Coffee Critique

Thats a longer version of an adjudication with interaction with the adjudicator. Well, folks this happened for us yesterday (fri) at the MerseyHouse in front of a packed audience...at 9am.

Well let me go back a step.....to the night before and the best recieved performance of "Sheep" that we have ever done. The worry that I had was that they (the Canadians etc) wouldnt get the language or the premise of the story.....well that lasted about 35 seconds into the play...when they started laughing at Pete Musto. The laughs came thick and fast - putting nearly 3 minutes on to the time of the play! Then, something magical happened for the cast - they had a spontaneous and complete standing ovation - which seemed to last ages. The cast and I were totally overwhelmed. A small , but very positive adjudication then followed by Martha Irving. We then went to the Curling club where we found that non English speaking performers also understood it - so much for someone (of note) saying to me at the Wales Final in 2007 - that it wouldnt travel well - HA!

The adjudication in the morning was so very positive for all of us - but especially for Nye - who got a huge round of applause for his tech work....not something that he is able to get....but richly deserved....the lighting for our production was brilliant - on limited resources and time.
There is a chap here from Nepal - who was very taken by Sheep, and to my absolute surprise by my direction....he was so positive towards our play, I thought that he was going to cry - he spoke very movingly. He then invited me to his theatre school to carry out some directing workshops with his students - in Nepal.....gobsmacked is not the word. Later in the day we, as a group we invited to take part in another festival in Stuttgart in November! Sheep seems to have really taken us all to places, that we didnt think would happen!

Off to watch Cardiff City in the FA Cup Final at a lobster party. Our hosts are amazing...but more of that later.

One final - but no less important fact to mention. Whilst away we have become finalists in the Wales Final - which is the 5th year on the trot! Well done to the BLT Tango Crew - lets hope that this will be our year.....Jerry make sure that they are rehearsing!!

Ciao for now (there GJ hope that the spelling is correct)

Neil