Sitting, Waiting, Wishing: Madness In Valencia

So my new job (can I call it a job if I don't get any money? mm?) Lets say my new venture started officially yesterday. The designer I am working for, Kate, liked to call it D-Day so I guess it means it was an important day! Its funny because whenever the pressure is on, and a day is given an official title my defence mechanism kicks in to reduce my stress levels and something really weird happens...I just totally chill out. Ha. I don't think Kate was happy that I was so relaxed on D-day, but I kept enjoying myself nonetheless.

I'm working on a theatre production called Madness in Valencia. It was on last year at the White Bear Theatre and did really well- critics choice in Timeout which is always a great accolade for any fringe show. It did so well in fact that it now has a month long stint at Trafalgar Studios, a lovely central little place just off Trafalgar Square. Pretty cool to be working at a West End theatre again, there is something I adore about the rabbit runs backstage and the old grafitti from past shows everywhere. Yesterday I spotted 'Danny Dyer was here 2009' on the walls. Not that that is remarkable or particularly significant, but I do like the essence of a history in these old theatres. I always wonder at who has been sitting in these basement dressing rooms night after night waiting nervously backstage for their call to the stage. Or maybe not waiting nervously at all- after all by the time productions get to a place like this the cast are usually pretty experienced and spend most of their time goofing around backstage eating mountains of chocolate hobnobs and drinking tea by the bucket load. Yesterday, for example, the cast all donned out in their renaissance cod pieced costumes were sprawled all over each other watching 'The Hangover' on DVD roaring with laughter and often snorting like drunken hogs. Actors! So no it wasn't meditating, running cues or getting in the zone. Just watching 'The Hangover', standard.

So anyway, waffle waffle, Sian and I had spent most of Sunday baking. We made cupcakes aplenty: vanilla with chocolate butter frosting and chocolate sprinkle things; chocolate with chocolate butter frosting (see what we did there) and mini smarties; and lemon with lemon icing....mmm AGGY (NB: for all those who have not met my gorgeous neice Summer, AGGY is just another word for YUMMY- put it in your vocab banks today it is quite splendid). So yes, AGGY cupcakes. So these I took in abundance to the theatre which I think helped with morale on D-Day. And I'm glad to say they can't have been too far off aggyness at all as there were only three left by the end of the day which made me very happy. There is nothing worse than baking and then it all going to waste or worse still not being touched at all. So I think Sian and I did ourselves proud in the cupcake stakes.

In fact, sorry to go off point again, but isn't it one of the most annoying things when you cook up a huge kingly feast for someone with such joy and energy and panache (whatever that means) and like a truely talented composer everything comes together perfectly and its all bubbling away all at the same time- the sausages popping in the oven , the peas boiling away like little green dancers in the pan, the mash all creamy and smooth, the gravy steaming, the red onions caramalising away doing their yummy bubbly thing, and you've heated up the plates cos thats super nice to keep your food warm on your lap and abracadabra everything is cooked perfectly to time and you dish it up with a bit of finesse and tweak the presentation slightly so it not only smells gorgeous but looks like a super star dinner too balanced like a perfect picture, and you shout up the stairs "DINNER'S READY!" expecting an excited stampede trampling rapidly down the stairs....and all you get is "ok....ill be down in a minute" which actually means "I'll be down in five minutes after you've reminded me again and the plates are cold and the perfectly positioned sausages have either toppled off the mountain of creamy mash or just sunk sadly straight into the heap like a great big sigh of disappointment. I hate that. If I ever cook you dinner, make sure you're ready when it is ready!

Okay, so back to D-Day. So I spent most of the day finishing off costumes, tweaking them here and there, re-sewing buttons, loosening crotches where they needed loosening for lunging purposes (something actors like to indulge in every so often I've found), adding ribbons and breaking them down with tea and paint and sandpaper to rough them up a bit- make them look real I suppose. And when I wasn't doing that I was running around the city to and fro picking up things we had forgotten about- like long johns and white pants and shoes and a blue ribbon and an extra mask for the carnival scene. I also had the pleasure of heading over to the oh so incredibly amazing National Theatre props and costumes stores to have a rummage around for a tudor style bucket and a couple of soft leather pointy shoes. Now these warehouses are just a dream. Bursting at their seams full of crazy stuff. Everything you could ever imagine you would need in a play and it is there. A rainbow of feathers taller than a Mia, military uniforms from every era, pigs heads, truncheons, ornate bird cages- man oh man its a real treasure trove of stuff. So that was a special treat for me yesterday- hardly the kind of harsh D-Day I was imagining.

Tonight is opening night, hopefully everything is in place, and the actors turn up, and the costumes hold together, and the set stays upright, and the DVD player is kept at low volume, and the final three cupcakes get eaten. Fingers crossed for a fun month. And if you fancy an AGGY treat of a show- come see it!