THE SMALLEST THEATRE IN THE WORLD - ESSEX, BRITAIN / EL TEATRO MÁS PEQUEÑO DEL MUNDO.

Hi my dear friends, do you like theatre? If you  think that everything is possible, read this post about the "Smallest Theatre in the world". It exists and it comes from Essex, Britain. I hope you'll like it! 


Hola mis queridos amigos. ¿Os gusta el teatro? Si  creéis que todo es posible, os invito a leer esta publicación sobre "El teatro más pequeño del mundo". Existe y viene de Essex, Gran Bretaña.
¡Espero que os guste!

Information from:   Speak-Up magazine.



A BRIEF HISTORY

The Smallest Theatre in the World started out as a joke in 1971, when English actor Marcel Steiner turned up at rehearsal with his new "Panther" motorcycle and sidecar.  This prompted director, actor and comedian Ken Campbell to excalim:  "Marcel, that thing is so big you could build a bloody theatre on it!"


A PERFECT HOME

In the space of a week the theatre was built and the two embarked on a tour of the UK, Europe and the US.  Early cast members included a young Jim Carter, who now plays the butler in the TV series "Downton Abbey" and the great late Bob Hoskins.  After Marcel Steiner's death in 1999, the theatre remained unused for many years, until it was taken over by the Grand Theatre of Lemmings, which restored it with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Arts Council.

Today the theatre is based in the Essex town of Manningtreem which is probably the smallest town in England!!!

THE SMALLEST THEATRE

David Danzing is a director with the Grand Theatre of Lemmings.  This company also runs "the smallest theatre company in the world", which is based in Essex.
So, what is that exactly?

**The Smallest Theatre in the World is a very interesting, peculiar bit of theatre because it sits on the sidecar of a motorbike, and it seats two people, so at first, when you hear about the smallest theatre in the world, you probably think it's a joke, but it is a real theatre and it puts two people inside and all the actors go inside as well, so it's very much a real theatre, but with just two people.

**The idea of the smallest theatre sprang up and it was partly because of a joke.  There was a friend of David Danzig  who is now dead, and he was rehearsing and went to rehearsals with a motorbike and a sidecar on the motorbike, and when he arrived at rehearsals the director said: "Marcel, that is big enough to be a theatre!".
And that's how the idea was born.  So Marcel went off and built  the theatre on his motorbike.


THE OUTSIDE WORLD

Of course, having an audience of only two people doesn't make great business sense but the tricky bit about the Smallest Theatre is that you have to entertain a big audience outside while you're still doing the show to the two people inside, and that's where it becomes very funny and very tricky because for the people outside it looks as though they're seeing the backstage where the actors are running around and changing their costumes and getting into all sorts of trouble, and quite often there'll be a joke played on the people inside, and the people outside know what's going to happen to the people inside, and they find that very funny, too.

THE PLAYS THEY PERFORM

The secret of the Smallest Theatre is to do a very big epic play in just 15 minutes in a very, very small space, so that way it becomes very funny, so classic shows are shows like "War and Peace", which is a massive show, but it has to be done very quickly and well edited, and our latest show is "King  Kong" because everybody knows the story of King Kong and King Kong is huge, so just getting King Kong into the theatre is very funny.

PRODUCTIONS IN THE FUTURE

The next Smallest Theatre show might be "Jaws" because it's all about people trapped in a small space being attacked by a giant shark and monster!!  So that would be very funny, so at the moment, they are thinking about how they'll do "Jaws".



VOCABULARY

-THE TRICKY BIT:  la parte difícil.
-TO RUN:  dirigir.
-TO SPRING UP:  surgir.
-TO REHEARSE:  ensayar.
-BACKSTAGE:  bastidores.
-COSTUMES:  trajes, vestuario.
-GETTING INTO ALL SORTS OF TROUBLE:  meterse en toda clase de problemas.
-WELL EDITED:  bien montado.
-HUGE: enorme.
-JAWS:  mandíbulas.
-TO TURN UP: aparecer, llegar.
-TO PROMPT: provocar, dar pie.
-BLOODY: jodido.
-BUTLER: mayordomo.
-LATE: difunto.


HAVE A NICE DAY MY FRIENDS!   

SMALL OR BIG, THEATRE IS GREAT!!!

A FICTION STORY/ THE MUSHROOM SOUP / UNA HISTORIA DE FICCIÓN / LA SOPA DE CHAMPIÑÓN.

Hi my dear friends, today it's time to read so here you can see a fiction story called: The Mushroom Soup. I hope you'll like it!


Hola mis queridos amigos, hoy es tiempo de leer así que aquí tenéis una historia de ficción llamada: La sopa de champiñón.  ¡Espero que os guste!

