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Carnival of Monsters, Part Two
Mar. 11th, 2008 01:23 amSo: it's a week in to the Adelaide Fringe run of A Record or an OBE. And it's been a bit weird.
For one thing, the audience reaction has been completely different. In Melbourne, the audiences laughed a lot; only a couple latched on to the drama and ignored (or failed to notice) the jokes. Here, our first two audiences were virtually silent. Sadly, this is when the Advertiser came, and it's painfully obvious from the two-star review that our reviewer didn't get any of the humour. Our numbers fluctuated but we managed half houses on average, which isn't bad. But without the little push from a good review - or any comments at all on Fringe forum talkfringe, despite our second night being full of people who got free tickets from the site - numbers are seriously low for next week.
It's not all bad news: the only non-Murdoch paper in town, the Independent Weekly, gave us a lovely review which was printed on Saturday; that, along with putting the show on the 2 for 1 tickets list, got us very good houses considering it was the Womadelaide weekend. I've been playing with The Crew, both in our "Short Order Impro" show (which has been getting steadily bigger crowds), and our team in the local impro competition "Clash of the Theatre Titans", which are both great opportunities to plug the show to large, happy crowds. (We won all three of the competitions, by the way; I got to play a "Thank God You're Here" style scene tonight as our prize, and it was great fun!) Plus The Fix has been looking for editorial content, and will publish a "Top Ten Goodies Moments" article I penned early this week, which is more good publicity.
This city is weird, though. The people are largely lovely and very kind, but the city itself has multiple personality disorder. It's been beautiful: the Northern Lights exhibition, part of the International Arts Festival, is an awe-inspiring installation of art projected onto public buildings. (One of my favourites was the fossils, mostly trilobites and fish, projected onto the Museum - though that's also a reminder that I'll be leaving just before palaeontology week!)
On the flip side, the city's also trying to kill me. It has been stupidly hot every day this week, with the Mercury staying consistently above body temperature. The clear skies explain the heat during the day, but I'm still weirded out by how hot is stays at night. (Our venue The Fridge is very ironically named: it's not the actual fridge, but what seems to have been a loading bay. Unlike the rest of the factory floor there's no insulation or ducting in the roof; it's just a brick box with a tin roof. We've abandoned the jumper and jacket and we're doing the show in rolled up shirt sleeves.) It's also a long way between places, and I've discovered my shoes aren't quite the right size for hours of walking in hot weather...
I have seen some great shows, though. Mostly comedy, stuff I've missed previously or won't get to see in Melbourne, but today I saw Under Milk Wood performed by Guy Masterson with my friend Janine, and it was wonderful.
One week to go!
For one thing, the audience reaction has been completely different. In Melbourne, the audiences laughed a lot; only a couple latched on to the drama and ignored (or failed to notice) the jokes. Here, our first two audiences were virtually silent. Sadly, this is when the Advertiser came, and it's painfully obvious from the two-star review that our reviewer didn't get any of the humour. Our numbers fluctuated but we managed half houses on average, which isn't bad. But without the little push from a good review - or any comments at all on Fringe forum talkfringe, despite our second night being full of people who got free tickets from the site - numbers are seriously low for next week.
It's not all bad news: the only non-Murdoch paper in town, the Independent Weekly, gave us a lovely review which was printed on Saturday; that, along with putting the show on the 2 for 1 tickets list, got us very good houses considering it was the Womadelaide weekend. I've been playing with The Crew, both in our "Short Order Impro" show (which has been getting steadily bigger crowds), and our team in the local impro competition "Clash of the Theatre Titans", which are both great opportunities to plug the show to large, happy crowds. (We won all three of the competitions, by the way; I got to play a "Thank God You're Here" style scene tonight as our prize, and it was great fun!) Plus The Fix has been looking for editorial content, and will publish a "Top Ten Goodies Moments" article I penned early this week, which is more good publicity.
This city is weird, though. The people are largely lovely and very kind, but the city itself has multiple personality disorder. It's been beautiful: the Northern Lights exhibition, part of the International Arts Festival, is an awe-inspiring installation of art projected onto public buildings. (One of my favourites was the fossils, mostly trilobites and fish, projected onto the Museum - though that's also a reminder that I'll be leaving just before palaeontology week!)
On the flip side, the city's also trying to kill me. It has been stupidly hot every day this week, with the Mercury staying consistently above body temperature. The clear skies explain the heat during the day, but I'm still weirded out by how hot is stays at night. (Our venue The Fridge is very ironically named: it's not the actual fridge, but what seems to have been a loading bay. Unlike the rest of the factory floor there's no insulation or ducting in the roof; it's just a brick box with a tin roof. We've abandoned the jumper and jacket and we're doing the show in rolled up shirt sleeves.) It's also a long way between places, and I've discovered my shoes aren't quite the right size for hours of walking in hot weather...
I have seen some great shows, though. Mostly comedy, stuff I've missed previously or won't get to see in Melbourne, but today I saw Under Milk Wood performed by Guy Masterson with my friend Janine, and it was wonderful.
One week to go!
