Hull: Week 14

Hull: Week 14

Sorry chaps. Despite (or perhaps because of…) the popularity of George Banks' last two blog entries, you've got me back to tell you about Hull. And there's nothing you can do about it!!!!!!!

Sleeeeeepy:

So, most people had opted to go straight from Cork to Hull and not travel back home for a day first. This meant that there were some very tired bodies on Sunday night and Monday morning. As George told you last week, some of the company were on very early morning flights on the Sunday, not so bad for the cast who had left the theatre before 11pm, but for those on the get-out….. We are very lucky as a company to have producers who have worked the touring circuit a lot themselves and who know how important those few extra hours at home can be. We'd all been given options of where and when we wanted to fly to and from Cork, but it had been several weeks before when we'd all made the decisions, so suddenly all the those first thing in the morning flights didn't seem like such a good idea anymore (something similar happened to me with flying to Dundee recently, but more of that another time….)! GMoss and myself were on far more civilised flight times, me at around 11:30am and GMoss later in the afternoon. Hence we felt a little smug as we had our post-get-out Guinness, knowing we had a bit of a lie in in the morning! 

I was flying back to Bristol and from there driving on up to Hull. Getting there late afternoon I found that the Campanile I was staying at had a beer garden which was completely deserted, so I did the only thing possible and enjoyed a few pints in the dying rays of the evening sun. 

The Alans and their crews:

Although a new venue for GMoss and Sinead, myself and Roger had played Hull New Theatre before, albeit quite a few years ago for both of us. We were delighted to see that many of the crew remained the same and that even Alan, the former chief electrician, comes out of retirement occasionally to work on get-his and outs. Under the direction of another Alan, the stage manager, the excellent crew had the set up in no time and lighting Alan zipped about on his cherry picker focusing the lights at top speed. Hull New Theatre is one of the bigger ones we were doing on the tour, the auditorium is vast and the backstage a maze of dressing rooms and offices both above and below the stage. 

Outside stage door at the New Theatre

At lunchtime, us worker bees popped over to 'The Old English Gentleman' pub which is a stone's throw from stage door. They weren't serving food but Paul, the landlord, was happy for us to get a sandwich from the shop opposite and eat them in there with a few cokes to wash them down. We'd found our local for the week!

Just across from stage door

The cast all started arriving from about 2pm and I got great pleasure from bringing them on stage to see how big the stage was in comparison with what we had become used to recently.

Everyone was a little sleepy from their travels still, but on the whole everyone was in good spirits and delighted to have the trench entrance back to normal. There was also much excitement as James had brought along Bramley, his dog, who had been sorely missed by us since Cheltenham. 

James and Bramley outside the theatre main entrance

Quite a large auditorium…….

The show zipped by successfully and afterwards the friends of the theatre had provided us with a small reception with a free drink and some much appreciated food! Apart from a minor glitch which had meant that GMoss had had to completely rewire a lighting unit in the afternoon (he really can fix almost anything), the day had been a successful one. A few of us decided that we wanted to continue on for a few beers, but with no pubs open, a very obliging taxi man took George to the nearest 24hr Sainsbury's to get supplies so we could go back to the house he was sharing with Jonny and Lizzie, which turned out to be just around the corner from my hotel. 

It's Never Dull in Hull:

The very first time I played Hull, myself and our sound engineer bought bumper stickers with these very words on. It's true, there is always something you can find to keep you entertained. Alastair found he could indulge his latest hobby of finding pubs, restaurants, drinks, food items etc that bear the same name as someone he has given a nickname to. He was also able to give new nicknames. Have we told you yet that George is now The Honey Badger? I don't know why. I wasn't there for the naming. I can find out if you want?? 

Alastair keeps himself entertained

Also to keep us entertained, we had two party nights to celebrate………. 

Birdsong 2014 Tour turning 100!

Yes, we'd final arrived at our centenary, during the centenary of World War one itself and parties were definitely in order. 

Simon booked us all a table at what is probably one of the most hilarious Italian restaurants I have ever been in. I had been there for a company meal before, back in 2007 and had had a really good time with nice food. It's just around the corner and with Simon pre-ordering our food for us it looked to be a good evening. It was a good evening, but lets say that it wasn't due to the charm of the waiting staff. I honestly half-expected Basil Fawlty (yes, him not Manuel) to come out of the kitchen any second, grab our plates away and tell us to get out! In the end the whole thing became really very funny and despite missing orders, late arrivals and the fact that Lizzie didn't get anything and then got given an 'emergency' pizza which contained blue cheese, which she hates, we had an excellent time. George had very generously bought several bottles of Prosecco from the bar which he shared out between us, along with a giant chocolate champagne bottle with 100 iced on to it (dessert was, thankfully sorted). Alastair made a very nice and touching speech and Peter, Jonny, Carolin and Simon finished up with a bit of entertainment in the form of human ventriloquist dummies. 

Happy 100th show Birdsong. 

An entertaining meal……...

After dinner ventriloquism 

Peter and Jonny show us how it's done

On-going celebrations:

So, that was the Wednesday and it wasn't enough to have just one party. No. We had to have another on the next night as well. Carolin was actually staying at The Old English Gentleman and had arranged for us to have a bit of a lock in and also, very generously, paid for a load of food to be provided. It turned into a really nice and chilled out evening with singing around the ukulele and a bit of guitar from GMoss and I even gave some Les Mis on the piano. 

Our 2nd party!!!!

Moving on:

The last couple of days in Hull passed really quickly and everyone was in good spirits as we had a Bank Holiday coming up which meant not only did we get the Sunday off, but the Monday as well. Our next venue was to be Doncaster which is less than an hour's drive from Hull so some of us were staying up in Yorkshire over the weekend. For others though, it was a great opportunity to get back home and see family and friends after what had been 3 full weeks away for most. 

Cast, Doncaster is a brand new venue which only opened last autumn and designed by Charcoal Blue, a company which both Jon, our producer/production manager, and Alex and Jenni our lighting designer and associate, all work for and we were looking forward to seeing what the newly opened theatre had to offer. 

Catch-up with us soon as we hit Doncaster, Colchester, Dundee and Leicester!