A super trip to Germany

Carsten and myself

Where do I begin? The great hospitality from my hosts Gerd and   Herrlich and their friendly dog Frickr or the warm reception at the theatre from Markus, Carsten, Manfred and all my friends at the Jakobus theatre? Everything was done to make my stay and my performances as comfortable and easy as possible and I had a thoroughly good time. The reading had been very well advertised in the local papers and arts magazines too.  

Alright, the weather was utter pants, raining for two days out of the three but there ain't a lot one can do about that. The last day (Thursday) cleared up and I was able to be a tourist in the beautiful city of Karlsruhe without getting soaked to the skin. Plenty of opportunities for chilling out and taking a host of photos and enjoying some mulled wine, coffee and apfelstrudel and cream.

My friend Thorsten came to the first performance on Tuesday night and we met up on the Wednesday and enjoyed each other's company at the Christmas Fair over a glass of mulled wine and, later at a student pub and viewing the sights around Karlsruhe. I also went to the theatre that Thorsten belongs to and saw the fantastic set they have built for a production of Snow White.

set and theatre ghost

I thoroughly enjoyed re-uniting with my witty friend Markus during my stay and although our time together was brief it was as fun as always. See you next May Markus!!

Me and me mate Markus. Don't mention our double chins!!

Both the Tuesday and Wednesday audiences were very receptive and seemed to enjoy my storytelling and the actions that helped to tell the story of A Christmas Carol. Another good friend, Andrea Voos and and her daughter Lea and the daughter's boyfriend came to enjoy the Wednesday night show. It was lovely to meet them again and chat after the show, although I was feeling very tired after not sleeping for nearly two nights, due to over excitment I suppose.

After the shows we all went to The Trompeter restaurant in the city and enjoyed some after show beers and pizza. Again my generous hosts refused to let me pay for anything. As promised in the last blog post, I managed to spend some time cruising around town (bad choice of word methinks) on the trams. I also 'managed' to get a nose bleed two hours before my first performance and did the whole show with a discreet wadge of bloody paper tissue stuck up my right nostril. Charming!

A nice beer and me in Cafe Bleu

interior of Cafe Bleu

On Thursday I spent some time at lunch in Cafe Bleu with a beer and also later in the evening with Andrea, Gerd, Herrlich and myself. Lena from the Jakobus theatre made a surprise visit to say 'hello' and it was nice to see her too since their theatre's visit to Nottingham. I feel that I have some real good friends in Karlsruhe and look forward to another visit with the Lace Market Theatre next May. Hopefully the weather will be better and warmer. lol

Weihnachts Markt in the rain

On the food side, I managed to find a fair few joints to nose around and learnt some new names for the specialities on offer. I'm sure one exists, but I never got round to finding an indoors market to nose around. It seemed though, that on every street corner and sometimes one or two in between the was another Apotheke ( a chemist). I have never seen so many in one city!

Regarding the performances I enjoyed them both and enjoyed employing some subtle physical actions to enhance the storytelling. Both the audiences were very attentive considering that the English was very flowery and Dickensian. I felt the idea of playing the music of Personent Hodie and creeping on as the Storyteller rather than just walking to the lectern really worked.

Fricker the happy dog

Gerd and Herrlich, my friends and hosts.

Biggest thanks go to Gerd, Herrlich and Frickr for making my stay so wonderful and last but not least thankyou to Jo and Mick my neighbours for driving me to Stanstead Airport and back!