As I walked out of the Arches the other day, clearing out my dressing room and saying hello to several people, I wandered around the building and watched as one stage came down and another was erected. A clean slate, a new event. The end. It should have been a feeling of closure. Sadly, that feeling hasn’t came yet.

What feels like years ago, I received an email from Rob Drummond talking about a theatre project. An insane idea to merge theatre and wrestling, to put on a show at the Arches in which he’d show a transition from actor to wrestler and step into the ring for himself. I have to admit, I didn’t think it as likely…

When I heard the news, I was blown away. It was almost funny. I got a call from Abby – our hard working and all around wonderful production manager – telling me all about us having won the Vital Spark award and that soon, it was all going ahead. I would have been in shock. Unfortunately, I was in shock a day earlier when producer of the Movie Cafe emailed me asking if this occasional film reviewer (thats me by the way) was the same Jimmy T that was on the press release that he’d forwarded talking about the same thing. So I was spoiled a little, but I was still in awe. It’d been confirmed, I’d been told, all the information and typing I’d done to help the application go forward had been successful.

It was about to begin.

It hadn’t properly hit me though. Not until it did begin and I was meeting with Rob on a regular basis, and popping into the Arches on a weekly basis. Actually, not even then did it feel like it. The moment it all clicked was the night before out first session together. It hit me. I’d go to sleep in the usual routine and wake up on the road to a show that would become a milestone for me. Not that I knew that at the time, but… the blog works better if I say that now.

For those who came along and stayed for the post-play documentary saw, it was a long process for Rob. Five months of training, thinking, planning, brainstorming, walking Rob through the pain, the thoughts, the ideas, the club feet, telling the creative director Jackie (another wonderful part of the production, and the most infectious laugh I’ve ever encountered!) that Rob wasn’t going to die.

And after months of preparation and hard work, a few weeks ago it all finally came together. I had a script in my hand, we had the ring in the Arches, Francis Gallop was taking photo’s of us all fo the cut outs seen in the foyer while my daughter sat in and talked Rob and Abby’s ears off and then it felt… well, it was really casual and kind of normal considering what I do for a living but that reality grew closer and closer, and with each step, each meeting, each rehearsal, each training session, each sly smoke outside, I realised it wasn’t just the project that I was beginning to loved being a part of – but the people themselves were just wonderful.

From those of us performing including Damo who was a beacon of support ’till the last minute and beyond despite us getting tetchy with each other sometimes (which was actually funny at times and I started referring to him as another wife), Rob who put the whole thing together and showed just how far he’ll go for something he believes in, Joe who I barely know and really appreciated learning more about, Richard who went from quiet interm to just a really funny guy to be around (and made me want to re-learn piano) and Wizard’s bad puns and google habbits…. to the rest of the production like Abby who I really got to know, her husband who is just an amazing morale booster, Jackie who was a hell of a lot of fun to be around and the talented Andy, Jen and Ross who’s parts are so underrated but so big a part of it all… and of course, Lyndsay, George and Colin (and the unseen Fiona!) who worked hard on the documentary, and I have to say – George especially was a wonderful support figure(and thank you for all the kind words) and just mad any situation a great laugh. And we can’t foget Andy Elliot who had to deal with sweaty wrestlers before going to New York for Beautiful Burnout.

The crew troughout the show are the most hard working I’ve has the pleasure of working alongside and I honestly can’t praise them enough. Those of you thta saw that reveal… the ring, the set up, the… well everything. All them.

When I hit opening night, I didn’t know what to expect. I was hiding through most of it, listening to Rob’s touching monologue before turning it int a vile attack on him – which was strange at first, I didn’t expect as much of a reaction as I got. And the tag match was the perfect idea, a great symbolism of the bullying discussed in the monologue, the unfair life of the victim who hs stood by and watched his whole life and that dramatic moment where Rob stomps his feet and ets the fans clapping as he builds himself up to redemption, a hot tag, clearing the ring and that final moment.

But what if the crowd would sit on their hands as I’ve seen both theatre and wrestling fans do before? What if the theatre crowd would react to the wrestling? What if the wrestling crowd wouldn’t react to the theatre? A part of me was terrified. Was it going to work? Was it all for nothing? Is anyone going to buy a ticket? Or more selfishly… am I going to be good enough?

Well, I’m not sure on that last one but… I was wrong on the rest. The wrestling fans were drawn in, the theatre fans were booing and hissing (with more than a few saying they genuinely didn’t now whether to hate me or not, which I think is a compliment) and there were times when the fans were so loud I couldn’t hear what was going on, including the climax of the show on opening night. The show itself broke attendance records, not as big a number as a Wrestlemania show, but… with that record breaker, the audience leaving happy and excited, newcomers to both theatre and wrestling and – for me, personally – learning a lot from both sides of things…

…I was amazed. Thats an understatement. I was overwhelmed.

It’s cheesy, but considering I always wanted to do theatre on a professional level, it was one of the best experiences of my life. It let me cross off one of the major things on my to do list and it’s left me wondering if we don’t do this again… should I change careers like Maj did?

But it’s gone now. The smoke has cleared, the dust settled and everyones taking some down time. Well, almost everyone. Now those of us in SWA’s management team have the Gathering on the 26th to worry about, and a lot of work still lies ahead – and for a show this size, will be putting ourselves through everything until the doors open – for it to happen and then more shows and of course Day Job to get on its feet with Gary as there are more rewrites and of course the entire production to put together. Which I’m looking forward to more than I can express.

But despite all this, seeing the empty Arches, the busy staff, everything moving on… it feels somewhat empty to stop after all this time and all this work and I hope that maybe, someday, someone will let us go again. Or maybe someone will be foolish enough to put my tubby ass on another show. Ok, that’s wishful thinking…

But if my theatre time ends here, it’ll have both opened and closed on a high note. Thank you to all who gave me the opportunity, who put faith in us and to Rob for this insane idea that he brought to life…

All I can say… is thank you.

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Tags: day job, projects, the arches, wrestling