We spent most of the day working on the ‘Courtly vices’, Wantonness, Placebo, and Sandy Solace, and their relationship with Rex Humanitas.

How should we think of that relationship? In allegorical terms, as a representation of the dangers to which every youth is prone, or on a more specific, human level, like watching Prince Harry and his mates out on the town? More specifically, we worked through just how close the group were. Could the vices touch the king, for example? And if they did, would it be familiarly and regularly, or hesitantly, wondering just how far they could go? Are they all self-aware of the liberties they are taking, or are some more spontaneous, more ‘natural’ in their camaraderie, unaware of where it might lead?

Gregory Thompson has also been developing the ways in which music and song can punctuate or underscore the action, having the versatile musician John Kielty accompany key pieces of dialogue on keyboard or bazouki, and turning some lines into snatches of song. The transformation of the scene is often striking.