Wels.... an apology.

In a recent blog posted on this site I may have

incorrectly described the town of Wels as

'small' and 'desolate.'

Lines such as; "the fancy dress merely enforces

the feeling that we are in a place so bland

of life that the staff are forced to wear

funny outfits to make us believe we are in Austria"

may have been deemed as judgemental

on a town that in in fact full of culture

and vitality. In addition to this, phrases such as,

"get me the Wels outta here!"

and, "if it wasn’t so quaint it would be a service station"

may have incorrectly given readers the impression that

Wels was in some way 'dull' or 'uninspiring'.

Since meeting a lovely lady in a bar who actually

comes from Wels I have been enlightened,

and now firmly believe, as all intelligent travelling

persons should, that Wels is a beautiful town

that should be on everyones Austrian itineries.

Since the resignation of Russel Brand and the possible sacking of Jonathan Ross for obsenities on the BBC Radio 2 Russel Brand Show- I would also like to add my name to the list of apologisers.

Wels- a beautiful town.

Carinthia Bye Bye

It’s Friday. And I’m in we’re leaving Carinthia.

We have spent the week here. 

In Villach, and Klagfurt, and Volkmarktstrasse.

And now we’re in the van, heading for Linz. 

It’s been a strange week in many ways. As previously mentioned Carinthia is a very right wing part of Austria, and furthermore; Europe. The three towns that we have visited all share a common feeling on isolation. 

Carinthia is an old part of Europe, and it has kept it’s traditions more then any place in Europe that I have visited to date. Carinthians like they way things are, it’s why they are so anti-immigration, it is why 60% of boys learn there sex-ed from pornography, it why the most popular party in the region is a far right group who have concerning links to times bygone. 

Like how most small towns, people will get into habits and they don’t want those habits to be changed form the outside. The ’Townies’ are treated with nearly as much suspicion as the foreigners. 

While walking through the town of Volkmarktstrasse with Sam we meet a couple:

“It’s not often you hear two London accents in these here parts!” The husband calls over in a Mancunian accent. 

The couple, who have just bought a house overlooking the stunning countryside, tell us about the town and what it is like moving to an area as opposed to just visiting for a few days. 

It surprised me that the two of them had been made to feel outsiders as they weren’t Carinthian. 

As a white British male being made to feel like the unwanted foreigner was an odd idea to contemplate. 

Be that as it may, the four of us in our big green and purple van have been made to feel very welcome in Carinthia. On one night out in Klugenfurt I was even give a bracelet with the colours of Carinthia on it! 

What has really dawned on me this week is how we are experiencing all of these different towns and villages in  a completely different way from those who live there and those who travel on holiday. 

Because every day we are working, and because we have to eat diner in a restaurant every night we really are getting a taste of every town we visit: and we’re visiting hundreds!

Personally, this week has taught me that I could never live in the country- I need people, I need the feeling of anonymity, I need to be feel that there will always be something more for me to learn about the place that I live. 

It almost makes me miss London…. Almost.

A strange week of shows...

Performance wise it has been an odd week. 

The audiences have been a lot more reserved this week, and though we are all aware that the play is not a comedy- there is a definite feeling that the audience are finding it hard to sit in a room and listen to people perform a play that touches on some quite personal themes.

The spaces have been hard too. The first venue had raked seating, which was a first for all of us. Raked seating causes a lot of problems, most prominently the fact that we have to crane our necks up the whole time. Other venues this week have been much more what we are used to but whether it has been the acoustics or the stage it has always felt not quite right.

As a result of the unfavourable environments that we have been performing in we have really felt how as a group we have been pushing a lot more. 

As so many of the scenes resemble family arguments we have naturally used these scenes as opportunities to raise the stakes and inject energy into the show. 

This has caused problems of their own. With a cast of four constantly feeling the need to raise the stakes we have got into the position where we all go on stage, perform a one hour shouting match and then get back in the van absolutely exhausted and spent. 

Last night after our second show we convened in a coffee and cake shop and went through the whole script- discussing the scenes as we go and suggesting improvements along the way.  

This was an incredibly helpful couple of hours and it really helped us look at the play objectively for once. 

