STREATHAM SPACE PROJECT, STREATHAM FESTIVAL 16-17 Oct 2019
There’s a large Polish community in Streatham and I was very glad to have experimented with an entirely Polish version of Wesele/ Wedding. Among the audience: an enthusiastic winner of the Radio PRL free tickets competition with his wife, a 92-year old Ms Walentyna who reveals to be friends with Zamenhof’s daughter and a 30-something woman who came up to me during the show with a ‘friendly warning’...
As the guests were helping themselves and other to vodka shots, the said woman came to the table to ‘have a word’ with her boyfriend whom I earlier picked to be participate. Turns out that an on stage kiss was a step too far and perceived as a jeopardy of their relationship. A few heckling instance later and into the infamous balloon game the woman was joining in and it all seemed ok again (we even hugged at the end) but it was an important lesson for me in terms of :
- gender stereotypes are as real as ever - even in a liberal London
- diversity of audience frequenting Wesele/ Wedding means those from outside of the art world will have a very different perspective on what’s on stage than the chin-strokes theatre crowd (and that’s what’s it all about!)
The English version of the show the next evening was sold out and great in atmosphere. By now I got better at preserving my energy (as a result of many conversations with Patrizia) and I allow myself more time to watch the audience who often at the beginning is very quiet. I used to be worried about it but now I know they are just paying attention. The trick is also to have an even mix of Poles and Brits at the top table which sometimes tricky with the quick pace of the show at the beginning. But when it works - it really works! And it did that night!
“[Wesele/ Wedding] tackles a potentially tricky subject in an irreverent, mischievous way that's live, has to happen in a theatre and brings people together to share the same space and start a conversation in a highly entertaining way”
- Andy McKeane, Creative Director, Streatham Space Project
photo. by Paweł Owerczuk at Polish Radio London. By chance my Białystok friends were in town and we made a joint appearance at the studio, where they played roles of the Disco Polo impresario and the Groom from one of the earliest shows. This had whetted my appetite for making a sitcom even more...
