Show #2: Upping the Ante.

So, our second night at the Prague Fringe was an entirely different affair from our first. As it well should be. With a fresh audience, and new crazy suggestions thrown our way, Johnny Moon's story went a little like this; 

Our story begins in the dusty deserts of Azerbaijan, where our hero, Johnny Moon is busy beavering away with his notorious ant farm. With the help of his oldest friend of 20 years, Shabotnik, he is busy in preparation as they are expecting the most prestigious of guests: his holiness, The Pope. Surely nothing can go wrong, today of all days?

But Shabotnik has a deep dark secret to reveal. He is set to leave the ant farming trade, more interested in developing a sound and Hi-fi shop just over the road. Both aware that the ants do not take kindly to loud noises, but Shabotnik’s mind is made up.

Things are complicated further by the inclusion of the Ant farm’s most notorious visitor: Emily. A slightly deranged 27 year old who is hell-bent on stealing all of Johnny’s ants and disabling them so she can stick them to  bits of paper and create a thriving Christmas card business. So, yes, slightly deranged.

His holiness, The Pope arrives and is immediately greeted by the largest glass case of ants in Azerbaijan. 72168 of them to be precise. But a guided tour from Johnny and Emily ends in disaster as heavy drum and bass music causes the ants to go crazy. A chase scene and musical number emerges from the chaos. But Johnny’s day is set to get even stranger...

Meanwhile Emily’s bizarre activities take a sinister turn as she creates an army of poisonous ants who are under her command. Her own father is her first victim, as the army attack him and drag him off to his doom.

With her new found power of controlling ants she returns to the Ant farm where Johnny, enraged by the day’s events, goes one step too far. Emily commands the ants to surround Johnny. As Johnny minutes away from death, the Pope suggests the only solution he can think of: Johnny has to marry Emily to save his own Ant farm.

The wedding reception with 72168 guests (all covering Johnny) is a tense affair, but then a government official arrives to say that the marriage is not legal: because Johnny is already married to Shabotnik. The sound and hi-fi man comes back to save the day. Emily is left heartbroken, but the government official suggests that she should marry 72168 ants in the shape of Johnny Moon (apparently that’s legal in Azerbaijan)  –  with Johnny and Shabotnik back in business together and Emily happily eloped, the sun sets on another Average Day for Johnny Moon.

Best Wishes,

Windermere Productions

@WindermereProds

Cast

Matthew David Lewis – Johnny Moon

Meghan Doyle – Emily, Previous Ant Farm Worker

Stan Hodgson – Shabotnik, The Pope, Emily’s Dad

Katie Peel – Government Official

Show #1: Monkey Business

So... we've completed our first show at the Prague Fringe. With a little help from the audience, this is the little yarn we span. Want to see us in action with a brand new story? come to the Divadlo Na Pradle for the next 4 nights.

Johnny Moon woke up in a shit hole yesterday morning. Confused and with a terrible, suspicious smell lingering - he was interrupted by the news that King 'Damien' Kong has escaped. All Johnny knew was that King Kong was somehow partly responsible for the mess he'd found himself in. On his mission to save King Kong, he met a partially insane vase-selling receptionist in the Empire State Building, along with two lesbian security guards who knew of Johnny's sordid history with animals, only escaping them due to their overwhelming attraction to each other distracting them from the task at hand.

The vase selling receptionist helps Johnny up to the top of the Empire State Building, where they find King Kong ready to jump after a revelation that he and Johnny are in a relationship but Johnny had been cheating on him with a Parakeet named Doreen! After a brief but emotional chat, King Kong is coaxed back down and reunited with his lover, only to reveal he had kidnapped the parakeet in a fit of jealousy.  

The receptionist took the two back to her home for a spot of marriage counselling where things took a turn for the worse and the receptionist became jealous of Johnny and King Kong’s relationship and vows to take revenge on them both, but Johnny entices her with the promise of a date with a parakeet at the pub that very evening. 

The two security guards then make a discovery in the basement of the Empire State Building where they find a distressed parakeet by the name of Peter, and a case of kidnapping by mistaken identity. 

Meanwhile Johnny and and King Kong had arrived at the pub and were awaiting the receptionist, however minus the Parakeet they had promised to introduce to the receptionist. She arrived and was introduced to a fake parakeet, voiced by King Kong and controlled by Johnny. The ruse was discovered after some exuberant dancing and the receptionist left in a flood of tears, and rang the police to expose Johnny's sinister love of animals. The three then found themselves in a stand off at the top of a cliff, where Johnny and King Kong had mistakenly thought they would be safe.

They managed to reach a truce with the help of a Sting song and the promise of finding a lonely parakeet for the receptionist to love. They delivered on this promise and returned to the pub, where Doreen the parakeet and the receptionist hit it off and walked off happily into a happy future together. 

Johnny and King Kong return to their shit hole of a flat and begin to tidy, ending their day with plans of a renovation. And it was beautiful. 

Best Wishes,

Windermere Productions

@WindermereProds

Cast

Matthew David Lewis – Johnny Moon, Peter the Parakeet

Faye Hall – Receptionist, Bi-Curious Security Guard #1

Katie Peel – King Damien Kong, Bi-Curious Security Guard #2, Doreen the Parakeet

What's this all about?

Hello. Good Morning, Ahoj!

We’re Windermere Productions. A theatre company from the North East of England. We’ve been wandering around the place, travelling from here to there, telling stories that we like, some of them our own and some of them we heard from more interesting people than us. 

We’ve decided that we want to tell the story of this one man. Over and over again. As many times as we can. We want to see where he goes, what he sees, who he meets. 

This is our show: “An Average Day for Johnny Moon” 

For those who don’t know how the show will work here is a brief introduction to the show:

Johnny Moon is asleep as you come in. Blissfully unaware of the day that lies ahead of him. Blissfully unaware that you’re watching him. Blissfully unaware that he is of any interest whatsoever. His Biographer will talk for a little bit. He will ask you four questions about Johnny’s Day:

1. What is Johnny’s job?

2. Where does Johnny wake up?

3. Who/what does Johnny meet?

4. What is the last thing Johnny says?

With those answers, and you’re undying devotion, you can sit back and watch the story unfold. We may be running around to tell you the story, don’t worry about that, just enjoy watching what can happen in this man’s day. I’ll tell you now. You almost won’t believe it.

We are performing as part of the Prague Fringe Festival at the Divadlo Na Prádle, from the 24^th-26^th May (22:30-23:00) and the 27^th-28^th May (18:00-19:00) 2013. Come and see us. We’d love to see you there. We’ll never ever get to perform the show you see ever again.

But what we will do is blog a synopsis of each performance. So you can keep up to date with what we’re doing, and maybe to entice you to come see us. Thanks you for your time.

Best

Windermere Productions

@WindermereProds