Blog 6

Wednesday matinee was preceded by a touch tour where CiCi (Polly) found herself reunited with the guide dog with whom she had had a stand-off with whilst playing the panto cat a few months previously!  Also, following a ‘plan of action’ pow wow at the Ramada at the weekend, a ‘Save The ILF’ petition was introduced to the ‘Pre Show’ antics…paving the way for more avenues to be explored regarding putting a halt to the latest proposed government funding closure.

Monday evening saw ‘The Threepenny Opera’ company celebrating St Patrick’s Day in style, hosted by the ever accommodating St Jude’s Tavern.  Garry (Mr Peachum) and John (Narrator) led the vocal extravaganza of rambunctious traditional Irish songs, aided along the way by Barbara (Betty), Will (Tiger Brown), Max (Filch) and Amelia (Jenny) with a chorus of the entire company intermittently joining in….and a particularly beautiful and haunting rendition of ‘O Waly Waly’ from Victoria (Mrs Peachum) placed a perfect shamrock on the evening’s festivities.  So the night was a roaring success, beginning with a glorious sing a long and ending with a boisterous round of arm wrestling resulting in an unarguable triumph for Martin (Team Sound)…while ‘David Bailey’ of the company, Stephen (Ned) had his hands full, seeking out show themed beer mats…fabulous fun had by all!

It was a jam packed week of social events as CiCi, Pete and Dave (Team Wolsey) did a fab acoustic gig at the Spread Eagle on Tuesday night (where Stacey (Nellie) and myself (Lucy) got asked for ID at the bar….smug!) and Friday saw us taking a little trip to Jimmy’s Farm.  It was a fun filled day of animals, zip wires, wooden police cars and a monumental amount of food…which also saw CiCi taking a detour via ‘Aberzaijahn’ to get there, TJ (Smith) get bitten by a goose, Teya (Joey’s lovely other half) bonding with the guinea pigs, Joe (Bob) staring lovingly at the rabbits and stating “that’s SO Watership Down” and Dani (Team Wardrobe) head butting a plastic cow!  The fun was enhanced later that day when Pickles (Matt) instigated a cheeky game of ‘buckaroo’ involving balancing various random objects on John’s electric wheelchair during that evening’s warm up…inspired!

These moments were made all the more magical by a couple of musical appendices to join them.  The first was provided by ‘yours truly’ with an impromptu trombone ‘parp’ that presented itself during the dramatic silence that precedes ‘Pirate Jenny’.  This was followed by Sophie (Dolly) almost managing to stifle her giggling whilst playing her flute during the ‘Epitaph’.  This could have been the result of her suggesting to Max (Jimmy) that he incorporate ‘throwing up down her saxophone bell’ as part of his ‘drunk acting’ during the ‘Cannon Song’…only to hit him in the face with it when he complied!

This week also saw a couple of ‘balance negotiations’ thrown into the mix beginning with a subtle trip from Stephen while he signed ‘Mack the Knife’ swiftly followed by Milton doing his nightly floor slide and managing to head butt my knee in the process!  This was trumped however by Amelia who, after a completely ‘accidental’ but personal interaction with Barbara, managed to walk herself into the wall before the ‘Barbara Song’!  She then tried to redeem herself by running to do her saucy ‘cage dancing’ one ‘salvation’ prematurely during the Act 3 Finale!  At least she had a lovely birthday on Saturday, complete with a fantastic ‘dairy free’ birthday cake courtesy of our very own ‘Mary Berry’, Drew (Team Sound), and an expressive facial dance performed for her by Victoria and a mini cheddar!