One of the best things about the experience was that it felt really nice going through the play and not having to push the lines out; speaking the lines calmly across a coffee able allowed us to once again discover the subtleties of the script. 

Our overriding conclusion was this;

The play is not a play about conflict.

It is a play about four people who love each other and how they resolve their differences.

I think that if you put our energies into more positive actions then both us and the audiences will less dragged down by the end of the show. 

Anger is the easiest emotion to play and should only be kept for very special occasions. 

Death of The Leader

Austria has been rocked this week with the news of the death of right wing political leader Dr Joerg Haider. 

The polititian, who was once forced to resign because he complemented Nazi employment policy, crashed his car while drunk on a small road near Villach.

The story has become global news due to the prominence of the political leader, so it is a strange spending a week in an obscure little Austrian town the same week that it gets global prominence. 

It is alleged that Haider had spent the night drinking in a popular gay nightclub in the nearby town of Klagenfurt and then decided to drive to his nearby home.  Four times over the limit and reportedly travelling at 140 km/h the popular politician lost control of his vehicle. 

Tens of thousands have travelled to the area to pay there respects to Haider, who had recently enjoyed success in Austrian elections.  

The churches have been holding services all week and both Villach and Klagenfurt have been besieged by TV and radio crews relaying the events to the country and the world. 

Villach

After spending the first half of the week in a different town every night we arive in Villach where we will spend nearly a week. As much fun as touring is, nothing beats being able to properly unpack your suitcase and settle down for a few days. 

Villach is a small town in the mountains and is popular in the summer as it is surrounded by beautiful lakes and ski resorts. We drive for several hours through the mountains and arrive at our base, the ‘Romantik Hotel Post’ in the evening. 

Villach is a strange town insomuch as it doesn’t do what it says on the tin. Though in the mountains in the Austrian district on Carinthia, the ancient village does not resemble Austria and certainly doesn’t not feel anything like a Village. 

The centrepiece of Villach is its large Cathedral that dominates the landscape, this is surrounded by a number of old stone buildings, (one of which being our hotel) leading on to the high street. 

Carinthia is a very right wing part of Austria and as such I expected tradition; but as soon as you arrive you are confronted with an H & M and a Mcdonalds so you are soon aware that tradition is something that does not define Villach. 

Going out, Villach seems even more like Reading. The few small bars and clubs and rammed with skin head boys wearing D12 caps and hoodies, and girls with dyed blond hair and hoop ear rings. Last night we went to a club called 'Lets Dance!' (we were almost the only ones who danced.) 

The club came to a stand still when two meatheads decided to have a fight, and in true Western style even the DJ stopped the music to take in the show.  

The bars play a mixture of German pop and 80’s English classics, and boy did we sing along!

 

We performed the show on day one three times to audiences of over 350 each time. These were by far the best shows that we have done to date and we all felt a real buzz after doing them. 

Lady luck really did seem to be on our side and even the technical glitches, of which there were many, seemed to add to the shows success.  

During the main argument scene the CD player jumped wildly, making the usual background of Bach sound like a contemporary theatre sound effect. Even my fake mobile phone, which angers the character of Dad in the same scene, seemed to want to increase its part by going off a few extra opportune times.

Fucking Wels…

Fucking Wels…

It’s October and that means one thing; Pumpkin season. Whereas the Americans and more recently the British have used this as an opportunity to put their craft skills to good use an make fire hazards, the Austrians have decided to do something a bit more sensible and eat them.

Pumpkins are big in Austria this month and in addition to every restaurant preparing a menu especially for October, front gardens and shop windows are adorned with displays of Pumpkins and their slightly less attractive relation, the Ugly Fruit, (which for those of you who don’t know is a small green or orange Pumpkin with warts on it.)

Today we are in Wels, a very small town that, if it wasn’t so quaint it would be a service station. We are staying in the Maxlhaid which was once a coach station and is now the only hotel in town. I say town, Wels comprises of the Maxlhaid, several houses guarded by wild dogs and few scattered factories. 

The Maxlhaid takes all the good and not so good from Milton Keynes and condenses into a guest house. The restaurant is full at lunch time with businessmen; no doubt staying in town to do business with the surrounding factories before the go back home to the slightly more interesting places where I am sure they all live.

