The first scene from
Coram Boy was filmed by
Stagework whilst in rehearsal. This is
a complex scene and at that time it ran for just over eight minutes. However, by the time it reached the Olivier stage it had been
cut by almost half . One of the main cuts was the decision to omit the sequence in which the women, following their maddened frenzy at the deaths of their infants, took their now magically resurrected babies to the rear of the stage where they ascended heavenwards whilst their joyful mothers sang the chorus ‘O death, where is thy sting’ from Handel’s
Messiah. Melly Still subsequently removed this powerful moment of staging precisely because she thought it was too powerful; or at least too strong for this relatively early stage in the development of the story. It seemed overly optimistic, and perhaps too difficult an act to follow.
Another significant change from rehearsal to performance occurred when Melly Still decided to have Otis Gardiner rather than his son Meshak physically force the still-breathing baby (Mercy) into its shallow grave. In the film of rehearsal, Meshak is seen doing this and the act makes him retch, but on further reflection Melly decided that it would appear simply too much for Meshak to comply with his father at this terrible moment, not least because in the second half of the play he displays compassion by saving a baby (Melissa’s) from certain death.
The second filmed scene comes from the second half of the play and is truly
spectacular . The audience watch as a giant sheet of plastic descends from the flies whilst, almost simultaneously, two of the characters (Aaron and Thomas) are flown in on long lines and appear, together with Meshak, to be swimming for their lives in the river Thames. This episode is
radically altered from what happens in the novel: in the play it is Meshak who drowns and Thomas who lives.