Blog 12

Tasha’s ‘Threepenny Opera’ Blog No 12 – “Fun While It Lasted, But Now It Has Ended….” (Polly’s Song)

So, the final week of ‘The Threepenny Opera’ Tour crept up on us as we found ourselves staring at ‘that moon over Soho’ for the very last time. Subconsciously I think that we really, as a company, felt the brunt of our ‘3p’ message, particularly in the preshow where there was an even stronger urgency to get those ‘Save The ILF’ petitions signed and pinpoint our very poignant and political themes within the show. We did this with gusto and, of course, enjoyed much hilarity along the way as we drew the production to a close.

There was much time for reflection this week as Thursday evening saw us holding our ‘End of Tour’ party at the Lounge Bar and Grill in Leeds. They put on a lovely spread for us and sported a vast array of cocktails for us to sample…dangerous!! The evening also saw us holding the ‘Threepenny Opera’ Awards Ceremony (sponsored by Leopard Print and Argos Ironing Boards) hosted by myself (Lucy) and the lovely Will (Tiger Brown) with the help of the amazing Martin on Sound. We touched on all of the ridiculous tomfoolery that we had encountered over the four months…and hilariously, everyone managed to get nominated for something!…(My personal favourite being Milton (Macheath) winning the ‘Brecht Estate’ Award for Amendments to the Script.) The night, for some, did not end there however, as the hardcore of the group found themselves in the casino until the early hours…how do they always end up there??!…and you will be pleased to learn that Joey (MD) and Max (Filch) celebrated great success with their £10 and £6.50 winnings, respectively! It was a fab evening and we were even greeted by Pete and Sarah (Team ‘New Wolsey’) sporting the most impressive suntans I have ever seen following a well deserved holiday!

The next afternoon we were introduced to Michele Taylor, a member of the Institute of Equality and Diversity Practitioners where, due to her research needs, we were given the opportunity, as a company, to reflect on the show as a piece…a gem that we rarely get the chance to voice! Well, what a glorious afternoon it was to hear that your colleagues and now friends, share your love and pride for the piece that you have collectively strived to make incredibly special. Oh, and a few of the company just couldn’t help themselves and piled back into Akbar’s Indian Restaurant on Friday night for one final company curry hurrah!

So, onto the silly stuff, which of course there was plenty of…beginning with CiCi (Polly) who managed to fall backwards over the ‘wedding breakfast’ basket in the gang scene while Ben (Jake) found himself slightly unstable as he tried to balance on top of the harpsichord! He then managed to get himself in another pickle in the wings causing Amelia (Jenny) to fall over him in a quite a spectacular fashion…karma! In other news, I managed to leave my own jacket on the ‘Peachum Platform’ during warm up…and there it remained until the interval …silly! Meanwhile, Jude (sign interpreter) was busy getting her high heels stuck together during the ‘Socrates Song’ making the art of alking tricky, Sophie (Dolly) stacked it spectacularly after the ‘Epitaph’ thinking nobody had seen…I did!…and Pickles (Matt) tried to exit the prison scene backwards only to smack himself into the wall…lovely!! I suppose I should mention the this week’s ‘Breaking Music’ Award goes to Amelia for her tuneful build up to ‘Liebeslied’ and Barbara (Betty) busted her pillow swelling mechanism again due to over enthusiastic inflation!

Saturday, our last day, was one of sincere sadness and ultimate celebration on a triumph of a show! This was highlighted by Ben wearing his lime green mankini underneath his costume for the whole of the last matinee and a glorious screening of TJ’s (Smith’s) ‘The Smith Show’ snippets over the tour beautifully edited by the wonderful Stacey (Nellie). This could only be equalled by Dani (Team Wardrobe) compiling a montage of Stephen’s (Ned’s) terrified/ing scream on the entrance of Rev Kimball…that should go viral! Oh, and not to name and shame but Martin (Team Sound) added Boyzone to his iTunes library…Macheath, get him next!!

So, for me the journey didn’t end on Saturday night as I had the pleasure of chauffeuring Max, Joey and Milton home to London…after finding TJ’s lovely gift of 3 pennies on the driveway…via my mum’s house where they were suitably fed and watered and Milton took the opportunity to have an unashamed flirt, yes, with my mother!!!…Show’s over dude, you’re not Macheath anymore This could have been a backlash to me saying to him “Do you want to call shotgun”…Milton: “What, to shoot Max?” Me: “No, to sit in the front seat!”…AWKWARD!!! Thankfully, after 7 hours, we were home…ouch!

Somehow though, I know this is not the end for us as a bunch. Milton and Jude are off to Brazil to continue the ‘Belonging’ journey, Stacey shall be joining the Graeae clan to do the German performance of a concert version of ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’ alongside the likes of John (Narrator), Garry (Mr Peachum), Stephen, Pickles, Jude and Roshni, while myself, John, Joey, TJ, Teya (Joey’s better half), Pickles, Stephen and Victoria all reunited on the Monday after in Westminster to protest against the ‘ILF’ closure and on Tuesday the gang were back together for a trip to ‘Jersey Boys’ to see Sophie’s husband Stuart King play Bob Gaudiou at The Piccadilly Theatre…we just can’t stay away!!

It’s really difficult for me to round this up as it is my last…but I have to say the hugest thank you to the wonderful ‘Threepenny Opera’ clan for allowing me to blog about all of our madness and mayhem…and for being such a fantastically fabulous bunch of people. It’s been a scream, a romp, a riot and I, with a slight tear in my eye, say goodbye to ‘The Threepenny Opera’ and am immensely proud that we all did a damn fine job!

Thank you for reading and supporting and please remember…the show is over but the message is still true…I care and I hope you do too…”What keeps a man alive?”…good question!

Big hug, kiss and farewell from…

Natasha Lewis…aka…Lucy Brown.

#3popera #SaveTheILF #BecauseWeAreWorthIt