Belfast Liverpool Lancaster

Yes, we’re touring a technically complex show by a wheelchair-using performer to one night stands around the UK in the middle of the biggest cold snap in years. You got a problem with that? We’ve triumphed in Belfast, Liverpool and Lancaster. We are Kings and Queens of the road and can recite the Ibis Hotel bar menu by heart.

Belfast was amazing. The ferry ride to and fro, the amazing Irish warmth! Even when they’re stopping and searching you (at the ferry docks), they’re so friendly! We felt incredibly supported by the amazing Outburst organizers and fabulous festival crowd that came out to the Brian Friel Theatre on 18 November. Confession: we had a significant sound problem, which added a distorted, body-vibrating rumble to the entire soundtrack (sort of like being on a ferry). Not good. But there was an incredible outpouring afterwards, they loved the show anyway, were very moved by it. So what if some described it as nightmarish...

From the comment book: “A virtuoso performance!” “The most powerful piece I have seen this year.” “I'm such a theatre cynic these days but I am blown away, overwhelmed - what a fabulous, fabulous piece of theatre.” “That was stunning. Just surprising and beautiful and funny and held me from start to finish. Thank you.”

Luckily we had several days before our DaDaFest performance, so our sound designer Tom G was able to reprogram to a simpler format, more resilient to the unknown contingencies of the road. Since then, Mr. Sound System has been behaving: performing as we agreed in rehearsal, and resisting his own worst impulses to upstage Pete.

Liverpool: Checked into the Ibis, the festival digs across from Albert Docks and a whirlwind of DaDaFest artists. Buzz around the Bluecoat was cool, with a fantastic Tanya Raabe installation/painting in the lobby (Penny Pepper naked!) setting the scene, and lots going on. However, the long and narrow performance space at the Bluecoat presented its own challenges, and wouldn’t have worked for the blocking of Fat if we hadn’t turned the space around 90 degrees. This and complete teching in just one day, with our stage/production manager Tom C going full steam assisted by the energetic technical staff at the Bluecoat. Programmed up against two other high profile DaDaFest events on the same night, the house was small but who said we were size queens? In attendance, the fabulous Ruth Gould, CEO of DaDa, and one of our Arts Council officers. Pete performed exceptionally; one minor technical glitch left him stranded naked on the stage for a few extra minutes, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind!

[WARNING: Non access geeks can skip this next paragraph.] You all know by now that all performances of Fat are audio described and BSL-interpreted, in addition to captions for Pete’s speech. Ruth Gould is an interesting example, because although she’s hard of hearing, she is more comfortable watching captions than a BSL interpreter during performance. While we do have captions for Pete’s live speech in Fat, we don’t for the parts where there’s recorded audio by another voice. Soooo... we made sure the hearing loop was in operation, and Ruth used a combination of the hearing loop and the captions to access the dialogue. Talk about customized access! (The supergeeks may now be wondering how the visually impaired and blind audience members access Pete’s differing speech, if it is captioned. Funny you should ask. Pete’s dialogue has been recorded on CD by Sjaak, our main recorded voice, and our audio describer cues these bits through the headphones along with the live audio description!)

We hung around DaDaFest for a couple days and executed several people in order to snare their tickets to Mat Fraser and Julie Atlas Muz’s sold-out “The Freak and the Showgirl.” Loved the guts and confidence of the performances, loved the fanny song (did you think I wouldn’t?), loved the fantastic reception from Liverpool burlesque aficionados.

What does “accessible” mean when referring to accommodation? Many things to many different people, it seems. As we travelled to Lancaster, it was getting very cold and icy, with a couple inches of snow. Nuffield Theatre is part of the University of Lancaster, home to a high profile and innovative performing arts programme. It’s a huge, somewhat institutional campus a few miles out of Lancaster, and a bit isolated. We’d booked accommodation on campus, which seemed convenient, but arrived to find that the “accessible” rooms were not accessible. The toilet was large-ish, but the shower had a built in bench that would prevent getting in with a wheelchair. Oops, someone needs to ride the learning curve. We finally located a hotel with walk-in showers in nearby Preston, another Ibis, and decided to all camp out there instead. Finally settling in but unable to face one more Ibis pizza, we opted for a very late lunch at the pub next door, where the waiters were dressed as Christmas elves. Next to working as a waiter-elf at a pub just off the motorway, touring suddenly seemed very glamorous.

While Tom C. hung and focused the next day, Pete, Yisa, and Spicer went shopping in Preston, and Caglar, Zeyno and I drove into Lancaster to flyer and get out the crowd. Nice castle (much better than Nottingham’s) and I would have liked a tour but didn’t think I could convince my companions as it was probably elfin’ freezing inside and, oh yeah, we’re supposed to be working. Discovered a gorgeous cafe called the Music Room with delicious coffee from local Atkinson’s, chatted up folks there and across the road at the Sun Cafe and dropped lots of flyers. Next day, a solid tech polishing of cues, a run through, and another great show, with Q&A afterwards. It was an interesting chat, but the mainly student audience seemed a bit restrained. Could it possibly be because they were told to attend as part of their course work? I couldn’t help imagining, however, some future David Hoyle or Katie Mitchell in the house, unnoticed, absorbing and processing something completely new.

From the evaluation forms: “A clever performance - with humour and random off the wall ideas - loved the spam bit quirky in parts.” “I can honestly say I'll never forget this show.”

In Lancaster, we got word that Pete has been nominated as Emerging performer of the year by DaDaFest 2010! (UPDATE: HE WON!!!!) We are all extremely chuffed and honoured to be working with him on Fat, and after the show we toasted Pete with a bottle of bubbly. Pete had given out huge boxes of Thornton’s chocolates to each of us earlier that day, so no need for post-show dinner. Get a few drinks in Pete and he’ll ask you to dance, and there he was coaxing the lovely Jo Hammett to demonstrate some moves, which caused her to tip her giant box of chocolates onto the carpet of the Ibis lobby. (I feel like I’m writing a Noel Coward song). However, we observed the three-second rule, and as a team effort put each one back into its little niche.

We arrived safely back in London on Thursday, chocolates in place. Everywhere between Lancaster and London was blanketed in snow, with Spicer who had to get to Brighton arriving home last. Colchester workshop with Actability, scheduled for Friday, has been postponed, but Pete is especially excited at the prospect of working with other artists with differing and alternative speech, and we’ll be rescheduling for January.

Rich Mix London beckons. We already know some fantastic people, friends and colleagues, will be in the house, and we are very excited for a) the pre-show reception, co-hosted by Live Art Development Agency, b) the show itself, our penultimate, c) the post-show discussion led by Andrew Mitchelson, and d) post-show drinks and schmooze. We know it’s just one more cold Monday night in London town, but for us it represents the climax (in several senses of the word) of five years work, not to mention one of the highlights to date in the stellar career of a great emerging artist. Come on out for a life-changing experience!

Michael Achtman

photos by : Caglar Kimyoncu (except #1 and 3 by MA)