30/01

Breakfast in the dining room was surprisingly good, they had a huge choice of Western, Chinese and Japanese food plus a really good coffee machine!

We headed back to the theatre and learned that there is a lighting problem. In simple terms, the supplied lights are copies of what we have back home and they do not respond to all the control instructions sent to them in the same way. In some cases they don't understand the instruction and in others they understand but then go to different values. Our technical team are working on a solution and, of course, we will fix it. 

The afternoon tchenical rehearsal went very slowly as the many holes in the lighting revealed themselves. On each occasion LX Adam and his team had to re-plot the errors or work out an alternate solution. Dancers had to move into the light where they fell off their usual positions. The reharsal time was extended and even then we didn't get all the way through before it was time for a break, the Technicians carried on to the bitter end with no break.

Walking back to the hotel, I ventured underground to discover an enormous subterranean market-like area in the area just in front of our hotel. I would guess that there are well in excess of 200 shopping units, selling everything from clothes and food to mobile phone chargers. I found one street that contained 14 nail salons all. In a row, all very busy. Then there were five hairdressers - you get the idea. Finally a street of about twenty noodle bars opened out into a food court with stacks more including MacDonalds, KFC, Burger King and a curious one - Irish Potato which just sold chips with various toppings such as Bolognese sauce, Honey Mustard, Cheese etc. Yet I failed to find bottled water! Upstairs (by now I was under a shopping centre or department store, I can't tell which) I found very smart goods, expensive teas, jewellery and the like, even "Fasion Bras" and "Maiden's Wear" which I'm not sure about so didn't dare venture.

A quick bun and croissant from the Ichi Bakery and we changed into suits for the evening and headed back to the Grand. In the best traditions of theatre, the show was absolutely "all right on the night" and we delivered a fabulous performance to a packed house. That's over 1500 people who were mainly Chinese although a significant minority, perhaps 15%, were Western in appearance. 

Compared to previous tours the audience is maturing (or more probably, getting used to Western ways) as the incidence of talking, videoing and moving around during the performance is much reduced. It may in no small way be attributed to the green death-ray that falls on the head of any miscreant seen to have their camera out - the side stationed ushers are merciless in attacking offenders in the first part of the performance. Having said all that, on returning after the interval I had to ask three people to let us have our seats back!

At the close of the show applause is at first a little strained. Half the audience are taking photos of the curtain call, which is of course an modern twist on saying one had a good time, but it does make it feel like under-appreciation. However when they finish photographing the applause slowly builds to a resounding crescendo as the audience gains more hands, and simultaneously loses its Oriental reserve.

We head off into the almost freezing night back towards the Bund to find Goodfellas, a highly recommended choice - which was full on arrival, but half a glass of Prosecco kept us sweet whilst a table vacated. Eating at 22:00 is a downside of theatre life so we intended to eat light but Italian Mama's ways don't allow for that kind of nonsense and we had a hearty meal with a lovely but alarmingly expensive (for what it was) bottle from the cheapest end of the wine list. 

I plot our return to avoid the pimps and Ladies by using back streets, and was almost successful, only in the last minute were we accosted by a man with a fist-full of photos!