Sunday 25 August 2013

Leaving Kilkenny...onto Cambridge





Before leaving Kilkenny, the lovely Roisin McQuillan invited me for a tour of Rothe House https://twitter.com/rothehouse

Rothe was a 17th century merchant and the house was built between 1594-1610 - and as Shrew is thought to have been written between 1590 and 1594, it seemed a timely visit.  Roisin also showed me the gardens and orchard which they are re-establishing with plants of the period.





 We also visited the luminarium for a little Shrew downtime... architects-of-air







And Leah and I were visited by our good friend and 'Earthquakes in London' stage manager Catherine Buffrey who is currently working in Dublin...











From Ireland to Cambridge, and six shows in four days in the beautiful gardens of the Master's House of Corpus Christi...where we just about avoided the worst of the rain...




Tuesday 13 August 2013

Kilkenny Arts Festival

We've landed at The Kilkenny Arts Festival, http://www.kilkennyarts.ie/ and the Shrews have enjoyed a very warm welcome - infact I think all this being stopped in the streets by all and sundry to say how much they love the show could go to our heads...

The courtyard of the Design Centre - beshrewed!


I remember now the warm, and vocal responses last time I worked in Ireland - and the Kilkenny crowd have topped my previous expectations.  It's great for us as we hit half way through the shows (last night was show 45 out of 90) to be reminded that everything is landing - even when (with quieter audiences) people don't vocalise their feelings.  And, conversely, if it doesn't work in Ireland...it just doesn't work!  We were so pleased that Josh, our assistant director, got to see our first show here and be overwhelmed, alongside us, at the fantastic response.

The festival have made a beauteous promo video of us - which I urge you to watch here:
The Shrews at Kilkenny We are so delighted with the way it captures the feel of the show.

The festival is a gathering of all types of Art and Artists and we've managed to see some of it so far...although a lot of the performances clash with our show so we have to get a bit creative....

Luckily Junk Ensemble, a dance theatre company whose new work Dusk Ahead http://junkensemble.com/the-work has been specially created for the festival, allowed us to watch their dress rehearsal.  It was a magical piece touching on themes of dusk, twilight, where light meets dark, and stories shift into the realms of fairy tales - and as well as being astounded as I always am when I see dance, at just what the performers can make their bodies do (and ashamed at my own lack of fitness!) I thought the duets were particularly strong - if you get a chance to see it and see the chair and the kiss duets you'll see what I mean!

We also went to see James Shapiro and Finton O'Toole discuss Shakespeare's relationship with Ireland, which was a great chance to have a bit of a Bard-think.

Looking through the programme I had noticed another 'talk' called 'meet the actors', and circled it as something interesting to go and see.  It was only later that I realised we were the actors...luckily  the Shrew word was spread in plenty of time, and along with Carrie turned up ready to answer as many questions as we could on the play, performing in Kilkenny, performing at the Globe, stage managing such an unusual tour etc.  As ever, dear reader, you are very welcome to tweet or message me on here any questions for any of the cast, and I'll do my best to catch them in a reflective moment... tweet!

We also had our first Shrew Darts Championship - won by the valiant Leah Whitaker...I did not participate as I know my lack of aim...and that Darts in the head of my fellow actors do not a happy company make.











Monday 5 August 2013

Bungay and Buxton

Firstly, as you too will learn to your cost if you get onto the local bus and ask to go to bun-gay - it is pronounced bun-gey...oops...

A great three shows in the grounds of a Bigod castle - hosted by the friendly local Fisher Theatre
http://www.fishertheatre.org/


our view from the stage


and where we were also put up in the homes of the theatre's volunteers who keep the place going through giving their time and efforts - we were also well fed by Fay who runs the theatre cafe.






 And then onward to Buxton - and the pavilion gardens next to my previous haunt, the beautiful, Matcham designed, warm and DRY Opera House...I think you might be able to guess where I'm going with this...

Yes, the Shrew luck has finally broken and we had two very wet shows, in what was always going to be a bit of a challenging venue (a good 5 minute walk from toilets and dressing room, and no electricity on site would have been interesting in the dry...but in the rain...cue some very soggy cold Shrews).

attractive rain ponchos were on offer!


But, as Carrie, our Stage Manager, had previously told (warned?) us, it takes a lot for the British Public to admit defeat - and a determined and anoraked crowd turned up each night, showing spirit, determination, and tenacity - and seemed to have a whale of a time.

Austria

And so to Austria as the guests of the art carnuntum world theatre festival - and more specifically our genial host Pierrot and his family. http://www.artcarnuntum.at/

We ate our body weights in cheese and bread and managed to spend an afternoon in Vienna - all around performing in a roman amphitheatre.

The experience of performing in Austria had similarities to Malta - in that the laughs were very text based - we also discovered that Austrians like a LOT of curtain calls - all very flattering of course.

How was the 38 degree heat?  Never mind the heat - you're talking to the girl who managed to collect nearly 40 insect bites in one performance...to quote a fellow shrew 'how did they manage to get into your socks???'

a pre show austrian storm

the rain was so heavy the fire brigade helped to clear the flood!