Monday rolled around again and Eden was still poorly. I normally get ill on week one of touring; my body isn’t used to getting up at ridiculous o’clock, I eat differently and work very hard after months of unemployment. But I get on with it, I’m there to do a job and I’ll do it. There’s no moaning, there’s no understudy! But Eden wasn’t just run down, his mystery illness was still a mystery. He came down for breakfast, didn’t eat anything and refused to go to work. We had to phone the boss. Thankfully the company is based quite close to where we were staying so Brian managed to get to us and fill in for Eden. The show was ‘An Inspector Calls’, and Eden was the main workshop leader in it. We made it to the school and set up, phone in hand awaiting Brian’s arrival. And he got stuck in traffic. The school were being really awkward when I asked if we could push the show back slightly while Brian was making his way but they were having none of it. He made it just in time, and we threw the Inspector costume at him, thrust a script in his hand and did one of the best thrown-together workshops we’ve ever done!
This routine carried on for the rest of the week for three out of the four shows. Adam and I would trundle off in the van with Brian meeting us at the schools and we managed to make our way through the week quite successfully. There was the occasional text from Eden demanding that we bought him tins of soup, but I quite enjoyed it. It brought me and Adam a lot closer together, although we had Brian performing with us, it was down to us two to keep things going as they had been and try not to let everything fall to pieces. By the time we got back on the Thursday evening, Eden was feeling much better and he said he was going to make it to Friday’s shows. Yvonne had said that either herself or Brian would be coming to watch the morning show as that was the only workshop they hadn’t seen in action from us yet. And so we woke up on Friday ready to go out as a team again, onl for Eden to say that he wasn’t going again. I phoned the bosses but got no response so I sent a text message and hoped for the best. I’d bought the York Notes books for each play that I used to use at school, and during the drive Adam was reading facts out to me and asking me questions, none of which I knew.
We rolled up at the school, set up again, and clock watched as the 9.30am start time crept closer and closer. There was no sign of either Brian or Yvonne. I started to panic. We had 2 shows of ‘Macbeth’ that day, and despite performing half of it, I didn’t really know it that well. Eden was the sole workshop leader in it as Adam and I were Macbeth and his Mrs. There wasn’t a lot of time for us to be workshopping. We remembered that Adam and Eden had a sword fight at the end when Macbeth dies, so I’d have to take the part on and learn the stage fight too! The clock ticked ever closer to 9.30, and suddenly as I popped my head around the curtain I saw Yvonne signing in at the reception desk. I frantically motioned her to get behind the curtain and she saw that Eden wasn’t there. Quick as a flash she put on one of the costumes and we were off into the workshop straight away. I don’t know how she did it but she was amazing! The shows were fabulous that day! Adam and I were on fire, we even got a round of applause after 2 different scenes!! We were so glad to get to the end of the week in one piece! We vowed to have a relaxing weekend, and after I’d taken him home again for another driving lesson, we did.
And then it was our final week in Northwich. Eden was back, the shows were rocking and we were happy. We spent a lovely evening with Marcus and Sarah on the Thursday before everyone went their separate ways. Eden, Marcus and Sarah all went to their homes but Adam and I were going to the next accommodation, down near Shrewsbury. We had to move out of the Northwich house on the Friday but the next accommodation wasn’t ready til the Saturday so we spent the night in Sarah’s cottage next door, Adam cooked me steak, and we had some cheese and some wine. Lovely!
After a long drive down, we arrived at the cutest cottage I’ve ever seen! We settled in, did a food shop and I supervised as I taught him how to make one of my amazing cheesecakes! I was slightly miffed that his was better than mine, but it was delicious and I almost ate the lot!
