Reference to the play in my title today. On Sunday it was the production of Fantastic Mr. Fox in the Hexagon after only two weeks of rehearsal. We only did one tech and one dress rehearsal. Usually you spend weeks on those kinds of things. So naturally we were all completely hyped on nerves we didn't even realise we had, they were so well covered by general excitement. Oh, and sugar. We (Toby, Barney and I) took in cakes. About thirty of them. And Erin and Tara's mums bought pizza for those who'd paid. And Immie brought in gingerbread men. And we had a few packets of biscuits. Oh, yeah and some strawberries (there were parents around, of course there was fruit). But we were completely hyper in our hour's dinner break.
Erin and Mary's mum did my make up for me. And to be honest, I didn't look too much like a clown. You have to do make up really over the top in the Hexagon. Particularly with how much we were reliant on lighting effects this year. Otherwise you look really pale. But I think if I hadn't had to wear bright red lipstick, it would've looked vaguely okay. Loads of people said I looked really different with make up on. Which I'm taking to be a good thing.
Ah, you're expecting an explanation for the title. Stewart, who is not altogether there (to put it mildly) did not know his lines for the dress rehearsal. Which, by the way, takes place on the morning of the Saturday we perform. But he insisted he knew them, and wouldn't take a script. Even though he was a narrator, and it's not unheard of for a narrator to have a script. Ugh. So in the dress rehearsal, he skipped two pages, missing out two songs and the squirrel scene. And then almost skipped the mole scene. But we thought, 'oh, it's okay, he can learn his lines during our break for dinner. it is a whole hour after all' But NO. Apparently he had better things to do. Like correct Sohum (wrongly) of his lines. Sheesh.
And for the real play, we all started with that fatal optimism "Every year the dress goes bad, and every year it turns out alright" and guess what. This year it was not to be. Stewart confused the fox family, almost skipped the squirrels' scene and further confused the fox family to the extent that nobody knew where we were in the play, and one of the small foxes cried out the next line she could remember. Which incidentally skipped out Mrs. Fox's solo. Mrs Fox was in tears, the small fox was in tears, Laydell (the second narrator) was in tears. The latter two because they blamed themselves, the first because she'd been deprived of her solo. And everyone else was just plain confused.
David, on the other hand, had watched the play from the stalls, and not even noticed the lack of song. Some director! But if he hadn't noticed, the audience couldn't have. So we just stuck the song into the second act, it fitted well enough, and the play went on without mishap. Which was a relief really. Even my flute solo went okay. We sang the Circle of Life, and having played the solo for Regenesis anyway, I asked Toby (director of music - not my brother) if I could play it. He was delighted to let me. And after I'd finished playing it, I got a round of applause I had NOT been expecting. OH and even the curtain calls went well. Nobody wanted to go home after that production. Nobody ever does.
xxxxxx
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