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After successful tours in the UK, Europe and Russia Wet Picnic are back with more training weekends at Jacksons Lane in London. The workshops are for professionals, semi-professionals, directors, practitioners and students who wish to complement their studies or are looking for fresh ways in which to approach theatre and find new creative impulses.

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!

Don't be a-Llama-ed! It's only a Llama!

The village fetes we were performing at this weekend had it all – hog roasts, helicopters, bouncy castles, burgers, cream teas, cider, spinning tea cups, Llamas and even the dog grand national… what more could you ask for to feel absolutely 100% quintessentially English?!

Despite the sudden downpours of torrential rain and strong gusts of wind, Wet Picnic didn’t let the weather get the better of us and we were out there serving tea, cake and having biscuit competitions  with the local people of Medstead and Bighton. One girl managed to get down four rich tea biscuits in 30 seconds – her mother was very proud. Medstead’s fete was in honour of their brand new shiny village hall, which was very exciting, and there was even a big ribbon on the doors that was cut to declare the building open and everything! Our favourite moment was when one lady, was asked for ‘a word in the corner’ by another lady, where she was asked her to remove her handbag from the table due to security reasons like it was the biggest and most top secret-est thing in the whole world, haha.

We had a slight panic on Sunday as we were setting the trollies up, when suddenly the rain came down like a storm and did not stop for a good hour or so – by which point everyone setting up their stalls and organising the fete had ran back to their homes to seek shelter so we were alone, in our van,  in a muddy field, in the poring rain. Luckily the weather suddenly turned and the sun came out like a beautiful summers day, as did all the people of Bighton that emerged from their homes and continued as if nothing had happened. Thank goodness for the bag of croissants Graeme had brought with him that morning, and for classic FM which made our time in the van very dramatic but soothing at the same time.

That is our Hat Fair Out There gigs over for this year but everyone wants us to come back and visit next year so hopefully we will be back to the fetes in 2012 with our new show The Birthday Party which we are starting to make next week – keep tuned on the blog to read about the R&D!

18^th July 2011

Quote of the Day: ‘What are these butter biscuits?… I’m only mashing them into a pulp’ – Kelly in the back of the van.

Up at 2am… Tired Daddy (aka Matt) packed his sleepy kids into the back of the van as we drove off in the rain and mist to the ferry port. Kelly bagsied the floor and was out for the count for the whole drive while Charli and Graeme were unable to put their feet down for the whole 4hours drive and ended up with seatbelts lodged in their bottoms and leg and bum cramps from all the strange (but inventive) positions they tried out to sleep in!

We arrived way ahead of time for the ferry and had to sit for an hour to wait to be able to get booked in. Kelly complained about how tired she was (despite a rather long and comfortable sleep in the van) to which she received a pillow in the face from Charli and a kick from Graeme!

Matt had excitedly found a McDonalds on his way over and as we had such a long wait, decided to head back there to get himself some kind of greasy treat. Unfortunately it wasn’t open until 9am (the time of our ferry) so he decided to keep driving until he found another. This one looked hopeful and opened in 15minutes so we decided to wait until opening time to quickly stock up on food before heading back to the ferry. However, 7.45am came and went and despite us all waiting outside the glass doors in the cold and wind, the staff inside were pottering about without even acknowledging that we were there! We even tried a polite knock to try to get them to let us in, which they looked at us and then carried on. We had to go so we didn’t miss our ferry check in, so our empty rumbling tummies got back in the van L We wondered later if this was because of the way we looked, because to be fair, we all looked a bit white and spaced out only having had 2 hours sleep and not having washed or dressed in normal clothing (PJ / Tracky bottom combos all around!)

We passed out on the ferry for a good few hours before emerging to go and get some food. Charli even braved the showers, which was interesting as the ferry was so rocky that she had to sway with the water as it kept moving away as the boat rocked and people kept running in to the toilets to be sick next to her shower cubicle. Nice!

Once fed and watered and washed and slightly more normal looking, we clambered back into the van to start the long drive back home. With classic games such as ‘What’s your favourite?’ and ‘The Alphabet Game’ we kept ourselves in good sprits and dropped the Winchester crew off at Winchester while the rest of us carried on to London.

Thank you so much to everyone at Le Fourneau for such a great week at Les Vieilles Charrues, we had a wonderful time and would love to come back again soon please!

17^th July 2011

Quote of the Day: ‘Yeah I’ve been a huge fan for like ageeees’ – Matt on Goran Bregovic after learning who he was that morning.

In the papers!

We made a quick supermarket dash on the way to site to stock up on cakes and grapes as someone had been nibbling at the in the fridge, despite our big signs saying not to. While we were there we took the opportunity to buy some yummy Breton delights to take back home with us tomorrow. We all brought some Pate Brize with caramel inside it, a Kouign Amann, jars of salty caramel, biscuits, and Graeme and Charli even found some Breton striped Espadrilles which they were very chuffed with!

Another rainy day today but gaps in between each shower meant that we could whizz out to do our shows. Once we had performed and packed up, we headed into site to use up the rest of our food tokens and had a decadent dinner of Tartiflette, Crepes, bread and cheese, and Croque Monsieur!

