Here is the place to write a Show Report for your venue, detailing as much information as you can that might help shows there in years to come. Include things such as dimensions of stage, passing traffic, good spots to flyer, useful promo, tech equipment, ambient noise; anything that will help give shows a good idea of the venue before they arrive. **Please include your show number so we can confirm your show report is in the right venue forum**
Pinned a message.
It's not really a show report for this year, but we had Revolution back in 2018, and thought it was fantastic. We were doing an operetta, and there was loads of space backstage to wait in and a really friendly staff.
(W. S. Gilbert's Eyes and No Eyes, for the record)
Paul Richards and I performed our interactive musical comedy / cabaret show "Choir?" was at Revolution Bar this year. There was a very rickety but quite large stage, simple backdrop and then a combination of rows of chairs with booths and tables behind and to the side. It's a massive room and the "formal" performance space is about 1/3 of it which could feel a bit cold but we are a high energy show that helped to pull focus. Pro: flexible space, accessible (we have a disabled fan in a wheelchair and she was able to come and see numerous shows there as well as ours), easy to find as it's near Greyfriars Bobby which is a landmark. Bar in the space and also downstairs. Staff were very sweet. The venue is not in PBH use on Saturdays which for some would be problematic but worked for us. Cons below...
Cons: the bar staff are very young and run off their feet and within a few days they stopped bothering clearing glasses or manning the bar upstairs. This made the room look awful by the time our show kicked off (3.55) and as well as bottles, glasses and food debris there were often spillages, which were quite dangerous. I spent a lot of time making the space presentable instead of doing those last bits of flyering. The venue captain was lovely and I know they also spoke to the manager about this numerous times. It was very off putting to audience members coming in and seeing the state of the place and a few left because of it. We also lost people when they went to the bar downstairs especially if they went at the start - I think once you're not in the room where the show is going on you're out of that zone. There's also not much footfall as people using Chambers St are often already going somewhere. We flyered A LOT and still often struggled for numbers, not usually the case for our show which has been running for a few years. I think it worked better for stand up and our show probably needs to be in one of the venues that people expect to go to for cabaret or music led shows. There's no proper storage so there was often debris from other shows on and around the stage. And the stage itself was a bit rickety and the skirt around it kept coming loose - we tried to tidy it up as best we could but it might need someone to tweak the structure so that the 4 boards stay together properly - not my field of expertise!
Show Report for Harry Baker: Unashamed (Show 350) I had an incredible time! I really really loved the space, in that it could feel full with 40 people in the chairs at the front, but also there was room for 100 or so to spill out towards the back. It was also an incredible location, with lots of nearby footfall, I was on at 12:10 and even that early it felt like there were people passing by that were up for coming to a show. There was also lots of space outside for people to queue beforehand without feeling cramped (and I think this then helped build intrigue/interest). This is all with a massive caveat that it wouldn't have been nearly as positive or enjoyable without Aram as venue captain being on the ball and in general the improv film club providing equipment for lighting and sound. I had a few issues getting in on different days because the venue wasn't technically open until 10 minutes before my show, and some days they were changing a barrel during, (and one day they tried to cancel the show altogether), but i took that to be part of the charm! In future it would be great to be able to perform on a Saturday as well, but whilst the staff were sometimes overwhelmed, the manager seemed genuinely interested in building on this year and improving for next year, so I would hope it could be a relationship that could build. I have done 9 shows at the fringe now, ranging across PBH, JTT and Underbelly, and this was my best experience yet. Thanks to all involved !