We settled down for the night and Adam insisted we watch one of the DVDs in the house- ‘A Room With a View’. I can’t say it was my thing- I fell asleep! But he’d made me another amazing steak that night so I couldn’t be mad at him! We didn’t get to spend very much time in the area that week as we had a full week of shows, but one evening I went for a walk around the village for Adam and we found our own little piece of paradise! :)
Our next stop was Norfolk, and we were very excited. Our accommodation had its own swimming pool! Our route took us past Kettering so I told Adam we would be stopping at my house to collect my swimming costume. We popped in quickly and he met my parents(!) and was a hit! We swung into town and I showed him around Starlight and he met Jacc and Craig and a couple of seniors (also a hit!), then we stopped off to buy some food for our evening meal when we arrived in Norfolk. Unfortunately we didn’t get that far. We were driving along the A14, and had only been going for about 5 minutes when the van felt really heavy and the power steering gave out. I managed to get it over to the side of the road just before it stopped completely. I found the breakdown information and called out the RAC who said there was a 2 hour wait. We weren’t impressed. I’d only managed to get the van onto the start of the slip road off the A14 so we got out of it and sat on the grass awaiting the big orange truck. After about an hour of sitting in the cold (despite Adam giving me his jumper :) ) a police car came along and had to push the van onto the grass verge as it was getting dark and dangerous to be where we were. We thankfully climbed back into the van and sat snuggling watching Gavin and Stacey on Adam’s phone. 2 hours had passed and there was no sign of the RAC. Adam tried to phone them back but got put through to a machine. Not long after that we got a phone call back saying that we would have to wait another hour. While fighting back tears I tried to assert myself and try to get us bumped up the list but to no avail. We would have to wait.
When we were rescued, we discovered that there was no way to get the van moving again so we would have to be towed, with me steering the thing! I’ve never been so nervous in all my life! But I managed it and 6 hours after leaving, we were back at my parents house after waving goodbye for the week. It was early to rise on Saturday, as I tried my best to get the van sorted. It was just lucky we were so close to home or we would have been ridiculously stuck. I managed to get it in a local garage and while they were looking at it I managed to get in a sneaky ballet lesson! It turned out to bad news for the van, something was drastically wrong, and I then had to source a hire van. With nowhere in Kettering to hire from, I found one in Wellingborough but had to get my dad to drive us there because they wouldn’t deliver it to me!! Then when I got to Wellingborough they almost didn’t gave me it because I didn’t have a utility bill to prove my address! I wanted to slap someone very hard by that point! We sped it back to Kettering and had to transfer all the costumes and set into the new van before the garage closed for the rest of the weekend.
I definitely needed a good drink after that day so I took Adam to experience the wonders of Kettering at night! After a very good night we finally made our way to Norfolk. And it was definitely worth the wait! Not too far from the local towns, it was a beautiful set of cottages with a huge kitchen, lovely lounge and a decent bathroom. Sadly, as with all touring accommodations, we weren’t there long enough to appreciate it fully, but I did manage one swim in the pool and said hello to the house chickens!
And then began the final week. We made our way back up to Leeds to stay at Eden’s house, this time Adam didn’t have to sleep in the lounge, we bunked in the spare room together! :) I was sad that the tour was coming to an end, I was looking forward to a break (and my ever-looming holiday!) but I was sad that I wouldn’t get to see Adam for a while, and I was scared he’d forget me! But we had a tour to finish and I couldn’t dwell too much on it, there were students that needed my help! The week flew by, much to my disappointment, and as usual, the final show was a huge anticlimax. The last day featured two shows of ‘Of Mice and Men’, but they didn’t want to see Curley’s wife’s death because ‘they know that happens’...?!? I didn’t even get to die!!!!!!!! So I just did one scene and that was it! Rubbish!
I was also faced with another epic journey. Despite staying in Leeds, the show was in Leicester (about an hour from my house). This meant my day would consist of driving from Leeds to Leicester, doing two rubbish shows, driving back up to Crewe to drop off the set, costumes and Adam, and then driving back down to Wellingborough to drop off the hire van to then find a way home. Until Adam had a brainwave! He lives not too far from Crewe so after we dropped off the set I dropped him off at home and stayed the night at his house! Bliss!
But all good things must come to an end, and I had to leave to get the van back. My goodbye was hard, and I cried for ages in the van, until I almost crashed because I couldn’t see through my tears and I had to stop! And that was it. Tour over. Would it be the last one? You’ll have to wait and see...
No comments:
Post a Comment