Kelly's Mayo, Cream Cake and Grape Diet

Tummies full to the point of bursting, we set off to watch Goran Bregovic before we headed back to bed. He was magical! The whole crowd was completely mad and jumping up and down like we had never seen before. Kelly kept being the victim to numerous hippies desperate to dance with her so we sought a hide out backstage and as all the security were so engrossed by Goran, we got right back to the wings and were standing almost right next to him as he played.

We all had slight indigestion by this point after all the food we ate and all the jumping around we just did, so we headed back to say our goodbyes and as we drove off site we were waved goodbye to by the stunning fireworks display to celebrate the end of the festival.

Home at midnight… two hours exactly before we had to leave for the ferry that morning!

16^th July 2011

Quote of the Day: ‘I’m 14 again!’ – Jude whilst grinding to Cypress Hill.

Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain.

The week had started off so well with lots of sunshine but by the fourth day it was chucking it down with rain on this amazing festival. Luckily, as we are quite a mobile show we were able to whizz out and do the show when the rain laid back a bit and run away again if it got too heavy.

Singing in the Rain!

We had just enough time in between two of the shows to go and watch Angus and Julia Stone, much to Graeme’s delight who had been desperate to see them all week. Once their set was over, Kelly realised that Angus sounded like Aberdeen Angus Steak, and was desperate to get a picture of her hugging him, like she was a big roll and he was a steak. Slightly amused by Kelly’s proposition they both agreed to have a picture where Angus was in the middle like some kind of steak sandwich, and they even said they would try to come and watch our show (they didn’t…but the thought was there!)

Aberdeen Angus Steak Sandwich!

Once we were packed up and ready to get cracking for another night of dancing about, we headed into the festival to get some tasty paella for dinner and tried our luck again getting into the wings of the stage where Supertramp were (the right stage this time!).

We then pottered back to the offstage area where the friendly barmen who had served us some champagne two nights before were there with their champagne bottles at the ready for us. Glasses in hand we headed off to go and watch Cypress Hill in the crowds which was craaaaazy! It was an amazing atmosphere and everyone was jumping and singing, I think we managed to get more champagne on the people around us than in our mouths. Another successful night… Respect!

15^th July 2011

Quote of the Day: ‘What are you going to do to me?!’ – Kelly whilst eating oysters with Le 3 Points.

Today we had another television crew on from France3, which was very exciting as this is quite a big channel in France. Click here to see the intermission we were on.The shows went down very well with lots of people fighting to get a seat on the table and even more fighting for the ‘champagne’ that is thrown over the audience at the end of the show!

Photo by Le Fourneau

We were all feeling a bit sleepy after Snoop Doggy Dogg last night, so we went and chilled out with a bit of Jack Johnson while Kelly and Judy stayed at the artists tent to get involved with the foody goodness! We came back to find Kelly eating oysters and trying to start conversations with other theatre companies with opening lines such as, ‘Ohhhhhh Oysters….don’t they make you go excited?’ and ‘Ohhh no, Oysters, what are you going to do to me?!’

This is how much Kelly loves Oysters!

Back home through the Zombie crowds for us, we needed to save our energy for Cypress Hill tomorrow!

14^th July 2011

Quote of the Day: ‘Did he just shoot her in the head?!’ – Jude, Kelly and Charli when Snoop shot a girl in the head in his video!

We had an early start this morning as we wanted to get on site early before the throngs of people started arriving to set up camp for the festival. It opened at 4pm, but already at 8am there were hundreds of people trailing their tents along in shopping trollies and carrying the biggest boxes of boxed wine I think I have ever seen! The Police were out and about and already breathalysing anyone that crossed their path – including myself, which I thought was a bit insulting considering I had only just learnt how to drive the van.

We did a quick supermarket dash to stock up on cream cakes, grapes and yoghurt for the performances and were met by even more people all dressed up in Breton flags, wigs, facepaint, the works who were busy buying their alcohol supplies for the week. The town was completely full of people but pretty much all the shops had shut to stop drunk festival-goers coming inside, and the roads all had big metal barriers all up the side of them to stop people walking or parking there.

Once on site, the TV cameras were waiting and mintues later Jude was busy pulling some man dressed as a giant Rabbit (the TV mascot, not just a strange man) about on the table for an interview. If you want to have a look, click here to see the video.

Photo by Le Fourneau

The shows went down very well with our audience, who seem to love watching English people make fools of themselves and they even loved being covered in champagne at the end of the show – normally people run away but here people were holding out their glasses to catch some of the nasty fruity alcohol flavoured fizz. Several people even chased Jude and Graeme asking for the bottle!

Photo by Le Fourneau

After we had packed up, we headed on site for a dirty sausage and chip baguette to get our energy up and ready to go for Snoop Doggy Dogg. We rushed over to the big stage, and sneakily managed to get right up in to the wings so we could be right next to him as he performed. Feeling rather proud of ourselves and congratulating each other on our sneaky-ness we heard the band start up for him, and then the man himself and realised we had gone to the wrong stage and he was on the other side of the field! No wonder it was so easy to get on that stage.