One of the more bemusing things about the Maxlhaid is that the staff wear traditional Austrian dress. Rather then give the place the feel of a traditional Austrian hamlet, the fancy dress merely enforces the feeling that we are in a place so bland of life that the staff are force to wear funny outfits to make us believe we are in Austria. 

The staff are incredibly nice and the beer in incredibly good, this will get me through the night… but my goodness; get me the Wels outta here!

As CNN has got a little dull I have decided to go for a wander I have just encountered a Conker tree. Blow me! A conker tree… now this takes me back. I used to love playing conkers and grew up with my mum and Uncle filling me with stories of how they used to soak theirs in Vinegar or bake them to make the killer conker. Looking back less recently I remember one of my favourite nights at drama school where we had a Conker tournament. 

Despite smashing several glasses the night was more fun then any other. 

I got to work like a squirrel and I have collected a respectable hoard on conkers which I will share with my crew. I have sent the following message to the gang who are in the a service station:

Bring string and Vodka.

I have a plan for quite literally a

SMASHING NIGHT!!!

Two key things that I must remember throughout the evening:

It must not literally be a smashing night.

I must win

Day 2

Up and 6:30, shower and breakfast. 

Breakfast insists on consisting entirely of ham, cheese and roles. I feel like I’m on some refined hybrid version of the Atkins diet where I eat a ham and cheese role for breakfast, one for lunch, and a proper dinner. 

We had two shows in the same venue today. After negotiating the parking of the van we set up. The pupils were incredibly friendly and I think that both shows were our best so far. The space was an old gymnasium and as such we had to deal with echo but we seemed to be getting used to that after relatively few days!

I now feel that we are well and truly on tour. I am currently in the back of the van and Kelly is having her first time on the Austrian highway. The weather is not so good today- so I hope we arrive at a fun town to keep our spirits and our energies high. 

Doing two shows in a morning is such a bizarre concept. I seem to reach the climax of my day around 10am and then spend the rest of the day coming down. We all seem to be getting over this by having a nice beer and a good meal in the evenings, but we have a lot of early starts so we’re watching the clock a lot. 

Thankfully we have a lot of Saturdays off so we will be able to let our hair down fully and show Austria what the two Essex girls and the two Berkshire boys are made of! 

The Tour: Day 1

So we’ve rehearsed, we’ve relaxed in Vienna and we’ve fretted about the show…. Now all that is behind us as we commence the tour itself. 

Day 1 was in a small town near Vienna called Pressbaum. The school, which looked like something from Harry Potter, was huge and the pupils were polite and friendly.

The theatre space was by far the smallest that we had encountered and we had to adjust a lot of what we usually do to accommodate the space. 

The show was well received, though I felt that their attention started to wane on the later scenes. The most memorable moment came at the end when Tom’s fist hit the low proscenium arch in the final dance. The audience noticed his gasp as his knuckles scraped the plaster above us and I think this helped create the rapturous applause that we then received! 

The second show was in a small rural town called Perchtoldsdorf. The sat-nav took us to the supposed location way ahead of schedule. Me and Kelly went into the building to find out where the stage was. We were greeted by a cleaning lady and two handy men who looked confused to see us. We explained to them who we were and what we were up to and they told us that we were in the wrong building. 

The chuckling trio, (not sure what they found so funny) proceeded to give us some complicated and in depth directions to some phantom theatre space. 

Driving in circles we soon lost the 45 minutes of spare time that we had scheduled in for a note taking session and a short warm-up. The sat-nav kept diverting us to a small church. We decided to ask a small lady in a red had to help us out. The small lady in the red hat was very helpful and even drew us a small map. 

We finally got to the school and found a teacher who jumped into the van and directed to our location- the location being the place that we turned up to an hour ago. 

As frustrating as this was what really got my goat was the chuckling trio who were now chuckling more then ever. Whether they were purposely teasing us or not I do not know but we were late starting the show and it was hard trying to get the audience on our side after that. 

