“Kiss Me Plymouth & Falmouth Kiss Me”
- Luke
- Oct 17, 2015
- 4 min read

Welcome back! Goofy Apple here! We have had a terrific couple of days in Plymouth and Falmouth, touring 'In Our Hands'. It has flown by so quickly. What never flies by quickly is the van journey there. However, when comparing the journey to the many 8 hour drives down to Newlyn, a simple 4 and half hour skip feels like a dream. This is all helped of course with a healthy dose of Shirley Bassey van-e-oke. I am pretty confident that Georges, Matts and mine rendition of 'Kiss Me, Honey Honey Kiss Me' will hit participating storeshelves this Christmas.
It is always a pleasure to visit a new place when touring a show and Plymouth was no exception. We presented our work at the Ocean Studios, Royal William Yard in Plymouth. The venue was beautiful. Full of barebrick walls and heavy wooden floors. It felt worked on. It complemented the aesthetic of the show perfectly. The only thing that clashed was our set (which consists of three large blocks heavy enough to require two people to carry them) and the tight spiral staircase used to enter the space. Although, having travelled with this set a fair amount of times now we have all become expert tetris masters capable of navigating the tightest of spots. We showed that staircase what for! However, sods law probably dictates that the next venue will be on the 8th floor of a tower block with no working lift. Then the real battle begins! Until then, we win!
The premiere at Plymouth went really well, we had a great audience. In fact one of the audience members came up to us after the show to congratulate us on portraying such a complex industry so accurately. He was a fisherman of 20 years and his glowing review was really inspiring. We had a long chat with him about how the work was developed and he asked us questions about our experience in Newlyn. He did have one critique however, and that was that you would not be able the catch sardines in an 80mm cod end mesh net like the one we use in the show. Oh well, you can't win them all. It's always fasinating to see how new audiences react to the work, especially the audience members who already know a lot about the source material. Different audiences will react and respond to the work in different ways and the challenge from our perspective is to make the show accessible for all of them regardless of their particular expertise in the subject matter. I feel we have achieved that in this show and I am very proud of the work we've done.
After two nights in Plymouth we were off to Falmouth University of Art and Music. New venue, new challenges, new experiences. During the day Molly and myself ran a workshop on puppetry for the university students. There were about 30 students in total which was perfect as we were able to split them up into groups of three and work with them on table-top bunraku style puppets. Most of them had never had any hands on experience with puppetry before, which means we were able to provide an introductory workshop. We took them through particular exercises that we as a company use during our rehearsal process, then we got them into groups working with a tea towel and a mug to create a table top style puppet. They were all engaged and jumped at the chance to play with the puppets. One of the aspects of puppetry I love is the total engagement you see in the face of the puppeteer as they're involved in the world they are creating. It's akin to children playing with toys. A large part of puppeteering is simply playing with objects and bringing them to life. A few students in particular excelled during the workshop. One of them even came to the show that evening and stayed behind to congratulate us. I showed her the puppets and took her backstage to see how the set worked. My hope is that we were able to inspire the students to try out puppetry for themselves in the future. I still remember the first puppet show I ever saw and it completely captivated me. Since then it has been one of my great passions.
So there we are. We had a great time in the South-West. I love sharing the work with new audiences and I'm sure we'll be returning next year. We have had a wicked time doing the show. The more we perform it, the more confident and enjoyable it becomes. I think back to the beginning of the whole process of making this show and am amazed at how far it's come. It feels whole now, it's complete, it is ours. It's.....wait for it......IN OUR HANDS!!! BOOM Mind Blown!!!!
We'd like to thank everyone at OUTPOST and the Falmouth University for your hospitality and we hope to see you again soon. Until then please book your tickets early for George, Matts and Luke Bassey Rap Body Confident World Tour. Tickets are selling fast....They are almost sold out....Ah, they're all sold out!! Nevermind, for those of you who could not get tickets to our Shirley Bassey Tribute Tour I'm terribly sorry. HOWEVER, please look out for our tribute disco Shirley Bassey tummy tuck and cardio exercise DVD at stores now!!!! £18.99.
Ta ta
Goofy Apple out!
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