Happy Birthday Matt…

For the last two weeks we will be at Le Fourneau Creation Centre in Brest to begin the Research and Development period for our brand new street show, The Birthday Party.

Happy Birthday

Not only do we have a huge space to work in that is all to ourselves, we also have onsite accommodation in amazing 70s caravans, red wine with every meal AND our own chef that prepares all our meals for us!!

Balloooooooooooons

On the first night, not being used to the five-course style of fine French dining – we tucked right in to the starter, loading our plates up with salad galore, quiche and couscous, only to find that the main course was just finishing off in the oven!  Once we had managed to squeeze in the main after our massive starter (won’t be making that mistake again!) we were presented with the beautiful cheese board – now this wasn’t just any cheese board, this was a fine selection of all the yummiest and most tastiest French cheeses in the whole wide World! There was Brie, Goats Cheese, Ewe Cheese, Camembert, Roquefort, Emmental, Thon, Comte, you name it – it was on our bit of baguette and being eaten! Even after our huge cheese eating fest, Phillipe (our fabulous Chef) then proceeded to bring out pudding (which we has assumed was the cheese!!)  Big bowls of cameralised pears with pear and raspberry sorbet or nougat ice cream – oh my gosh, we actually went to heaven and back that night, (coming back about 2 tons heavier than we were when we left).

Dickie?!

The first day Judy was a poorly lady and we ended up sending her back on a plane to the UK pronto so that she could get rested up and recover. We carried on the rest of the week as 4 of us and we aimed to have a rough structure of the show that we would be able to show to Paola who was coming to direct us next week.

More ballooooooons

Paola Rizza was coming to work with us all the way from Paris, which we are very much looking forward to. She was mine and Matt’s teacher when we trained at Jacques Lecoq and we were very excited about being able to work with her again. She arrived on Sunday afternoon, just after Graeme, Kelly and Matt had played Badminton with Le Fourneau team and eaten the biggest lunch ever as well as being served a different alcohol with every one of the seven courses! Feeling a little like you do after you’ve eaten Christmas Lunch, they put on their costumes, which were now a little snug, as we showed what we had come up with so far to Paola.

Party Time

She enjoyed lots of the ideas and was very excited that now we have a whole week to play and push our ideas further. We played with balloons, balloon instruments, helium, explosives, whipped cream, balloon popping, tango dancing, bear porno magazines, bear costumes, eating teddy bears, making intestines, champagne popping, balloon animal making, party poppers, horrific presents, lipstick, mirrors, fights and suprises  – and before we knew it, it was Thursday of week two and time for our public showing! Throughout the two weeks, a few journalists had been coming in and out for interviews and to take photos of us – little did we realise that this was for advertising which was going out in all the papers to invite people to the showing! Me, Kelly and Graeme spend the first 15minutes of the show under the table so we had no idea how many people were out there until we came out, bottoms first from underneath the tiny table – and there were loads!, between 150-200!! What a turn out?! After the showing we were able to have a chat with the people that watched it to get some feedback about the show, and all the comments were generally very positive and the rest constructive!

For the next part of the R&D in December, and then in the rehearsals in February be prepared, Ladies and Gentlemen, for a much fiercer Wet Picnic who are no longer here to be gay and merry but to have a little play in a much darker way, woooohhhhhaaaa hhhaaa hhhaaaa!