After packing we had  a 2 hour drive to Perg, a small and picturesque town west of Vienna. During the drive me and Sam slept while Tom drove and Kelly and Tom-Tom navigated. For the first time since coming to the country we saw the beautiful Austrian countryside. The sun was shining and we felt relieved that we had got our first day over and done with. 

Arriving in Perg we checked into the Gasthos Manner hotel .The hotel was very pleasant and friendly. We all got some rest and  went to a local restaurant for some food.

Perg is a small town and though I’m sure there is more to it then we saw, it seemd like it merely consisted of a large church and several pubs. We drank and ate and talked about the show. We also tried to settle on a name for the van- we still haven’t got one yet but Kelly likes the sound of Mufflebanger. 

An early night for all as we were up at 6:30am. Perg was lovely but thank god we’re only here one night-I’m ready to explore!

Day 1- It starts!

I woke up at 8:30 this morning feeling pretty good. My room is very comfortable and I felt very cosy and warm. After I quick shower I went downstairs for breaksfast. The hotel provide a varied spread of meats and cheese and I was a bit naughty and made myself a sandwhich which I took to the theatre with me.

Rehearsal today were all about getting to grips with the reality of touring. We were provided with our props and costumes and we are all happy with what we have. The staging is simle yet perfect for what we will be doing and I think it will not cause us too much trouble once we are on the road. 

Today we worked on a couple of the main scenes in the play. The scene that we worked on most of all has quite a lot of shouting in it so it was quite tiring to keep churning out; but I think we made real progress and I am a lot happier about it.

Rehearsals ended at 4 and I decided to go for a stroll around Vienna town. The city centre is beautiful and I was dumbstruck by the sheer volume of massive buildings. I always thought that London was king when it came to large old buildings but I think that Vienna is streets ahead.

Had a quick pint of Guinness in an Irish pub which looked more like an Irish pub then the ones that are actually in Ireland. Apparently there are 16 Irish pubs in Vienna. The Guiness cost 4.80 Euros which I though was a bit steep but I suppose I was in the city centre and I was a tourist.

There seem to be a lot of Indan rstaurants around- a pint of Guiness and a curry.... how very Austrian. 

The company took us out for a lovely meal. The portions are huge and we all found it difficult finishing our food. The food is very meat heavy, which suits me fine, but I feel that I might get a bit tired of dumplings come Christmas.

I am now back in my room and feeling restless. We start with a movement warm-up tomo so should probably just hit the sack so that I am fresh for the morning.... I do however feel a little restless and might go for a wander. The city is amazing and really opens up your imagination. 

We found out tonight that we have the whole weekend in Vienna and no work scheduled- this makes me very happy indeed.

I have confidence that the show will come on leaps and bounds this week, and as we become more confiedent with our lines and the style that we have jointly helped to create, I am sure that Friday will be a successful day. 

Thought of the day,

• Don't order starters unless you have two stomachs.

I'm here!

I am writing this in my new bedroom. I am in a lovely hotel in central Vienna and have just had my first day of what I hope will be an exciting tour.

No rehearsals today so spent the day relaxing and taking in some of the sites. Vienna is such a lovely city, the architecture is simply phenominal and the Viannese seem to be a very relaxed, artistic and friendly bunch.

I went out last night and went straight to the airport.  We got to the hotel and then had the rest of the day to our own devices. Just got back in from a lovely dinner with the cast. I had a schnitzel filled with bacon, feta cheese and some other lovely stuff that I can't remember.

We had a few drinks in a pub run by a friendly yet slightly scary man who reminded me of Jonny Vegas. We had a few beers and talked about acting- as a group of actors would I suppose.

Feeling incredibly free and happy and am in a really good mood. 

Looking forward to running off to the mountains! Yay! x

Long days

I found my passport, well, my mum found my passport. It was in a box of books that I sent home to my parents house- thank god for that!

Rehearsals are going well but hours are long and when we're not in rehearsals we need to learn our lines.

It's 8:18 on a Thursday morning, I am about to go to the rehearsal space. I'm so tired and need to sort out so much.... just wish I had more time. 

I think that the show is really coming together, It's amazing how much work you can do in three days!!! Can't believe we doing this thing for 6 months.

As I say, I gotta go..... more interesting stuff to come.