On Monday 16th December The Mist Theatre Company performed their first hour long show. We had booked a three-hour slot at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden back in late summer, just because we could! We already had 15 minutes worth of Oberiu material, that had been performed and honed in front of a live audience - could we devise another 45 minutes? We did. It was a tight schedule and the process was frustrating at times, but we managed it, and the show sold out TWO AND A HALF WEEKS BEFORE THE DATE!! The intensive part of the rehearsal process lasted about 6 weeks, where we rehearsed on Fridays and Sundays for a few hours at a time. Most of the props and costumes had been made in advance, and some new items were added - mostly moustaches and tutu's!
As well as the stories and poems from our original show 'We Are Not Cakes', we included another piece using the frame, a song inspired by the peasant Khariton, and a parody of 'Swan Lake' and 'The Nutcracker'. Lily performed a crazy, rock and roll burlesque routine with custard pies, there was a fight with an invisible fly, and we all visited the insane asylum. There was beat poetry, Russian Roulette, and did I mention ballet?!
As well as the physical theatre, clowning and puppetry, we experimented more aurally this time around, and looked more closely at the voices of the writers. Subject matter was equally comic and tragic, and sometimes both at the same time. The stories and poems we selected dealt with suicide, violence, insanity, addiction, filth, death....and yet somehow they are often still hilarious. We've only scratched the surface of everything the Oberiu has to offer, there were many stories we wanted to include but didn't have time.
Feedback has been very positive, though we've yet to decide where we want to take the show from here. We're all taking a well-earned rest for now, and will let you know our plans in the new year!
If you saw the show and want to tell us your thoughts, you can email us on; [email protected], or tweet us on @themisttheatre
Many expressions of gratitude to Kate McHardy for highly capable FOH duties, Laura Beecham for impressive technical duties, Arif Salih for computer whizz-kid poster duties, James for playing camera man so wonderfully, Richmond upon Thames College for brilliant rehearsal room facilities, and to all our lovely audience members, who travelled from far and wide on a rainy December night to see us.
If you saw the show and want to tell us your thoughts, you can email us on; [email protected], or tweet us on @themisttheatre
Many expressions of gratitude to Kate McHardy for highly capable FOH duties, Laura Beecham for impressive technical duties, Arif Salih for computer whizz-kid poster duties, James for playing camera man so wonderfully, Richmond upon Thames College for brilliant rehearsal room facilities, and to all our lovely audience members, who travelled from far and wide on a rainy December night to see us.
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