An Air Balloon Across Antarctica
Edinburgh Fringe Fesival 2007
Cast
Crew
Designer
Press
(Right click links to download press releases)
An Air Balloon Across Antarctica - Press release Melbourne Season, May '07 - Word doc or PDF
An Air Balloon Across Antarctica - Press release Edinburgh Season, June '07 - Word doc or PDF
An Air Balloon Across Antarctica - Press release Edinburgh Season, July '07 - Word doc or PDF
Reviews
Three to a Room's Edinburgh Season 2007
1. Paul Levy for Fringe Review (21st August)
2. Imogen Thomas for Edinburgh Festivals Magazine (August)
3. Nicola Husband for The List (16th August)
4. Victor Hallett for OnstageScotland (15th August) Highly recommended
5. Pete Cant for UK Theatre Network (13th August)
6. Lynne Walker for The Independent (9th August)
7. Sally J. Stott for The Scotsman (7th August)
8. John Holmes for Metro (7th August)
9. Kathryn Mack for Broadway Baby (2nd August)
10. Ben Douglas for one4review.com (1st August)Three to a Room's Melbourne Season 2007
1. Cameron Woodhead for The Age
2. Anne-Marie Peard for aussietheatre.com
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Paul Levy for Fringe Review (August, 2007)
"What's the colour of infatuation"? This is a play that poses more questions than it answers; it is full of ideas, overflowing with them; many of them are crammed onto the stage and into an hour and a bit, in a very high quality first outing by Three to a Room.
This is lush, uplifting, heart-warming work, never too sentimental, a heady mix of humour, storytelling, imagination and terrific dialogue and monologue.
As theatre, it becomes a little too crowded - both physically and conceptionally - but please don't let that lead you to think this is dense or heavy. It isn't. I wish more theatre was like this these days. It takes risks with what could have been a traditional story play. I'd have doubts over the use of a hamster-would-be-lemming, if it wasn't performed so brilliantly by Sophie Lampel. At times it is beautiful to watch, and always compelling to listen to.
Well done to Darragh Martin for writing such an engaging script; well done to Yvonne Warwick for creating such a vibrant and alive piece of theatre. Well done to the entire cast for setting the pace and atmosphere so consistently and for stepping so well into characters as diverse as the ghostly/imagined Ernest Shackleton, Amelia Earhart and Robert Scott.
Well done for the successful heart that pulses at the core if this show. The Colin-Firth-like Paul David-Goddard as James is an excellent (and marvellously restrained) foil for the free-spirited questing and fired will of Claire Glenn as Caitlin, coming to terms with loss and a search for the jounrey she needs to make to find herself. Well done for a play with a happy ending (so rare in theatre at large these days).
I loved this play - not just personally for its story - but for the zest and refreshing feel it brought to a piece of theatre. Unclutter the production a bit both physically and conceptionally, and it's a five star winner. Nevertheless, it's a FringeReview strong, strong, strong recommendation. Go see it.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Imogen Thomas for Edinburgh Festivals Magazine (late August, 2007)
This haunting and heart-breaking Australian production is a touching exploration into love, grief and dealing with loss. The play outlines both the serenity and the turbulence in the relationship between outlandish explorer, Caitlin and introverted James, and the demise of their marriage due to the tragic death if their only son. To cope with her bereavement, Caitlin embarks upon a perilous expedition across Antarctica, accompanied by her son’s beloved hamster - who also serves as a humorous yet poignant narrator - and a host of explorers who had previously perished in balloon flights. The presence of these ghostly figures, as well as the use of four actors playing Caitlin and James at different stages in their lives, is an interesting idea and serves as a successful instrument for the narrative delivery to begin with. Unfortunately, by the end of the play there are just too many people on the stage, and the technique becomes unnecessarily confusing. The play would have benefited from some simplification, as exemplified by the final, most successful scene between Caitlin, James and the hamster. As the cause of their son’s death is revealed, as well as their feelings and regrets, the result is a beautifully moving scene which reduces both the audience and the actors themselves to tears.
