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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2010 Blog - 14Hecklers and The Venga Boys – Saturday 7 August 2010Well would you believe it? A week has already flown past. It’s been such a blur, I’m having difficulty collecting my thoughts into a coherent narrative. Oh well, here goes. After the initial euphoria over the size of our rooms, it was down to business. In this case of course, business meant moving into the venue and sorting out all the technical stuff to do with the show. I’m ashamed to say that when I first visited Edinburgh in 2008, I never even noticed the Pleasance Dome venue. It’s pretty hard to miss but I must have walked past it a hundred times. As far as large buildings go, its spectacularly plain, like it’s ashamed to be taking up space on Bristo Square. Inside is a large atrium with a coffee shop, bar, mini supermarket, and a number of venues. Ours is the Pleasance King Dome (see what they did there?). It’s a good sized venue, seating around 180 people or so. I have no idea what it is used for when the festival is not happening, the Pleasance staff having transformed the room beyond recognition. They’ve stuck soundproofing material all over the ceiling and walls, and as a result it’s like speaking into a cushion when talking on stage. Apart from that, I love it. The changing room facilities are good and the venue crew very friendly and helpful. The technical rehearsal was as all technical rehearsals are - long, tedious and leaving you wishing you’d become an insurance broker instead of a performer. Still, at least we had the chance to do a run through before dismantling our set and vacating the venue for the next lot to begin their tech. We spent the first few days rehearsing the script changes with Lotte. One of the biggest changes is in the Cinderella scene. Lotte has switched the roles played by Adele and Debs, so they now play each other’s role. It was brave of them to take it on at this stage, but we rehearsed it and it’s going well. Whilst they were busy being clever playing each other’s role, I was experiencing some difficulty of my own. My big scene had been rather re-written to include more information about the thought processes going through the character’s mind. For some reason, I was finding it rather difficult getting my head round some of the lines. It took quite some head-bashing before I managed to sort out the thought processes behind some of the new lines. It also took me a while to adjust to being in Edinburgh. Back in 2008, I hadn’t seen any other shows until well into my second week at the festival. Just the process of getting used to being amongst such a large amount of potential performances to watch took me at least 10 days to sort out in my head. I had thought that this time would be different and that I would hit the ground running, watching as many shows as possible during the first few days when tickets are cheapest. Some people in the company seemed to do just that. I suppose special mention must be made here to our director who impressed us all with her ability to see more than 200 shows a day. On the first day in Edinburgh, she wrote a list of all the shows that she would be seeing and posted it on the refrigerator in her flat. She then somehow managed to squeeze in watching half the shows at the festival in between giving us notes, rehearsing the new scenes and actually watching our own show. I swear it was even reported that she had been seen watching two shows at the same time in different venues. We’re not sure how she did it, but you can be sure we’re being very careful with what we’re doing on stage even now that she’s gone. Never know if she’s still managing to see us somehow! Anyway, it took me a while to get into the swing of things. I managed to go and watch a show during the first couple of days, but it wasn’t until the end of the first week that I sat down with a Fringe programme and worked made a list of the things I wanted to see. Our first Edinburgh show went rather well. It was quite nerve-wracking because we had press in to see and review the show. I had some problems with my music lamp (the lamp that illuminates my sheet music). The bulb decided to burst just before the start of our first performance. It was a few days before they could replace the lamp. In the meantime, the venue’s head techie, Adriana, gaffer taped her own torch to my music stand. That’s pretty much it really. The show is selling out, which is great. Audiences are still being affected by the story. On some nights we can hear them sniffling from on the stage! On one of the nights Simon had a heckler! During his salesman scene, a woman in the front row yelled out something rather rude at him. I don’t know if you’ve seen the play yet (if not then what are you waiting for?!) but trust me, its not the sort of production that invites audience participation, even in Edinburgh. Ever the professional, Simon continued without missing a beat. After the show the woman approached him and apologised for her outburst. She said she had been too moved and upset by the play and couldn’t help herself. I know what she meant. I yell at the telly every time Boris Johnson opens his mouth on the news. There’s also a bit of a problem with noise bleeding from the venue next door. Noise bleeding is when noise from an adjoining building or room can be heard through the walls. You’ve experienced noise bleeding every time you’ve heard your next door neighbours doing it. In our case, rather than hearing Greta encouraging Barry to continue doing whatever it is he is doing, we can hear The Venga Boys. There’s nothing quite like listening to the story of two women being raped to the accompaniment of The Venga Bus. Lessens the impact somewhat. |
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