Redundancy Club @ The Bay Tree, Bury St Edmunds

Last night we performed Redundancy Club for the final time. It's been an odd show this one; in the scale of things we've not actually been performing it for too long - I wrote the first draft in April, it opened in July, we did a fringe run with it in August and now, mid-September, it's time to let this one go. The plan was to always produce a show which was half sketch/half play - and we've done that, the writing is packed with overblown additional characters on top of the two 'normal' lead leads, and we've hopefully managed to strike a chord with anyone who has been made redundant - it was written at the time when I had indeed just been made redundant alongside 60 other people in the office. I was happy with this show - it's seemingly gone down well everywhere we've performed it, of the three shows at the fringe it was certainly the most successful regarding audiences sizes, technically it was more complex than most of the rambling material I write, Sarah directed it brilliantly and Izzy was fantastic in it. Yet somehow as the run ends I feel a bit relieved that we're done with this one now - perhaps it doesn't feel as honest as my solo/solo-ish shows, it was more conventional play than storytelling, for what is effectively a true story it didn't quite feel as personal as some of my other work. Not always a bad thing though, you could argue. Last night we were back at the Bay Tree, I love this place - it's a beautiful little café, the staff are amazing and are so supportive of what we do and the food is outstanding. For me the performance felt a little tired, but still worked - and the audience were wonderful and made us feel very appreciated indeed. I enjoyed it, but a lot of that is down to how brilliant the venue is - I can't wait to go back there in December as part of the full UK tour (new Christmas production). In the meantime, like all the sets from previous shows over the years, I shall store away my Frederick Nacklawinky hat, my harmonica, my 'Success Head: Ways To Succeed In Business By Using Your Brain' book and my fake Stevenage Borough tattoos - and will have fond memories of Redundancy Club, as much as it's time to move on.