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Nicola Husband for The List (16th August, 2007)
We all cope differently with grief, however we can probably assume that very few of us are likely to grab a hamster, jump in a hot air balloon and journey across Antarctica in the style of this slightly surreal play’s protagonist. Talking hamsters with an addiction to Special-K and ghosts of long dead explorers aside, it’s a simple human relationship story as a couple struggle to communicate after the death of their seven-year-old son. With key themes that wouldn’t look out of place in a Hollywood blockbuster, of not being afraid to take chances and the dangers of longing to be something or someone that you’re not, this piece certainly has wide appeal and Sophie Lampel, in the role of the Hamster, makes it well worth the ticket price.
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Victor Hallett for OnstageScotland (15th August, 2007)
Highly recommended
So what sort of show would this prove to be? A serious look at polar exploration or maybe a fantastical comedy? It does, after all, feature a talking hamster. The answer is both of those and neither.
There are guest appearances by Scott, Shackleton and Amelia Earhart (wrong continent but right height above the Earth) and Caitlin, the balloonist, is a true explorer. But then it's lonely in a balloon so what better way to while away the time than by playing I Spy with your hamster? Mind you, Ham isn't very good at it and, besides, there's the worry about being a lemming trapped inside an obese hamster's body.
Slowly, realisation creeps in that what we are really watching is a play about a relationship. We see Caitlin meet James and their growing closeness. Then we see their growing isolation from each other and watch the gradual revelation of the terrible event that caused the change.
For all its effective quirkiness – the multiple James and Caitlins, the ghostly explorers, the inner turmoils of a hamster – this is actually the story of two people trying to face up to a devastating moment that changed their world.
Claire Glenn is very good as the central Caitlin: she handles the mixture of heroism, humour, love, coldness and despair consummately. Not a man who shows emotion and much happier with plugs and wires than with human relationships, James could be a mega-bore. Paul David-Goddard gives an extraordinary performance, underplaying him in a flat, quiet tone that could become monotonous but never does. It's a portrait of an ordinary, utterly likable man whose pain tears your heart out.
Sophie Lampel is a total joy as Ham – constant companion, narrator, and lamenter of the limited hamster life experience.
I really enjoyed the rich world created here. What surprised me was to find it ultimately a moving, emotional experience, I know it was because my eyes were damp as I left the venue.
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Pete Cant for UK Theatre Network (13th August, 2007)
A beautifully crafted story of grief, love and hot air balloons, this production is well acted, sharply directed and sets sail on a very well judged course between the surreal and the tragic. One woman and her hamster embark on a voyage across the Antarctic, hoping to come to terms with a terrible loss. On their journey they have fantasy conversations with famous explorers from the past in an attempt to fill the loneliness, and to distract themselves from the painful memories they hoped to have left on the ground.
The script exhibits expert shifts in gear, exploring stylistic changes in tone and pace to great and frequently moving effect, while the central performances by Paul David-Goddard and Claire Glenn are superb. A clever, sad, genuine, poetic gem of a show.
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Lynne Walker for The Independent (9th August, 2007)
There's little as unhappily compelling in a play as watching a relationship disintegrate. And in Darragh Martin's An Air Balloon Across Antarctica the unravelling is all the sadder for being interspersed with flashbacks to Caitlin and James falling in love. Added to the heartbreak, their partnership is floundering after the death of their son.
Caitlin (Claire Glenn) is an explorer and this time she's off in a hot-air balloon to scatter her son's ashes, with just a hamster for company. As Ham, Sophie Lampel combines unobtrusive narration with a comic description of a hamster's addiction to Special K.
But Martin's play is about more than love, latitude, elevation and distance. It drifts into a surreal landscape in which the balloonists seem to have company. The ghosts of famous explorers past appear and add fragments of their own lives and deaths to the story.
Martin's flights of fancy take off in multiple directions, but hot air, combined with chilly gusts of memory, keep the play airborne.
