Blog 11

Tash’s ‘Threepenny Opera’ Blog 11 – ‘Love Will Flourish or Will Fade Away…’ (Liebeslied)

So, our penultimate week was jam packed with activities both social and work related with plenty to report from the West Yorkshire Playhouse. It seems like only yesterday that we were all ‘meeting and greeting’ at Graeae HQ in London and it’s hard to believe that this incredible tour is drawing to a close…but that has not wound down on the fun factor by any means!!

Tuesday morning saw a bunch of the gang congregating in the Trinity Shopping Centre for a cheeky spot of ‘show promotion’ in our own anarchic manner, complete with protest songs and ‘Mack The Knife’…and John (Narrator) literally throwing his 3 pence at the musicians for good measure…too kind of him! This got him in the mood to co-chair the final post show discussion of the tour with Garry (Mr Peachum) with great gusto on Wednesday evening.

There were plenty of backstage antics occurring this week beginning with Dani (Team Wardrobe) upping the stakes on her ‘surprising Max’ moment by greeting him in the wings dressed as a human sized beer bottle on Tuesday and a human sized egg on Wednesday! This must have excited Max (Filch) to exhaustion because, come Act 2 beginners, he was nowhere to be seen…cue Moby (CSM) to panic that we were a man down, only to find him sleeping peacefully on the Peachum platform! This obviously spurred Moby to get his verbal revenge by announcing over the tannoy on Thursday that “11 of you are going to be very quiet tonight unless you come and get your mics”…ingenius!

Don’t worry, there was plenty to match this on stage too. Garry kicked off proceedings by managing to mistake a pretty female usher for a boy in the pre show followed by Stacey (Nellie) pinging her hair clip across the stage prior to the ‘Cannon Song’ on Monday. Back to Garry, he then decided to embellish on his dialogue and embark on a delightful piece of alliteration with his new and improved line “a dangerously dainty dish…” What would Brecht say about that??!! This is probably what inspired Pickles (Matt) to state on Saturday’s matinee to Macheath that “a coronation without you is like a fish without chips…”fish and chips/egg and salt… potato potahto!

Max had a couple of moments of joy on Thursday as he proceeded to throw a bread roll across the table during the gang scene only for it to ricochet beautifully off Milton’s (Macheath’s) head…(must have been his big hair)…so sorry was he that he decided not to play the ‘Song of Inadequecy’ even though he was there…poised and ready to do so…gorgeous! This was immediately followed by Milton tripping over the break on the platform while talking to me (Lucy) and the ‘Threepenny Police Force’ (TJ & Stephen) wheeling me on stage on my elegant chaise longue and banging me into the wall…thank you! (Smith was probably in a rush to catch the lingerie shop before it closed!)

All of this was ‘fine and dandy’ but it really was the week of Will (Tiger Brown) as he gave us more than a few tasty treats to peruse over! This began on Wednesday when he took a solo bow after John had invited the audience to attend the post show discussion and the curtain call was over…this was just an ‘amuse bouche’ for what was to come on Saturday as he was distinctly absent from his scene with Smith in the prison…spurring TJ to shout “Shall I bring him to you Brown?”…lovely lovely! He then rounded it all off fabulously by making up a couple of lyrics in the Act 3 Finale…cue…operatic riffing…tremendous stuff! I hasten to add that, all of this aside, we were graced with another week of fantastic audiences that were blissfully (and thankfully) unaware of all of the above!

This week saw a plethora of taxi themed calamities beginning on Tuesday when myself, Sophie (Dolly) and Joey (MD) found ourselves attempting to get a cab from the taxi rank and learning that all 26 of them were on their dinner break! We were eventually entertained by one driver who would only comply if his best friend could sit in the front and come along for the ride! Thank goodness as it was Sophie’s turn to feed her digs landlady’s pet hedgehog!! This then set the ball rolling for the following telephone conversations on Wednesday: Tash: “Can I book a taxi please?” Response: “This isn’t a taxi company, this is a bar!”…and…Joe (Bob): “Can I order a taxi from the West Yorkshire Playhouse?” Response: “Where is that?” Joe: “Quarry Hill, LS1.” Response: “We are in London, so no!”…Happy days!

Thursday night was the first of two big celebrations as we threw the lovely Helen (Access Team) a hen do as she was leaving us on Saturday to get married. This was a cue for a huge party…complete with surprise drag appearances from John, Milton and TJ…gifts and yet another spectacular baked creation from Drew (Team Sound). After weeks of secret planning, the gorgeous bride to be was suitably shocked and went on to have a fabulous evening! Friday night then saw us piling into Akbar’s Indian Restaurant for a sensational curry to mark the end of Drew’s time with us as he buggered off to St Lucia for some well deserved sunshine! We will miss you both…big sad face.

I know that this week’s musings have been particularly ‘blooper based’ however, as our audiences have grown over the past fortnight and been so appreciative, I feel that it’s good to express that we have a great balance of fun across the board. So please do join me next week for my final instalment from the ‘Threepenny Opera’ UK Tour…I’m off to play with my new ‘shaky egg’ maracas courtesy of one Sophie Byrne….thanks for reading…Bye!

PS…Drew…thanks for the cheese straws, I’m a savoury girl and they were delicious…and…Helen and Simon…have a fabulous wedding day on Saturday…we will be thinking of you!

#3popera #SaveTheILF #BecauseWeAreWorthIt

Natasha Lewis…aka…Lucy Brown.