Kapow! Begins!

Saturday morning we lug all our props in from the container. Several of us carry the bunkbeds together, round the corner where the tent slopes almost too low to allow us in and we have to step up because the ramp angle doesn’t work for us. It’s muggy in the tent and burning outside and Christy and I work quietly together with the lifting and arranging while Luke does the knot tying. 

The fence solution complete

Our changeroom is skanky. 

Dear other-performers-who-share-the-Umbrella-Revolution-changeroom, 

You should know that Christy picks up your rubbish and tidies away your makeup so there is room for other people. 

Love from me.

The thing that tipped the skanky over to hilarious was this:

Suspicious yellow ‘specimen sample’ containers on the changeroom bench.

We get into costumes, do make up, run the hard tricks. Front of House say it’s time to open. The moment before we are ready, we stand holding hands and look hard into each other’s eyes, making contact, committing to working together, to being safe, to looking after each other. Then its time and I jog backstage to sit alone, listening to the feet on the seating bank and the children talking as they arrive. Trying to imagine Christy out there playing with Rosie, being quiet and awkward but present with the crowd.

The show is a little bit wild. Nat gets a few of the sound cues hilariously out but we work to the wrong music or to silence and its ok really. Christy forgets lines and that’s fine too. I feel like I know the shape of the show and that between us we can drive it to the end in spite of hiccoughs. The Porcelain Punch crew are in the crowd leading the laughter which is lovely.

During the show I feel a little un-funny and a little like I am not ‘showing my pleasure to be with the audience.’ Like maybe the only people who really love us are our friends who are the ones I can hear laughing. But at the end as we kneel on the grass by the entry and say hello to the kids, the parents are bright-faced and complimentary. I remember that it is a good show.

I hang with the Punchies while they prep for their show and they are gorgeous about Kapow which is lovely.

A bit of backstage Punch

The thing is, we have only sold three tickets out of 250 for Sunday. After my box office shift, I pump the Garden, handing out 50 complimentary tickets and making friends with the small people again.

Cycle home in the dark, appreciating the flatness of Adelaide.