Since the theatre company became separated from its props, set and wardrobe en route from Australia, Sayraphim Lothian's designs had to be hastily recreated. The production may have been saved from the brink but it's doubtful if Caitlin will be able to pick up the pieces of life she jettisoned in her loss and grief.
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Sally J. Stott for The Scotsman (7th August, 2007)
Love, separation, loneliness and the last uncharted wilderness fill this beautifully written play that takes the audience on a journey to Antarctica and into the human soul. Caitlin (Claire Glenn) is an explorer who is joined by her dead son's obese hamster (Sophie Lampel) on a balloon journey to find her lost life, accompanied by the ghosts of explorers past (Captain Scott, Earnest Shackleton and Amelia Earhart). It's a wonderfully imaginative concept that is as touching as it is fresh and funny.
Writer Darragh Martin manages to accurately capture the journey from adolescence to adulthood in a way that is effortless and truthful, laced with the pain that accompanies life, death and growing up. There are some terrific, memorable images in the play, and the hamster forms a brilliantly incongruous and amusing narrator.
The story of Caitlin's son's death is particularly touching, as is the hamster's desire to become a lemming and, in so doing, save his young owner's life. The "sorrow of still-born sentences" and a sea turned grey due to all the scattered ashes in it are just a few examples of the many chokingly lovely ideas in this play.
Designer Sayraphim Lothian gives the piece a colourful and playful setting, combining flowing fabric with the balloon centrepiece. Meanwhile, director Yvonne Virsik makes full use of the playful yet poignant script, taking the audience on a heightened journey that is firmly rooted in childhood innocence. It's a great trigger for pressing all the right buttons, and this reviewer was reduced to tears on a number of occasions.
The only real criticism is that it's a little confusing that Caitlin and her partner James (Paul David-Goddard) have alter egos (Georgina Durham and Kristian Sartori). It is difficult to connect with four people playing two characters, something that also doesn't feel particularly necessary, logistically or otherwise. The ghostly explorers also start to become a bit surplus to requirements, and there ends up being far more people in this balloon basket than there should be.
However, the play remains a very effective piece of writing and is a real theatrical treat.
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John Holmes for Metro (7th August, 2007)
A surreal adventure, costume drama and contemporary romance in one, An Air Balloon Across Antarctica is an engrossing piece of multilayered theatre. Claire Glenn plays Caitlin, a gutsy modern explorer with the words of Scott, Shackleton and Amelia Earhart – who appear on stage in period dress – ringing in her ears. Sophie Lampel anchors the story as her unlikely travelling companion, a hamster who wants to be a lemming.
The production excels when at its most surreal, with Lampel's hamster epitomising the comedy and pathos at its heart. This is, however, a love story, albeit one about falling out of love and Caitlin's desire to escape reality.
The flashback scenes of her young romance are actually the production's least compelling, but nevertheless this is brave theatre that answers and poses questions in equal measure.
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Kathryn Mack for Broadway Baby (2nd August, 2007)
Darragh Martin’s premise in An Air Balloon seems preposterous: a small, blonde, female explorer and an obese hamster are bored on a journey across the Antarctic in a hot air balloon. Why are they talking to the ‘ghosts’ of Shackleton, Scott, Madame Blanchard (wife of the first balloonist hero) and Amelia Earhart? Can a play hang together by the seemingly thin threads that never quite attach it to the snowy ground below? This is a production that at times seems too strange to work. But it does, and pulls off a great piece of fringe theatre along the way.
This is a completely original piece of writing: in turns funny; harrowing; surreal; intense and always imaginative. Gradually the plight of the hamster and explorer becomes clear: the reasons for the journey, the preceding love story and its tragic denouement. Yvonne Virsik has tightly directed this tale of love and loss, an achievement that is all the more impressive given the company’s loss of wardrobe, props and set while travelling from Australia. The set that has been constructed works very well in the space and, unless you closely read the programme and the tale of British Airways woe, its frantic production would not be noticed.
