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**
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Action Figure Archive, Roti 3pm full run. Firstly let me start by saying the folks that run Roti are bloody lovely and I hope they come back next year. The venue is in a really good location, a decent sized performance space (40 seater). There were a couple of problems. The space is next to the kitchen so that creates bad noise and great smells. There's an open hatch that they said we could cover up but in the heatwave I just didnt have the heart to do that. The space is open and so we needed to put up a washing line and sheets to create a bit of intimacy unfortunately this did nothing for the sound bleed. The main issue is that the room is required for diners after 6pm... so it i had to be set up and cleared away every single day adding an hour at the start of the day (flyering time) and at the end of the day. It was busy at weekends and diners would be sat outside the curtain. Noise bleed both sides were evident. As I said earlier, the staff were amazing but if the venue was returned next year then I think it would be better as dedicated spoken word venue. The tables wouldn't need moving as much and would create a 'poetry cafe' style vibe (it's a dry bar but hot drinks are served). I also think the shows should probably start at midday and end at 5pm rather than 3 - 630pm. The food at the venue is AMAZING. I hope it returns next year but as I said as a spoken word venue. It has a great feeling of that to it, Steve
Thanks for this, Steve! (Though, I have to say: with heavy sound bleed, I'd suggest that would make it WORSE for spoken word...)
Ah okay. ... it just felt with the tables and hot drinks like those great afternoons I'd had down the poetry cafe...
Sounds like a lovely atmosphere, but for quiet folk like me, shouting over sound bleed it a horrible chore!
...Shove me in there. I'm loud.
Show report for show number 327: Absurd Live Cabaret Panel Show. I agree with everything Steve has said above! It is a great intimate venue that would be especially good for first-time acts if it returns next year. Loud spoken word, and stand-up comedy would likely be the most suitable shows. It is small, without a raised stage, and can seat around 25 people when full. However, if you were only able to get 10-15 in, then it would still feel like a nice size audience. We did have some issues such as noise bleed from the kitchen and the restaurant space, especially on weekends, and one afternoon the staff decided to unload a wholesale food order into the audience seating area when we were trying to seat the audience. However, the staff were indeed lovely, and I think they were doing this before the show to avoid interrupting it - as a venue, it needs careful management throughout the fringe, but you just need to approach this respectfully and politely and keep communication between the staff and the acts frequent - you could tell that the staff wanted to be helpful, they just hadn't had a fringe venue before, so sometimes weren't quite sure how. Having a very good venue captain made this process a whole lot smoother! The best thing about this venue is filling it - the location is great. If you stand at the bottom of the Royal Mile, give people a flyer and point them round the corner to the venue, then you can often get people in last-minute (flyering for an hour before the show worked very well for us). The only major issue is the lack of space to seat the audience while they're waiting for the previous show to finish. On weekdays it was fine as people could sit in the downstairs part of the restaurant, but during weekends this was often filled with diners. I don't quite know how this problem could be solved as queing people outside the venue would be difficult (it is a busy street and right next to a busy bus stop). In summary - a great venue for the right shows.