THE MUSHROOM SOUP   by Nicola Mabbott.


The doorbell rang.  Sarah hoped it wasn't her ex boyfriend Mike.  They had had a brief relationship, but there was something about him that worried her, so she had decided to end it.

That had been two months before.  Since then he had been following her around, calling her several times a day to say sorry and begging her for another chance.  He hadn't contacted her for a couple of days, so she was beginning to think he might have given up.  Wishful thinking!!!

There was a good view of the visitor on her doorstep from the front bedroom window.  She tried to look out of the window from behind the curtain, but he looked up at just the wrong time and saw her. Damn! I'll have to let him in now, she thought as she saw Mike was looking up at her expectantly.

Sarah worked as a freelance translator and one of the companies she did translatios for,  sold CCTV cameras.  So, after negotiating a special discount, she had had a system installed in her home.  The price had been very fair, and "you can never be too careful,"  she had thought to herself.

She went downstairs and cautiously unlocked the front door.

-"Well, are you going to let me in then?"  said Mike.  "I've got something for you".

He lifted up the basket containing the four mushrooms he had picked for her.  She tried not to show how afraid she was to be alone with him.  At least the CCTV system made her feel a bit safer.

MUSHROOMS.  Last year she had translated a guide all about them for a large publishing company. 414 pages all about mushrooms.  Of all the translations she had done this had been the one that had fascinated her the most.  In particular the mushroom on page 15.
In fact, she had been so fascinated by it that she had asked her uncle, who knew all about mushrooms, to take her out and show her one.  And, underneath a chesnut tree in a wood near his house, he had pointed out a specimen of the same type as the four mushrooms in the basket.  If she had calculated correctly, just one of the mushrooms she was looking at contained enough POISON to kill both of them.

"90 per cent of people who die from mushroom poisoning are killed by this one type of mushroom," she had written in her translation.  "It takes around 48 hours for the poison to take effect."
"Wow, that one looks nice," she said, trying to sound enthusiastic, as she picked one of the mushrooms out of the basket.  She perfectly hid her disgust as she touched the deadly mushroom.

-"Yes, it's a real beauty,"  he replied.

AFTER he had gone, she thought about what to do,  She decided she would take the mushrooms to the police station the next day.  She also had another idea:  chicken and mushroom soup for two.  She would call him and they would eat it together.  She wasn't going to poison him, just give him a shock.  It would have to be somewhere public where no  harm could come to her.  It was still mild for the time of year, so what about a picninc?  Yes, a picnic would be perfect!

She opened the fridge and took out a few edible mushrooms she had in there.  Then she took a can of chichen soup from the cupboard.  She cooked the edible mushrooms and liquidised them before adding the mixture to the soup.

She rang him later that evening and thanked him for the mushrooms.  "They were delicious,"  she lied.  "What about if I prepare a picnic for us tomorrow lunchtime as a thank you? We can meet in the park near my house".  There would be lots of people there, taking advantage of the unusually mild weather for the time of year, she thought.

-"Yes, that sounds good," he said.
-"Perhaps I shouldn't have given her the poisonous mushrooms,"  he thought. "She wants us to be together after all."

THEY sat on a park bench to eat. "It was a bit cool this morning, so I brought us some chicken soup", she said.  As they drank their soup in silence, he thought how well she seemed, considering she had eaten a large quantity of deadly mushrooms the night before.

BUT looks can be deceiving and he knew that the mushrooms were silently doint the damage inside her.  And before she realised it, it would be too late.

-"That was delicious," he said.
-"I'm glad you liked it.  It was homemade,"  she said.
-"Oh", he replied.  "Chicken soup, did you sait it was?"
-"Yes, well, actually chicken and..." she hesitated and smiled  "...mushroom."
-"Mushroom?"  Of course, it had tasted of mushroom, but he hadn't realised it until just now.
-"Yes, there were a couple of mushrooms left over from your basket," she said.  "So I cooked them and put them in to give it a bit more flavour."

AT ONCE, HIS FACE WENT TOTALLY WHITE!!!

                                           ***************************************

VOCABULARY

-MUSHROOM:  champiñón.
-SEVERAL:  varios.
-TO BEG: suplicar.
-TO GIVE UP: rendirse.
-WISHFUL THINKING:  ilusión.
-DOORSTEP:  umbral.
-CCTV (CLOSED-CIRCUIT TELEVISION): circuito cerrado de TV.
-TO LIFT UP:  levantar.
-TO HIDE: esconder.
-DEADLY: mortal.
-EDIBLE: comestible.
-BENCH:  banco.
-DECEIVING:  engañoso.
-FLAVOUR:  sabor.

DO YOU LIKE MUSHROOM SOUP?

SEE YOU!!!