All of the performances are strong. Paul David-Goddard is hugely impressive as the stoic, yet slightly infuriating James. Claire Glenn brings real depth to Caitlin, the explorer whose desire for independence leads to the Antarctic folly. Sophie Lampel, as Ham the Hamster (who thinks he’s a lemming), holds the whole show together, bringing both comedy and pathos: this is a part that if played too ‘hammy’ could have ruined the effect of the show. The chorus pieces, particularly towards the end, are handled brilliantly by the rest of the cast: Adrian Corbett (also Scott); Georgina Durham (Blanchard); David Kambouris (Shackleton) and Charlotte Strantzen (Earhart).
You’d have to be a very jaded fringe goer not to be touched by this fresh, talented production. Go see.
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Ben Douglas for one4review.com (1st August, 2007)
Young Irish writer Darragh Martin’s play is the product of a fertile and quirky imagination. Australian theatre company ‘Three to a Room’, under the clear and sharp direction of Yvonne Virsik, successfully blend the reality of human relationships with the comic surrealism of a talking hamster.
At the heart of the play is the relationship between Caitlin, (Claire Glenn), a restless adventurer, and James, (Paul David-Goddard), a literally more down to earth character. The opening sequence shows Caitlin travelling across Antarctica in a hot air balloon along with Ham (Sophie Lampel) the aforementioned talking hamster.
As the story unfolds, the reason for Caitlin’s journey becomes clear through a series of flashbacks showing the growth of the love between young Caitlin, (Georgina Durham), and young James, (Kristian Sartori), but also the family tragedy which leads to the breakdown of their relationship. Into the mix appear the wandering souls of a melancholic Sir Robert Scott, (Adrian Corbett), a wise cracking Sir Ernest Shackleton, (David Kambouris), and a goal inspired Amelia Earhart, (Charlotte Strantzen).
The ending is tense and dramatic.
The acting performances are of a high standard both individually and collectively. Sophie Lampel, since she does have the best comedy lines, holds the audience’s attention throughout.
An enjoyable and unusual theatrical experience.
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Cameron Woodhead for The Age (July 13, 2007)
New theatre company Three To A Room formed last year, when its founders - Claire Glenn, Charlotte Strantzen and Ellen Gales - met through an Edinburgh Festival show. Next month, the trio will return to Edinburgh to tour Darragh Martin's An Air Balloon across Antarctica, after this brief Melbourne season.
The idea of braving a midwinter night to see a play with Antarctica in the title - frankly, it chilled me to the core.
But the affectionate comedy and emotional intelligence of Martin's play won me over in short order.
An Air Balloon across Antarctica is an unorthodox exploration of love and grief. Caitlin Evans (Claire Glenn) is a minor celebrity undertaking a solo balloon flight over the South Pole with an obese hamster (Sophie Lampel) in tow. Leaving behind her husband, James (Paul David-Goddard), she tries to escape personal tragedy in the snow and ice.
Caitlin is visited during her trip by the restless spirits of Amelia Earhart (Charlotte Strantzen), Ernest Shackleton (David Kambouris) and Robert Scott (Adrian Corbett). And her hamster companion introduces, through a series of flashbacks, the events that led to Caitlin's current adventure.
The central drama unfurls in sinuous counterpoint. Scenes where a younger Caitlin and James (Georgina Durham and Kristian Sartori) meet and fall in love are contrasted with the brutally observed disintegration of their relationship in grief's black wake.
Martin is a formidably talented playwright and at his best, a writer of great suppleness and maturity. But he's a diamond in the rough. Prone to purpleness, he needs to rein in some of his wilder fancies and tighten the elastic on some of his metaphors.
At first, the production choked and spluttered like an engine on a cold morning. But once the actors warmed up, stopped rushing lines and got over their nerves, it went into overdrive, with compelling performances from David-Goddard, Lampel, Durham and Strantzen, in particular.
