Fringe previews

We previewed two of our three Edinburgh Fringe shows this weekend. One of them, ‘Some Plays By Paul Richards’ we’ve had for a while now so I wasn’t worried about this one at all – Hind and I know this show inside out, she’s one of the most reliable actresses you could ever meet, which is needed as I sometimes go off on one and her reliability is essential for the stability of the piece. ‘Redundancy Club’ was a worry though – the rehearsals were a slight concern, Sarah is a remarkably good director who is intricate enough to give us plenty to play with but also doesn’t put too much pressure on us – she accepts the odd bit of paraphrasing, but at the same time runs quite a tight performance ship. I’ve worked on shows with Izzy for many years (three) now and the rapport on stage I’d like to think is obvious, but we still went into these performances more than a bit unsure about this one, purely because of the timescale we’ve had to work with due to other projects. On Friday both shows were performed twice – so I was on stage for nearly four hours. The first performance of ‘Some Plays…’ was a tad caffeine aided, not my most composed performance but with enough energy to keep people amused, ‘Redundancy Club’ worked – true, it was fidgety and the ending was a bit messy, but we exceeded our own expectations and we were greatly relieved. By the time of the second run of both shows, both of them were really hitting a decent gear – the slightly tired me seems to be actually be more suitable, if I slow down a bit it works. “I know a lot of you have seen Some Plays before…I’m sorry, but it probably won’t be any better than last time,” was how I introduced the show to Saturday’s audience, knowing there was a lot of my regulars in who had seen the first piece on the tour, but ironically it was by far the best I’d ever done it – slightly tired from 3 gigs that day, but this was the best this show has ever looked. ‘Redundancy Club’ didn’t quite flow as well though on Saturday night, the heat in the small Cambridge venue felt unbearable, I was below par – the show was starting to feel strong enough now to work even if one of us isn’t having the best time on stage, the audience still reacted positivity but still – I was annoyed with it. On Sunday we found ourselves in Great Massingham for the final preview, this one at the wonderful Dabbling Duck. Possibly my favourite venue, the library/dining room is a cracking space, the audience were lovely and this performance of ‘Redundancy Club’ (no ‘Some Plays’ for this one as the locals had already seen it on the tour) was by far the strongest – both Izzy and I were getting comfortable with the piece, it flowed at great pace, people praised the ‘substance’ of it…we went home in very good spirits. Both of those shows will be fine at the fringe, you know, more than fine. ‘Some Plays’ is intimate, ‘Redundancy Club’ is full-throttle, fast comedy…but they both work, in very different ways. I’ve now got until Wednesday to learn the solo show. Easy. Hhhhhmmmm....