Welcome to the blog for I Promise to Bring You Down to My Level, the new show by Theatre Company Blah Blah Blah and Leeds Met Gallery & Studio Theatre.
This is our second collaboration in two years and we're very excited about it. I Love the Witch was such a success both personally and publicly for both organisations that we really wanted to do it all over again.
Here you will find regular input from the creative team on how the rehearsal process is going, background information on how the project came about, special offers on tickets and maybe other ways you can get involved. We'd love to know where you heard about us, the show the blog? This is also your space to tell us what you think, ask questions, and once the show is up and running we'd like your comments and reviews of the production.
a female voice; clouds of steam coming up from the powerful outside light, shining gold into the building; a golden apple lying on the floor broken at the end of the show which was an accident but as an audience member pointed out, this was the one that the vampire caught in his teeth. My daughter running into my arms at the end of the corridor as we go into the home straight. A woman in white coat, scarf and hat wrapping herself up during the festival.
As well as getting great feedback from our audiences about their experience of I Promise… We’ve had a cracking 4 star review in Metro today.
“(Anthony) Haddon’s tale-telling is so enrapturing that when he puts on a blue silk kimono, you’d swear he was Kate Moss.”
“This is a brave performance with a heart as gold as the hero’s hair”
It’s a shame we’re already totally sold out. At this rate we could probably run for another week! But, time moves on and the rest of the season beckons. For more info go to www.leedsmet.ac.uk/arts
During the first week of performing this show there were news stories spilling out about the gun crime in South London and Manchester. A lot of people are talking about the lack of fathers in families and older male role models available for these boys who are living outside of society. Masculinity is a problem for all of us. I’m writing and thinking about this because the story we are in, looks at the initiation of young men in society. It is a two way thing, there needs to be older men present to look out for younger men but then young men need to see the value in apporoaching them. In a culture where old doesn’t equate with valuable experience in a lot of people’s minds, then who are people going to learn from?
I Promise to Bring You Down to My Level is now sold out - except for the matinee on Saturday 24 February. But remember, tickets are limited so if you want to be guaranteed a ticket book now.
Call our box office on 0113 283 5998. Tickets are £10 or £7 for concessions (student, OAP etc.).
Here are some odd things that have something to do with I Promise.
My Mother used to say, “God has his hand on you. Never ignore ‘the Gift’. I never knew what she meant by the gift, until I felt the gift leave me. When the gift comes back, it’s so sweet. Johnny Cash.  Me and Annie were talking about not being aware of having “gold” until it was taken away.
There was a Patti Smith anecdote I read the other day but I cannot track it down at the moment. Basically she was singing in a concert and the lyrics went something like “God can’t hold me in his hands” and she fell off stage and broke her neck. Actually I’m not sure what that has to do with what we are doing but it made me laugh - just wish I could find the article. I suppose we are tempting fate. We begin the evening with me looking for my teeth in all these bags mainly because every time it comes to putting on the vampire teeth in rehearsals, I can never find the darn things. On the first day of rehearsals I was waiting to get through the doors of the studio and I missed my mouth and spilt hot chocolate down my jumper and onto my shoes. I took this as a sign from the gods to go into the creative process with humility. And always be watchful.
Last but not least a little rant from Paul McCartney looking back on Sgt Pepper days - “We were fed up with being Beatles. We really hated that fucking four little mop top boys approach. We were not boys, we were men.” Rites of passage - boys becoming men, and there is a lot of that in this piece. Funny that in order to become men they had to dress up in fancy dress. Bit like what I’m doing I suppose. Interestingly Yoko Ono has just brought out an album called “Yes, I’m a witch”. This is what they call owning your own shadow, or eating it. I think that is fantastic. I wonder what Paul McCartney’s shadow is?
I sneaked into the rehearsal space today and took some photos of the weird and wonderful objects in the space. Check out flikr to see them all.
It looks a little like a bomb site but that must just be the result of the chaos of creativity. Perhaps they are using each and every one of these strange items? Only time will tell.
It’s great to have the chance to revisit our musical influences, shared and otherwise, as we make this show. Anthony and I both have a connection to Punk. It was a vital part of our youth. We’ve always known it was more than a fashion statement. So it’s NICE to find a place for the Sex Pistols. And Elvis makes a comeback too. Annie
