWatchParty

I remember the first time @siobhanathwal ran this song I spontaneously burst into tears. I had never seen anything like this song before and after. The spiritual submerging of Emily is a unique and extraordinary theatrical moment #WastedWatchParty

The good thing about not having a table is you also don't need a train #WastedWatchParty

This moment. Thank you @natashajbarnes #WastedWatchParty

Nothing like it before or after #WastedWatchParty

😍😭

I used to lie on the ground imagining the cables were sand. I collapsed to the ground too often without knee pads and it hurt my knees #method #WastedWatchParty

Imagine never having seen the sea. This number also always made me cry. The sheer impossibility of it. #WastedWatchParty

Oh my god. It's time for White Violets. It is a BANGER #WastedWatchParty

PETAL DROP #WastedWatchParty

I am obsessed with confetti. It takes a second to release and ages to clear up. Like lust, or passion, or creativity. I love shows that start clean and end messy, or shows that start messy and end clean. Guess which this is #WastedWatchParty

Maybe Charlotte is writing about those white Violets that are scattered over the stage @natashajbarnes #WastedWatchParty

"Eve, mother nature, I am eve, I am nature, I am Emily". #WastedWatchParty

The newspaper is sheet music from the show #WastedWatchParty

I will always be emotional about thus #WastedWatchParty

The drugs Branwell takes are a purple XLR mic cable. He actually plugs it in and sings through it. No fakery here. The cables are life and art. When his is purple it felt like he was veering off course. Amazing @mattjcmorgan #WastedWatchParty

I remember rehearsing this scene where Emily finds out that Charlotte read her poems. The fact of a slow, angry, painful scene like this in a musical just felt impossible. Of tearing up her work while in tears. Reminded me of the violent love of Sarah Kane #WastedWatchParty

Yep so much violent, painful love. I wish there was more of this sort of complexity in musical theatre #WastedWatchParty

"you hold your hand out for an egg and fate puts into it a scorpion" #WastedWatchParty

"And perhaps you always knew happiness was not your due" #WastedWatchParty

"like furniture you rearrange though nothing in the room can change" thats a mood for Corona times #WastedWatchParty

"A future that has room for me"

It's so hard to keep going without knowing what's round the corner. How do you make art without ever knowing what will happen

#WastedWatchParty

It felt special when the cast sang only to each other. When they didn't give a shit about the audience. It was about family and need and art. About the pain of always being kicked and the small slim chance that life would be better if they held on long enough #WastedWatchParty

Oli sones cameo as the documentary voice over #WastedWatchParty

WE WRITE BOOKS #WastedWatchParty

I loved that we started with a bare stage but as each act of the story progressed I felt the need for more stuff on stage. Perhaps related to the Brontës growing up. Hence the table becomes corporeal in Act and made of flight cases #WastedWatchParty

I always remember David Hockney saying that he painted grass a bright fluorescent green because it was how it felt to look at grass. Rather than how it actually was. I kept thinking how must it feel to write a novel like Jane Eyre and this was it. #WastedWatchParty

All of the paper was sheet music of the score of the show #WastedWatchParty

After they wrote their novels nothing would ever be the same. That was something they could never put back in the box. #WastedWatchParty

"Branwell Bronte had sisters, who knew?" #WastedWatchParty

I loved how brilliant @mattjcmorgan played Branwell. Arrogant and painfully insecure sometimes in the same sentence. Eager to be on a pedestal but knowingly dwarfed by his sisters' talents #WastedWatchParty

"They say if we publish a large enough number we will be refunded"

Profit share, ahead of its time

#WastedWatchParty

"Kill what you love" heartbreaking
#WastedWatchParty

"Fuck off, I'm writing Jane Eyre" #WastedWatchParty

This is an ANTHEM. Ordinary Woman #Plain #Small #OrdinaryWoman #WastedWatchParty

I spent a lot of time crawling on the floor of the rehearsal room for this show. It led to some of our best ideas didn't it @natashajbarnes #WastedWatchParty

Holy shit @natashajbarnes is amazing. Her clutching a novel to her chest and belting her soul out #WastedWatchParty

😍😭 I loved lying on the ground

Yep. Thank you for picking up that paper every night 👏👏👏

😭🔥