Brecon

Matt Jnr's 2008 tour kicked off on 10th October. Read the roving reports that were written from theatres across the country
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Michele Monro
Posts: 1097
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:31 pm
Location: United Kingdom

Brecon

Post by Michele Monro » Sun Nov 16, 2008 3:23 pm

Theatr Brycheiniog is a modern theatre, arts and community venue in Brecon, the old county town of Brecknockshire and now part of south Powys in Mid Wales located on Canal Wharf alongside the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal.

It opened in 1997, providing locals with a theatre auditorium, an art gallery and restaurant facilities with local Welsh cuisine. All in all it is very nice but the thing that makes it spectacular is that it offers excellent views of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

With it being Geraldine's part of the world, she was there waving the fan club flag. She had also brought her mother and mother-in-law and Matt took the time to have a drink with them before the show. She runs 'Friends of Matt Monro' our dedicated fan club and every three months produces our club magazine. This is no easy task as one continually has to produce interesting articles. I know she has been interviewing members of the audience over the tour so don't be surprised to see your names mentioned if she spoke to you.

I thought it would be interesting if you submitted 5 questions that you would like to ask either Matt or myself. Just send me an email at michele@mattmonro.com and we will do our best to answer them in a future issue.

Because Matt stayed at Blackwood the night before he had to check out at 11.00am and that left the whole day to while away before show time. Matt visited every public house in Brecon hoping to catch the football but every single one offered rugby. Of course Paul to the rescue - he was at home last night leaving merchandise duties to Pam, and during the course of the day he sent texts to Matt's phone telling him the scores. His team, QPR were playing Burnley and lost 2-1 so he walked on stage mega-depressed.

The dressing rooms were well appointed and an hour before curtain up Matt decided to use the brand new showers - they had everything, power jets with three different settings, fancy shower gel and shampoo and feeling refreshed he stepped out of the shower stall to find one thing amiss - no towell. With a rather out-of-shape dripping wet naked body to contend with he was reduced to using his freshly pressed T Shirt to dry himself off and most of the toilet paper on hand.

Matt rang me from the dressing room, he was ready to go on, spruced, clean and incredibly quite dry but he was bored. He was ready for a 7.30pm call but he then found out it didn't start until 8.00pm. He went to the stage door to have a cigarette beforehand. It was spring-locked and that's exactly what it did - it sprang back and locked him out!! It was lucky that he had clothes on as he had to walk round to the front of the building to get back in again.

It wasn't a bad crowd but unfortunately the majority were seated on the balcony and that makes it a much harder show. Working to only the stalls he was lucky to have some staunch fans seated in the front row. Matt was telling the story about the five qualities he looks for in a girlfriend - the first rule was that they had to cook and clean..... and a voice shouts from the front row - what about ironing??? What can you say. The lady then proceeded to tell Matt that she personally loved to iron and carried on a private conversation oblivious to the fact that she had stopped the show!!
It gave the audience quite a laugh.

Matt had no choice but to drive home as tomorrow is a very busy day and at least if he gets home to his own bed he doesn't have to get up until 12.00pm - mind you every time he can have a lie in, he wakes at 7.00 or 8.00am.

Matt entered the details into Muriel (Matt's Sat Nav) and she calculated the journey to be 4 hours so you can understand why I was surprised to see Matt after only 2 hours 20 minutes - I'll just wait for the speeding tickets to arrive!!!

geri5
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Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2008 1:37 pm
Location: South Wales

My last show

Post by geri5 » Sun Nov 16, 2008 5:44 pm

I took my mum and mum-in-law to Brecon, it was a bit of a dodgy drive in the dark with a lot of tight bends. It took us 1hr 15mins to travel 40 miles. We met up with Matt in rehearsals and then went for a drink. Apart from a big gap between the stage and the front row, everyone chose to sit in the circle and even when given the choice to move they stayed put. Anyway they made Matt very welcome and I overheard some lovely comments at the end of the show. Hopefully he will return next year. Sadly that was my last show on the tour, here's to the next one. I hope that some of you make The Shaw Theatre, London and I look forward to your comments.
In friendship, Geraldine

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Marian
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Joined: Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:02 pm
Location: Reading. Berkshire.

Post by Marian » Sun Nov 16, 2008 6:10 pm

It sounds to have been another good night, Michele and Geraldine. We enjoyed your write-ups, thank you.
I know what your next book should be Michele - Matt on the Road!
You must have so many memorable happenings stashed away already.. :lol: :lol:
I remember when I first joined the library where we live, my first book was Harry Secombe's 'Twice Nightly' that was all about his early days entertaining, and the various digs and lodgings he stayed in etc. - Hilarious! :lol:
Marian :wink:

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