Opening Night

Friday night was the first performance of Bolloxed in Victoria. The tech rehearsals earlier in the week paid off, as the all-too-short tech time the Fringe afforded apparently went quite smoothly.

The venue itself is centrally located on Broad Street in downtown Victoria. It’s in the Victoria Event Centre, a second floor club that’s been converted to a theatre for the show. The conversion worked out pretty well, as there’s a dedicated lighting grid, an appropriately-sized stage and a well-positioned ‘booth’ for the technician.

As I’ve always been with artistic projects, I was a nervous wreck before the show. I intentionally ate something plain for dinner. I’ve never actually thrown up out of fear, but there’s always a first time (I knew an actor who did this before every show).

I sat at the back of the house beside Michael, the director, who was equally freaked out. Julie was seated elsewhere with her friends. She looked back at us, leaned over to her friend and said “those guys look like they’re both going to lose their dinners”.

Happily, no one–not us nor the actors nor the audience–threw up. There were some small foibles, but the show went very well. Michael’s a strong director, and the actors did a bang up job. Paul inhabits his character very naturally, and Mercedes was effervescent as Aoife.

The house was nearly full. The audience laughed a lot, and applauded enthusiastically at the end. What more can you ask for? As always, we were surprised at what the audience found funny (more on this later), but we’re not complaining.

All in all, I’ve got to call it a successful opening.
I’m keen to see the show when it opens in Vancouver. Plays don’t really live until they’re performed before an audience, and they evolve through the run. You sometimes see quite a different play on closing night.

As the playwright, all I do is write the recipe. A huge thank you to everyone–Michael, Paul, Mercedes, Julie, Andrew, Cameron–for being such excellent chefs.

I took a few photos before the show and during the cast party.

We invited a bunch of bloggers to the show, and some of the reviews are in. So far, we’re batting 5 for 6 for positive reviews.

• Flotsam and Jetsam
• Mike DeWolfe
• Whippet Snippets
• The Daily Beil
• Dirty Olive
• Mad Media Studios

UPDATE: I meant to mention that after the opening night show, the producer was approached by somebody from the Prague Fringe Festival, and invited to bring the show there. That was a nice compliment for all involved.