A bit of a cheat, I know to pack all three performance days into one. And seeing as I managed to write an entry for each of all the other days I spent in Nepal, a bit pathetic to finish off so dismally. But the truth is that while the performances were on, I did not have the energy to write after each one, and as soon as they were all done, we were pretty much on our way out of the country. Then came the long trip home, then Christmas, immediately, and other Christmases after that, one way and another. So now more than a week has passed, and if I am honest, the performances have more or less blended into one, so this will have to cover all of them. Otherwise the Nepal blog might not finish at all.
I should start by reassuring everyone that the performances all went off absolutely fine, with no disasters to report on. The power did go off a couple of times, but only once when it absolutely made a difference, just before the start of the Capulets’ party, which absolutely relied on music (and hence power) to give it any impact. So we had to wait for the power to comeback on, but it threw no-one.
It is also the case that we were still going through some of the sound cues with ten minutes to go before the first performance, which is absolutely not the right way to do things. And it did take a couple of performances for the music cues to be absolutely as reliable as they ought to be (and without any spur of the moment additional snippets.) And actually, the music made a big difference – the two fight scenes, the party, the wedding and the funeral were all enhanced, so many thanks to Dhir for providing all of that.
The audiences were great throughout, largely because Aparna had contacted lots of local schools and sold it to them. And in general their time-keeping, which was always going to be a worry, was pretty fair (with the exception of one school who arrived in Dhangadhi late and then decided to go for breakfast, which was not appreciated, and meant they missed half the show. The disappointment in terms of audience came from the adults, who barely came at all, even when the final performance was designated for them. Almost no teachers, very few parents, no bigwigs at all, not even Subhash, the MD. I think there really is no culture of support in that way.
The worst audience was undoubtedly that for the first show, who were almost exclusively students from SPA, and who were, like such audiences generally are, there to see their friends, and there to see their friends make a mess of things, for the most part. It was more than sold out, with rows of students sitting on the floor in front of the chairs, and they were very loud and noisy throughout, but it was gratifying nonetheless that they did seem to get what it was about, and to laugh at some of the jokes; with no way of gauging that side of things at all, it came as a pleasant surprise when quite a few lines got a good, and so far as I could tell, entirely appropriate response.
The other audiences were quieter, and possibly just a bit too quiet at times – perhaps I overdid the introductory talk in which I emphasised that they had to listen carefully when the actors were talking.
Each performance ended with a traditional circle dance – traditional to this area at any rate – to which the audience were invited. Normally, there would be a certain reticence to such things – British audiences are traditionally terrified of being dragged onto stage – but in this case the problem lay in holding people back, with three concentric circles allowing people to just about move. In the later performances in particular, this quickly transformed into a full-on Nepali disco, with everyone hurling themselves into the fun… except for me, it has to be said. I got away with just about enough Dad-dancing to amuse people before sidling away again, to witness the frivolity from outside.
We did have one guest performance from outside, with the Evere4st School in Aataliya bringing their performance – a short play about the dangers of mobile phone use – to the last Saturday. There was lots about it that was excellent, particularly the quality of the actors, though it was a tad naïve in its messaging.
And that leaves the quality of the Romeo 4 Juliet performances, about which I am far less full-throttle in my enthusiasm. I do know that it was in itself quite an achievement to put on a production at all, given the complete inexperience of the performers. And that in the end, their memories of the production will far outweigh my own misgivings. But I always want productions to be special, and in the end this one fell a bit short in various ways. The loss of our first Romeo always proved an issue (since it also meant the loss of a Paris and a Friar John, both promoted as a result.) Juliet had her moments, but was not easy to direct, mainly because she did not listen. And without outstanding characters in the main roes, it was always going to struggle. Some of the minor characters – Tybalt, Capulet – were superb throughout, while Nurse and Mercutio had strong moments. And in the end, a somewhat pioneering project like this one would always suffer in terms of sheer theatrical quality. And besides, that really was not the point. I achieved what I had set out to achieve, and made quite an impact on a small community. All good.
Congratulations!