An Air Balloon across Antarctica is poignant and funny, whimsical and grave. Under the improbable conceits and flying hamsters, it's a moving and intimate tale of love, death and survival.
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Anne-Marie Peard for aussietheatre.com
Melbourne was only given a short fundraising season of Three to a Room’s Air Balloon Across Antarctica before it heads off to the Edinburgh Fringe. Let’s hope fair winds blow it safely back, so more people can see this astonishingly beautiful, highly original, funny and gut-wrenching production.
Caitlin is travelling in an air balloon across Antarctica. Her companion is Ham, an obese hamster, who longs to be a lemming (because lemmings are James Dean, while hamsters are Tom Hanks) and she is visited by great explorers of the past.
There’s so much about Darragh Martin’s script that shouldn’t work. His metaphors flow like water off a melting ice cap, he throws in adjectives like an over-sized and desperate for attention thesaurus and he tells instead of shows.
It is, nonetheless, one of the most beautifully written scripts I’ve encountered. Martin’s dialogue is dense, but he makes his words dance, without ever making them feel unnatural or forced. The incidental comments and dialogue may not always move the story forward, but they give the script a different level of life and make it shine. The band who were “all headbands and no irony” and Caitlin who “sprinkles discourse into a conversation like a condiment” make you want to listen to every word in case you miss a gem. Or perhaps it was all just a very elaborate ploy to find a use for the phrase “nudist balloonist”.Language aside, Air Balloon tells a perfectly structured and surprising story. What could have been a totally acceptable and enjoyable love story is told in an original way from an unexpected point of view. What starts as a witty and enjoyable jaunt about the “pinch-me-I’m-fainting ache and ecstasy of falling in love”, turns into a dangerous journey into “the sour dour knife twists and turns of sliding out of love” and the event that started the slide.
Part of me wants to see a professional company grab this script, polish up the rough edges and show it to a huge audience, but I don’t want to see it lose the simplicity and beauty of this production.
Yvonne Virsik’s direction deftly balances the humour with the sadness. By making the complex seem simple, she lets us see the intricacy of the complexity. With a script that can be excessive and plot that could be melodramatic, she paces the action perfectly, without letting the audience become too comfortable. The setting and characters are as absurd as a rhinoceros in the street, but they are always emotionally real and we never doubt that Amelia Earhart or Ham the hamster don’t belong in this world.
The cast are, on the whole, not very experienced, but bring a level of understanding and maturity that far outweighs many a professional actor I’ve seen on our major stages recently.
Claire Glenn skilfully and gradually reveals the complexity of Caitlin’s truth and her search for something beginning with safe. Caitlin is filled with joy and anger and determination and frustration and sadness. She wants to appear open, but only so that no one can see the places in her that hurt. Glenn is thoroughly engaging as Caitlin, but never lets us become so captivated that we don’t see her flaws.
Paul David-Goddard as James was the surprise performance of the evening. James is the supporter of Caitlin, whose love and obsession let her be the explorer. James is controlled, safe and strong, as is David-Goddard’s performance. He isn’t the one expected to bring the audience to tears (myself included). His final moments gently nail the emotional impact of this work.
And then there’s Ham the hamster. He is part narrator and holder of the truth about the drip, drip burning bush. Ham is a ham and could have very easily been played for laughs, but Sophie Lampel brought a poignancy and believability to him. She deserves pat on the tummy and an extra big bowl of Special K for her performance.
Sayraphim Lothian’s design continues to show how to make design support a script. Her balloon basket is woven from old brown clothes; the many, many layers that give us our appearance and status in the world.
Three to a Room received no funding for this project. Raffles, quiz/film nights and chocolates sales got Air Balloon off the ground. Producers a Claire Glenn, Charlotte Strantzen and Ellen Gales prove that determination and the desire to create exceptionally good theatre can create exceptionally good theatre.
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Blog
26th July 2007
The view from my window: Lush, green grass; tall, broadleafed trees; an old, stone building; a grey, overcast sky; and a gentle blanket of rain. Yes, we're in Scotland!
