So, I've been getting a little behind on the blogs but luckily I've been keeping notes along the way, sort of...All it says for Newbury is "oh my God a huge dog". Sometimes notes are useful and other times...
So we travelled to Exeter via some of the silliest named places in the UK - Honiton, Feniton and Whimple among others. Staying in a nice little hotel close to the curiously named 'Dinosaur Cafe' (selling Turkish Meze, obviously:).
We walked each day to the great Northcott Theatre inside Exeter University. The University had more hills than Teletubby land (and steeper!) which was exhausting even for us 'fit' dancers, but would also explain why all the students were mostly tall, slim and attractive...
That was until the night time when after a well subscribed performance, we visited the town centre to search for nourishment and it appeared that the entire student population had turned into Smurfs! Apparently the town had been taken over by a Smurf themed charity pub crawl, maybe we could have a Smurf-themed charity performance one day... hmm...
And so on to Taunton, which I'm convinced isn't a real place, it seems to consist entirely of roundabouts and commercial parks nearly-impossible to navigate by foot. Being practically the only place to eat other than Pizza Hut, we had a lovely meal in the hotel restaurant with most of the company and some insanely enormous ice cream sundaes consumed by a very happy then slightly sick Panos. We were served by some very nice staff there who nicely balanced out the less than friendly hotel staff at the Taunton Premier Travel Inn (NAME AND SHAME!). Oooh! It could be a silly rumour, but someone told me that on Christmas Eve if you are named Mary or Joseph - you can stay at the (Travel) Inn for free! In Taunton, our performance at Tacchi Morris Centre went very nicely, I always like performing there because the audience is very close and I can see them :)
Upon arriving to our hotel in Southport we were greeted by a bevvy of space maidens, because of a 'hair show' that evening in the hotel. These were the last young people we seemed to see in the hotel because breakfast turned into a kind of bingo style lottery, with endless amounts of cauliflower haired old ladies and gentlemen waiting eagerly for their room numbers to be called in order for them to be sat. It was only later that we found out from house technicians at the theatre, the hotel has the unfortunate nickname of 'God's waiting room'. A decent last performance before our London run...
Ending the tour in London was really exciting. Performing in the place we consider home is brilliant, but even more so when you get featured in the 'local' paper - none other than page 3 of the Metro! But it wasn't the impressive photos or the fame of being presented to thousands of bleary-eyed commuters that excited the company's over-thirties: it was the description of the cast as 'talented YOUNG dancers'!
Three sell-out performances at the Peacock Theatre to just under 3000 people was a fantastic way to end our Yesterday Tour! We just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who saw the show and enjoyed it!
Look out for more Blogs in 2009 as things get even more exciting when Jasmin Vardimon Company are let loose abroad...
