May 28th

No disasters. Great reviews! See the Zero Balans facebook page. Packed Houses; well it is the school holidays! Safety officers would have a fit. We start off with rows of chairs and then when they're full and we still have a 100 outside, we ask people to move chairs forward and wedge another row in perched on the rostrum behind. We get in around 250 to 270. Wish we could raise the roof on the theatre. Still angry people outside who have come from 20 odd kilometres out of town who can't get in.

Our major battle internally has been to keep the laughter down. We had a great meeting the other day. As mentioned it got better briefly after my set of notes but in the last 2 shows it set in again. Various unnecessary ad libs and too much 'acting' in crowd scenes. Some lead actors were not happy and could feel that no one was listening to them and they were being upstaged by stuff going on around them. It's a fine line as some of the scenes are pure comedy. One much loved scene involves three community members all vying for the one chair in the ministers room to make their case to him for receiving 'funds'. And half of the long scene that makes up half the second act is again comic but once the news of the minister's dismissal by his colleagues becomes known to the community then the fawning stops and they turn on their MP. Done properly, the next 15 minutes are quite powerful and the cast can have the audience dead quiet but with ad libs and 'boo hiss' style crowd acting, the audience is let off the hook . Given that, in this section, the play suggests we shouldn't just blame politicians but look at our own actions towards them, we are making it far too comfortable a ride for them. All of this came out in the meeting; and last night we held the audience and wiped the smile off their faces.

The funny thing (well not funny at all really) is that as we struggle to keep the straight elements of the play straight so each day brings one new farcical revelation of the machinations of our MPs. It is as bad as I can remember it being in the days of the Swanson and Ghosh scandals. One youth leader who works for WSB said politicians were courting the youth he represents and they asked him how WSB dared to challenge the big men. Wise lad said he didn't work for that section of WSB.

The first week of shows.

A week into performances and the reception has been great. Full houses every night. Although there's full and full. Comfortable full and, on Saturdays, should- we -really -be -cramming -this many- people- in full. Rows of chairs are moved forwards so another set of people can perch on the edge of the rostrum behind. You begin to feel like a cattle herder at the market. But everyone is remarkably tolerant. We've also had our fire dancers on standby so they can put on a show for all those who can't get in even after the squashing up. We've had a glowing review in the paper and there's an active Zero Balance Facebook page.

The worst show was probably last Friday when crowd scenes in particular seemed to be a little OTT or if not OTT, the crowd members were acting so full bloodedly that the main action on stage was almost the sideshow. An ex actor from Canada, Dan McGarry, who lives here, reminded me of Stanislavski's comment after his troupe returned from tour, 'there will be a rehearsal on Tuesday to remove the improvements!' We tried to deal with these in notes on the Saturday and it seemed better as a result.

But it's never been less than OK and the audiences seem totally engaged. I would say we've had many more passages than in previous productions where the the audience has been listening intently with no strange laughter. This is not to damn the other productions. For those not familiar with a typical audience for these shows, they contain a smattering of babes in mothers' arms, a number of 5 to 1o year olds often on mats at the front; teenagers and upwards. So, so different from a western theatre going audience. To hold all of that audience is quite a task.

Anyone in Vanuatu reading this, we have auditions for Love Patrol series 5 at the theatre from 10am next Monday (23 May) and 24 May. We need all ages and all colours actually so maybe see you there?