89 singing and dancing cast members, along with a dizzying tribe of extras and musicians and crew made this year's middle school production almost "bigger than Ben Hur" yet again. It doesn't seem possible, but each incarnation of the show becomes grander and more lavish than the last. It's production creep!
Cass once again gathered a crack team of make-up artists to ably fill her room in the wings of the refurbished auditorium for preview shows through the week as well as the huge sell-out performances on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I snuck along to the big Saturday show in the few hours leading up and was witness to some excellent direction from Maestro Cassy and no-nonsense advice to get all the prima donnas shuffled in, primped and primed, then ushered out to await their stage entry. It really was a well-oiled machine, and each work station was busily blushing, lipsticking and eyelining at a rapid pace, as the assembled throng awaiting entry hummed and sang their lines while doing little pirouettes and pas de deux. Their hair, set professionally by the salon round the corner, ringleted and pinned, unmoving from great fogs of hairspray and their costumes fitted, fancy and bespoke from the finest of professional tailors: where do they go from here? Their weddings must end up being minor disappointments, I imagine!
Cassy's weekend was pretty dominated by play preparations and events, yet we still managed to get out and about on Saturday to the cinema and a new French cafe in the suburb. Mad Max: Fury Road was all I was anticipating and a whole lot more. Expecting a post apocalyptic excitement thrill ride, we got that, but also, an amazing allegory exploring survival, the fragility of the world as we know it and an interpretation of feminist power in a physically brutal setting. The new "Max", Tom Hardy, was well cast but perhaps not perfect. We heard rumours that the late Heath Ledger was in line for the role, but we thought that Sam Worthington might have been even better: surely we could have found an Aussie to play Max! Despite that minor flaw, we both thoroughly enjoyed the experience and two hours later we staggered from the cinema almost physically spent from the non-stop action and visual assault....wow!
We wandered across to the Jasper Villa building which now houses "Cafe V" where we lounged in opulent, velvet covered chairs and ate galettes and gateaux while enjoying the treetops view from the second floor. From there, it was time to scooter down to the bread shop, get some supplies and get Cass home in time to return to school for the night performance.
On Sunday, I soaked up the Knights great win (at last!) while Cass was at the production and when she got home we went and did some food shopping before going to our "treat" restaurant just down the road, Wendel's Backerei. Cass usually books this in as a reward for the deprivations of a week away at camp, but it felt similarly appropriate this time too! We enjoyed a fine glass of red with our usual entrees of platters of both smoked salmon and mushrooms. Our main meals of wiener schnitzel and salmon/spinach lasagna were mouth watering and we lingered over the meal to have a bit of a de-brief of the weekend and enjoy the early evening light.
There's never a dull moment here and we get spoiled. I was wandering down the road to pick up some jeans from the lady who does alterations when I spotted the priest performing various blessings at the temple behind the school. Normally, I'd just have a look and move on, but I'm glad I stopped to take a shot: you can become blase about quite spectacular sights! Other photos: Cass and Youbikes in the rain, cute headwear for testing in my class, Cassy's famous vocab charts(!), four plump nestlings about to fly the coop (we hope!) and a grainy shot of the extremely elusive Taiwanese blue magpie. This guy actually swooped me while protecting its nest the other day, and a whole shutter of photographers had invaded the local park armed with telephoto lenses to try to catch some shots of its fledglings. Finally, Cassy and her girls hard at it!