Hell in Belgium - Black and Blacker Theatre

(continued)

January 1989 Diana and I (along with Sylvie who is now four) arrive. We are met in Belgium and taken to Liège. There is sunshine and the weather is surprisingly temperate for the season. We are settled on a "peniche" - a barge moored on the river and fitted out with kitchen, staterooms, living room - in fact it's pretty darn nice. We allow ourselves to be somewhat optimistic.

The next day we visit the site. Now we were warned that there would be a film production being shot in the space and that it would be finished and cleared before we arrive. Well unfortunately there were some delays in shooting but they will be done next week. Well they did in fact finish the next week but they left all their debris behind for us to clean up...hay, mud metal and other assorted post-apocalypse kind of bric-a-brac.

Further investigation of the site showed that the lower two floors which we intended to use were also filled with debris. Scrapped cars and human waste (there was a work crew who used one of the levels for a toilet for an extended period of time). Enter the person who, along with one or two helpers, was going to be responsible for cleaning up the three levels, installing any facilities such as electricity, heat and portable toilets and pretty well anything to do with the facility. He was supposed to be my assistant and be responsible for any needs in the theatre. Full-time. Except he was also responsible for any of the musicians concerns and would be called away at a moments notice to pick up and deliver some music stands from the next town. He was an excellent person who worked very hard and tried his best in the face of impossible circumstances. His name was 'Lucky'.

So needless to say the work in the theatre proceeded very slowly. S spent most of his time in France or away doing publicity. The wardrobe consisted of two students, no sewing machines and nowhere to work. This situation persisted until Diana went to the office and screamed until someone did something…thus gaining her a reputation as a pushy bitch.

I made one big mistake (and let this be a lesson to you) in not getting a carnet for the set. This document makes the entry of material to a country much easier and the lack of one makes taking anything back home impossible. As a result, I had to go to Antwerp and negotiate with the shipping company and customs and pay a Value Added Tax...ouch!.

We finally got the set into the space and the space cleaned up. The next step was the news that the City would not allow the space to be used for a theatre without replacing the fire escape access ladders with a cement staircase. OK. It turns out this was planned previously and drawings were in fact done for the steps and it only required the momentum of someone pushing buttons to make it start. Unfortunately for us, the work was put off until we began to use the space for set construction and later rehearsal...all of which had to be done amid noise and dust. (actually much of the rehearsal was moved to a different hall.)

It was at this point that we were all realising that twenty-hour days and brute force were not the best way to get things done, however it seemed to be the only method available. We had one short break a couple of days before opening when we were all invited to dinner with the embassy VIPs. Diana and I were so tired we fell asleep in our plates.

But finally everything was in place except the lighting. S arrived on one of his brief visits bringing about fifteen battered and rusted ancient lighting instruments, no bulbs, no hardware, no cables, saying "Do what you can with this...I must go to Brussels to work on the poster". I remind you, S was supposed to be the Lighting and Technical Director along with all his other responsibilities. We were very fortunate in that Beate Czogalla - a theatre person we had met as a result of RA and was involved in the Greatest Show (which we had just finished), was living nearby in Germany. We contacted her and she agreed to come and help us out, joining in our day and night grind to get something of a show up and running. She did a fantastic job of getting the few instruments working and distributed between musicians and the set, and ended up staying to run the lights for the show, with a brand-new expensive lighting board that showed up just before dress rehearsal.

She didn't appreciate the opening night when the Festival Director showed up to chew her out for not putting enough light on the costumes he had paid for.

Speaking of opening night, did I mention that that's when the temperate weather we had been enjoying turned to freezing rain and lots of of it. We quickly discovered that the lovely glass-windowed cupola above the stage leaked like a sieve. My hat went off to Lucky and his able assistant Frederic who climbed onto the slippery roof and tied plastic sheets over the glass dome.

I think the show was passable if not great … too tired to tell really.

We thanked the crew and left the next day.