ALASDAIR SATCHEL’S WEBLOG

Into the Swing of It All

11 August 2008

It's been a merry old week. Much roister-doistering has been had. As you can see from the photo above, Mr Brechin has been very silly yet again, and after tucking in to a whole lime, with skin intact (for a £1 bet), he decided to gobble up the best part of an onion.

After that he quietly went through to the fridge and took a bite out of pretty much everything in there – including my nan bread, which I was going to have for my dinner the next night. He's a very silly man. As he bit into a Tunnocks Tea Cake, including foil, he said, and I quote here, m'lud: “It's like a pinball machine,” as the foil ran over his fillings. Oh jings.

Saturday night's audience was particularly lovely. There were lots of folk in and we had a very merry time. I think it's longest strip the willow I've seen in quite some time.

On Saturday I had the chance to go and see one of my all-time heroes, Nola Rae, performing her solo clown show, Exit Napoleon, Pursued by Rabbits. Mr Alasdair Hawthorne, our McCrindle in the play, came along with me, and though originally sceptical was a complete convert to the cause of Rae after a few moments.

The basic idea is that a random cook stumbles upon Napoleon's tent in the middle of a storm, and after trying to find something to eat, and mostly failing, tries on some of the Corsican's clothes, and becomes overtaken, bit by bit, by an incredible sense of self importance and grandeur.

By incorporating the audience into the performance in very simple ways, we totally enter into the folly of the piece, as the cook grows from small-time bossy-boots to globe-crushing dictator. It's an incredible piece of work, and deeply moving. What is so particularly wonderful about it is that children are completely enthralled by the work, as well as adults.

Nola is everything I aspire to as a performer – not to be a toadying wee sycophant, but, frankly, she's as good as it gets. The show runs until the 15 August at Footsbarn's Tent on the Calton Hill. If you can get along please do, as it's a very, very special show.

Last night George “Hieronymous” Fagan and my self went out to see Bert Jansch in concert at the Acoustic Music Centre. Thanks to my mates Jonathan and Euan, I've been a fan for quite a few years, so I was really looking forward to it. Sadly it wasn't the best gig I've been to, and I'm sure not his best of late. But on the bright side, I can hang around backstage as we prepare to go on, while he plays, as we're the act directly following on from him the following nights. So we'll see.

Here's hoping John Renbourne later in the month will be better.

George and I have a cunning plan on how to avoid late, late nights. Book early shows, and pay for them before you go along. So we'll be seeing as much as we can about midday in the following weeks, including Involution, On the Waterfront, and hopefully a play about the late, great, Ian Dury (another of my heroes).

I finally gave in today and went flyering for our show out on the Royal Mile (handing out leaflets to publicise the show). It's a tough thing to do. There's so many people out there, being deeply insincere and shouting and whoring their wares, in the most crass and gross of ways, so I try to be as sincere as possible when approaching people with a flyer.

Most of the time it works, but, oh goodness, when it doesn't you feel like a boob and a half. Hopefully this will have an impact on our audience figures. Fingers crossed.


© Alasdair Satchel, 2008

Links

• Mull Theatre
• Right Lines