We made it over to the stage as he kicked off his set and decided to stay with the crowd as that was where the party was at! In-between his songs Snoop had recorded several videos which played on big screens all around the festival – at first we all thought it was great, and everyone was cheering for them , but in the second video he decided that he would shoot a woman he had just slept with in the head as she tried to shoot him!! Slightly stunned at the thousands of people around us that were shouting and cheering around us we were suddenly a wee bit worried about what Snoop was encouraging here as he made everyone shout lyrics that I couldn’t possibly repeat ever again… ever!

Once he was on his last song, and his bad bad videos had come to and end, we whizzed backstage to try and catch him coming off and to our delight, there he was. We shouted like mad 13 year olds who had just seen Hear’say in concert and Snoop turned and gave us the sign of respect… no words.. just a nod and the respect hand thing He was then followed by his band, and a fantastic female rapper that was on stage with him – we shouted at her as well and she came over to say hello – Kelly asked her for a kiss on the cheek, to which she replied, ‘aaaahhhhh no, i don’t kiss no women!’. Very very happy with ourselves and the respect we received from Snoop, we headed back to the van for the drive home as Jude kept collapsing with laughter. Driving home was like driving through a Zombie film as everyone was heading out of the festival to their campsites so the roads were covered in very drunk and spaced out people who didn’t seem to notice a massive massive van coming down the road towards them, and seemed to be so excited by the horn that is had very little effect!

13^th July 2011

Quote of the Day: ‘Fun Daddy!’ – us about Matt when he decided to stop to have a beer en route!

As we had to be in Portsmouth at 8am, we had a very early start from Matt’s house as we all crawled out of our beds and joined the queue for the shower. Eye masks, ear plugs and travel pillows a go-go we snuggled into the rather uncomfortable van as best as we could to get a wee bit more sleep while Daddy Matt drove his moaning kids to the ferry port.

We rushed on to our reclining seats which were right at the front of the boat, so we had a fabulous view of the sea and curled up as quickly as possible to get some more sleeps in before the long drive ahead of us. The sun was shining, the birds were probably singing on land, and the mille-feuille was beckoning from the café counter. We were all very excited about our trip to France, not only so we could see all the lovely people from Le Fourneau and the music that was on, but also for the incredible food you are given in France – they truly know how to look after their performers.

It was lovely and hot in France, which made sitting in the van for 5 hours a bit difficult as we wanted to get out and sit in the sun, but on our way we passed a bar that was by the sea and Matt (aka Fun Daddy) let us all stop to have a beer by the sea which was much needed.

Once we arrived on site, we were taken to our dressing room – which is possibly the most loveliest dressing room we have ever had. They had put up a huge circus tent full of shabby chic-style armchairs, sofas and fairylights, and our dressing rooms were fully equipped as well. There was even a lady on site constantly standing by the crepe machine ready to make crepes for everyone, and a whole table covered in meat, cheese, bread, crisps, beer, wine, cakes – you name it, Le Fourneau had organised it! MERCI!

After eating far more than we should have done at dinner, we were taken to where we were staying for the week, which was in the house of a lovely couple who not only have lots of their own children but foster children as well. They also had a lovely dog called Feika, who we were desperate to take away with us in our van all week. Tomorrow is Snoop Doggy Dogg so we bedded in relatively early to get our dancing sleep stacked up for tomorrow night.

Henley!

We had a jam packed week this week as not only was it the first scratch of our new indoor show, death and gardening, but it was also Time For Teas first trip to The Henley Festival. Mornings and afternoons were spent building a scratch performance in Bracknell and evenings were spent driving over to Henley and going to out to do some shows.

The scratch for Death and Gardening was slightly hindered as we found out a day or two before the show that the set wasn’t ready yet so we had to do some (very) quick re-organising of the scenes we had made and a speedy internet delivery of some fake turf that we could use for our allotments. We also had a bit of time to play around with new bits which was jolly good fun – such as a topless version of Celine Dion’s, ‘My Heart Will Go On’ where we explored all the possible ways we would be able to show a relationship with a rather large marrow!

The scratch was a very good opportunity for us all to try some ideas out in front of a real audience and get some feedback we can carry forward for the next scratch we do. Despite it being in such early stages of its development we had some great feedback and left the audiences wanting to see the rest, which is always a good sign.

Our evenings spent at the ever so decadent Henley Festival were a lovely reward for the manic days we were working with Tom Jones, an ABBA Tribute Group, Alexandra Burke and Jools Holland gracing the stage.

The Tea Ladies were very very popular as we set about giving massages to de-stress the people of the Henley Festival. One women was so convinced by us that she came over with her purse asking to buy 3 Lattes and an Americano…pfffft coffee drinkers! We discovered a new game with the cakes on the inside of our aprons called, ‘What’s your favourite?’, where we hold up our aprons and ask people to pick what they prefer – a little tart, a cream filled gateaux, or chunky chocolate cake. This went down a treat with the men wearing kilts who were only too happy to voluntarily lift their kilts and ask what our favourite was…charming!

If you want to see Viktor take his top off then keep checking our website to see when our next upcoming scratch event for Death and Gardening will be – you don’t want to miss it… believe me!