Monday 31 May 2010

Explanation

I thought long and hard about this, and despite the fact that I was originally not planning to write this post, I now feel I have to.
As you may or may not have noticed, I stopped writing this blog.
The reason for this is that my insurance company have used previous posts to find ways not to cover my losses of the Malmo theft.
This means I have now been robbed twice, all as a result of doing a friend a favour. I will not stop doing friends favours, but I will stop writing this blog.

I've stopped feeling sorry for myself, but I haven't stopped being angry.
I don't feel like writing anonymously, just as much as I don't feel like closing down the comments system just because there seems to be a persistent Chinese spammer.

But for the moment I don't feel like writing publicly any more.

My colleagues will take over for a while until I've recovered everything I've lost.

Monday 10 May 2010

Second trilogy in Lund

When I arrived at the theatre at 11am on Thursday, a woman was waiting by the door. As I got out the keys (they gave me the keys to the theatre), she asked if I could put her on the waiting list.
I said the show didn't start until 1pm, but she replied she wanted to be early so she had a better chance of getting a ticket.
There was nothing I could do, so I told her the people from Bibo would be around later, and she'd have to wait until then to find out from them what her options were.
Ten minutes later, another woman appeared - same request.

The whole day passed like this. But once the first show started, the people from Bibu tried to organise it. They left a waiting list behind in between the shows, and the list got longer and longer.

We tried to get as many people in as possible, crammed some extra chairs where we found space, and filled up the steps with more audience members. But we still couldn't fit everyone in.

After My Long Journey Home, Tomas and David made lunch for everyone.


With ice cream for dessert...



After Past Half Remembered the ushers told us there had been a fight over waiting list seats.
We had a long discussion about what to do, but there was simply nothing we could do. We did get many more people in then there were seats, broke all health and safety rules and they still didn't fit.

For us it was amazing to play to such enthusiastic audiences. I'm sorry if people didn't get a seat, even more so since we won't be playing the trilogy for a while now.

So take our cue: book ahead. Book now for any of the shows you see listed in the right column. And don't say I didn't tell you so.

Thursday 6 May 2010

One trilogy down, one more to go


This is where we are. Lilla Teatern Lund. We were here 4 years ago, and this is where we were invited to go to Japan. 4 years later, Japan is approaching fast and our Japanese hosts are back to see us again.
It's been a while since we played the trilogy, and everyone is in great shape.
On Tuesday we rehearsed a bit (it's been since last February since we played My Long Journey Home and The End of Everything Ever), and we unpacked everything. It seems like the only thing we've lost on our travels was the red umbrella for Past Half Remembered. My guess is that it's still in the hold of the SAS plane we took from Stockholm to Oslo.

Yesterday morning we got to the theatre at 11am and the boys set up for My Long Journey Home. There was the thrill of excitement and nerves. This is our oldest show, the one that is being performed the least at the moment (since it has been played the most of all of our shows).


Kjell and David went back to the old job of making snow.



Good old Marcella was ready to go.



Since Bob moved to Berlin, his german has become too good for the german scene...



And then some singing to warm up the voices.


It all kicked off at 1pm, with a full house waiting to take their seats.
Full is actually not the word. Over-full seems more apt. People were sitting on the stairs and I honestly think we couldn't have gotten one more person into the theatre.

Tomas was on fire, and even though I have seen these shows many times, I have to say that this performance was probably one of the best I've seen. The audience roared with laughter and gave us a standing ovation.

After the show we had a short break before the next one was up.

5pm. Past Half Remembered. Tea and vodka. And again a lot of people in the Lilla Teatern.
The others had been in to see My Long Journey Home and it seemed like they took on that energy and kept it all going. The crowd laughed and laughed.
I spoke to some people who we've met before at other festivals, and got the impression that most of our audience here has seen at least one of the shows before, and came to the trilogy to catch up with the shows they hadn't seen yet. As the trilogy is becoming a rare event, it becomes clear that a lot of people who have seen one of them, want to see the others.

After another short break we started again at 9pm. The End of Everything Ever.
The audience laughed and laughed until they cried.
I always find it interesting with the trilogy to notice the slight delay in applause with the last show. It almost feels like people don't want to break the silence.
Another standing ovation and then it was over.

We start again at 1pm today. Same schedule, same shows.

Six shows in two days. I'm pretty sure this must be a record for us.