We're all here now (except our designer who arrives today), in what has been dubbed "The Palace of Awesomeness": a large flat with eight bedrooms and double beds galore! No more three single beds squashed into a room with not even enough room to walk between them. But we're certainly not complaining.
Our address is Warrender Park Road, a lovely cobblestone street, just near The Meadows. For those who haven't been to Edinburgh, The Meadows, true to it's name, is an area in the middle of the city consisting of fields of beautiful, thick green grass. People can be seen playing ball sports, having picnics or just chilling out in this little haven. It's a wonderful place to find some peace, especially coming from the dry, thirsty environment of Australia.
Claire and Charlie arrived on Sunday, and I on Monday, ready to visit our venue and the Fringe Office, prepared with questions and the documents they requested. However, neither was ready for us! The Fringe Office is still setting up it's section for performers and our venue - The Pleasance Dome - doesn't yet exist. They're still in the process of building it! We're so super organised, we beat the festival to Edinburgh.
However, it means that the festival crowds haven't yet arrived either, so we can walk the streets and go exploring without bumping shoulders with the punters. And the streets of Edinburgh have to be some of the best to walk! Everything is beautiful here. All the old facades of the buildings have been preserved and the large monuments and prominent castle that looms over the city remind you of how steeped in history this country is and how ours just doesn't compare.
So far, (nearly) everything is going to plan. We have passed customs, scored an amazing apartment, received our posters and flyers, and had time to familiarise ourselves with the neighbourhood. The one hiccup, which isn't a small one, is that the airline has "misplaced" two pieces of luggage. They happen to be the set and costumes... So somewhere in Heathrow, two bundles of clothes and cloth and wire are roaming the baggage department without a home.
The frustrating thing is that, although at first they said they knew exactly where our luggage was, they can no longer trace it. It was even suggested to us that we start rebuliding our set. I don't think they realise what exactly is involved in this... But we remain confident that it will turn up. The question is when. And whether we should start spending lots of money we don't have and building a substitute, just in case.
Nonetheless, things have gotten off to a great start! We even have some rather important industry people (director of the festivals!!) coming to our first show. Today we go postering and introducing ourselves to the locals :)
Ellen
30th July 2007
This morning we were still without our original set, however, our phenomenal cast and crew have rallied together to rebuild our entire production in less than a week. Our first few days in Edinburgh have been spent frequenting op-shops and hardware stores, sewing and gluing on the lounge room floor, and spending money we don't have. But our hard work has paid off, and we now have a full wardrobe, substitute props and a set to work with!
This is the Edinburgh Fringe, and with 1800 other shows all on simultaneously, it is imperative to jump at every opportunity for publicity you can, and one of our cast members, Georgie, suggested we shamelessly capitalise on our misfortune by taking some photos of our half-naked costumeless selves somewhere in the city. Despite the chilly Scottish clime, the idea was greeted with hearty enthusiasm (a little too much enthusiasm from some of our cast eager to get their kit off...)
So, just before lunch, we traipsed down to the Meadows, picking the lush green of the grass and iconic Edinburgh buildings as a backdrop to pasty white skin and uncomfortable expressions. After a couple of fully clothed dry runs, the cast quickly disrobed and hurried through some group poses. The Scottish people seemed less alarmed than you might think at a bunch of half naked people running around the meadow, but I suppose with the Fringe Festival almost upon them, they must expect such shenanigans.
I won't say any more, because I know all you want now is to see some evidence!
No, they're not acting - it really was that cold...
Ellen
2nd August 2007
Last night was our first performance!
We trundled down to our venue, which is a short and pleasant walk from our accommodation, loaded up with costumes and props, everyone running through lines and lists of things to do. Our dressing room, which doubles as our set storage area is quite ample and since the show before us only has two chairs and a couple of props, our fifteen minute cross over to bump-in turns out to be plenty of time.
The Scots don’t believe in air conditioning because it gets so cold here, but that doesn’t help performers who have to work in jackets and jumpers al á Antarctica in a room all ready warmed by the hot stage lights. However, our cast soldiered on, making a great effort toward acting some sub-zero chill despite the sweat dripping down their faces.
Although I had full confidence in the cast, having witnessed their fantastic performances in Melbourne, I was worried about the technical side of things. We only got four hours to focus, plot and run a tech rehearsal – something that would usually take two days. This, coupled with the fact that none of our techs knew how to use the fancy lighting board and I had to read the manual myself, made for a rather hurried setup. Thankfully, the hiccups were small, and but for the time I dropped the prompt copy, I’m not sure anyone noticed.
By all accounts, the audience reception was very positive. Some fellow Australian performers came to see our show – the team from “Porthole into the Minds of the Vanquished” and Amelia Jane Hunter. They all loved the show so much they gave us free tickets to theirs! The four important people – the director of the festivals, Traverse Theatre representatives, and a reviewer – all seemed to enjoy the show as well. Yay!
Things bode well for tonight too with at least twenty bookings. Let’s hope this lasts past cheap previews!
Ellen
7th August 2007
Today it came. The holy grail of reviews: 5 stars in the Scotsman!
To the outsider - even though it is 5 stars -it may seem like just another review. Not so at the Fringe. A 5 star review in the Scotsman promises you many more audience members and puts you in the running for a nomination for a Fringe First Award. Winning the award pretty much guarantees you'll sell out. Not only is this great financially, but it also means you have to worry less about working all day just to get an audience and can focus on actually performing the show.
We have also been awarded 4 stars by the Metro (an MX equivalent for all you Melbourne readers), 4 stars by one4review.com and 5 stars by Broadway Baby. See the reviews page on this website for the actual articles. It's a fantastic feeling to be so highly thought of amongst 2000+ international performances. I guess it proves what a ton of dedication, heaps of hard work and a team full of talent can do.
Speaking of talent, a big group of us went to see "Portholes into the Minds of the Vanquished" yesterday afternoon. All thirteen of us, even those who don't usually laugh out loud at comedians' shows, may have weed ourselves just a little. It was a phenomenal show summed up by sore cheek muscles, everyone leaving the theatre singing the tune of the finale, and Doug's gob-smacked expression and bemused comment once the applause had died down: "I'm lost." It is great to see an amazing performance, even better when it's Australian.
Oh, and I should mention that our set and costumes finally turned up! It's a bummer that we had to go to all that effort and spend all that money on rebuilding, but such a relief to have our old stuff back. As we suspected, it had gone through customs, but thankfully nothing was broken or missing. Better late than never!
Ellen
1st September 2007
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has officially finished, and the Air Ballooners are making their way back to Australia – some via more interesting and extended routes than others! Exhausted but happy, we have said our farewells to Edinburgh and each other over two days, and sadly locked the door to the Palace of Awesomeness one last time. Some of us are heading back to Australia directly, but many are traveling via London to catch up with friends and relatives, see a few West End shows and generally soak up the tradition. Others are making their way through countries like France, Italy, Ireland and the United States, and other, more exotic destinations such as South America and Easter Island!
Our season finished up even better than we could have hoped, with great houses right up until the end, a great array of press and promoters in attendance, and, most importantly, smiling cast, crew and audience members. We’ve seen many wonderful shows, made new friends from around the globe, and had a collective experience that none of us will ever forget. And now, onto the next challenge: Adelaide Fringe 2008! A 3TAR team attended a briefing in Edinburgh hosted by Artistic Director, Christie Anthoney, and we’re very excited about this new step in our project’s development. Stay tuned for details of where and when you can catch Air Balloon on home soil once again!
In the meantime, keep an eye out for I Love You, Bro, directed by our own Yvonne Virsik and playing as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, and Twelfth Night, this summer’s Shakespeare in the Vines offering from Essential Theatre, Sophie Lampel (aka Ham)’s theatre company.
Charlotte
© 2007 Three to a Room