On friday the 28th of February for the first time ever the whale in the bath tub was performed by cast comprised of students at 49 school in Tyumen. It was MAGICAL!  SO the weeks prior to meeting my cast, I had been working with some of the younger students at 49 school, and unfortunately there where a lot of behavior problems, and they had little to no English vocabulary, so it wasn't the funest part of russian adventure, so i was a little anxious about meeting the older students. However with in minutes of meeting the whale in the bath tub cast I knew it was going to be a good show. But i had no idea just how good. Thank you so much to the amazing students at 49 school, for bringing this show to life in such a beautiful way! I couldn't be happier. 

For me this play is very special. It the first play that has been performed that 100% my own work. All the previous plays i have written/ directed/ composed music for in the past have been adaptions, but this wasn't. The inspiration for this play, came a week before leaving for russia, i had written two good scripts (my adaptions of peter pan and AMSND), and then another two that were just a bit Shi*t to honest, so ended up in the trash pile, I had written them in a desperate attempt to have three plays ready before leaving the UK. The artistic director at OWT, and said, just write something that is fun! FUN! How could I write something fun when I was stressed about my failed writing. I tried to shake the stress off, and said to myself I would forget about script writing, music writing ect, on the hour long tube ride from my house to the Russian embassy in Notting hill. I plugged my ipod in and tried to turn my brain box off, but, "I NEED A FUN PLAY I NEED A FUN I NEED A FUN PLAY" kept running though my head.

I got off the tube and went to he russain embassy. But it was shut. I was confused, we had rang them the day before t tell them that i was coming to sort out my visa, and they had confirmed that they were open. A gaud came along and said "Sorry love, they are shut, it was Russian christmas a few days ago, they won't be open till next week." "But...but..." So feeling mega confused I frantically tried to ring Daniel at OWT to find out what was going on, but he was;nt picking up. I wasn't going to trek all the way home only to find out i just had the wrong door, so I decided i would browse the shelf's of waterstones, while i waited for him to return my calls. I saw this picture book, maybe for like three year olds, that had a picture of a bath toy whale floating in a bath tub. Can you imagine, I thought, if there was a real whale in the bath tub, I texted my dad to say "Dad can i have a pet whale?" , this a running joke since childhood, and then a random cat turned up in out back garden one day, hungry and alone, and we said dad can we keep it, he said no, 10 years later this said cat is a member of the family, and now still lives in my parents house, and is named malmsteen, so me and my brother and sister, would occasionally ask dad for unreasonable pets, "Dad can i have a pet lion?" "Dad can i have a pet sloth." "Dad can i have a pet zerbra". So i started to think about a about a lost whale, an what if two sisters and a brother, rescued it and kept it as a pet?

Thus my my story was created. But I knew unlike malmsteen, they couldn't keep the whale forever, this baby whale would get to big, and the bath tub (where Alice, Mathew and Sophie,the names of the thee children in the play keep it) would brake. Whales are big animals! Unlike house cats (although mlamsteen is obese... she eats the food the neighbors leaves out for there dog, the dog is supermodel skinny.) So i had to write in the whale's return to sea, which happens after the bath tub smashes to pieces. Also we had a another problem, my dad bailing to let us keep a cat a one thing, but no responsible parent would let there children keep a whale, so indeed the father figure out of the way for at least a few days, so "Dad" needed a job that meant he would be away for a while. At first i though "BANKER" because that's what my Dad did and when we were kids he would go to do 'banker things' in europe for a week or two. But it just didn't fit, When the bath tub did brake Dad was going to have to help them get it back to sea, so a "Sailor!"... they go out to sea for ages!

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This was also a good way of working in the storm that would wash the whale up on to shore, for that would give the children the idea of keeping the whale as a pet.

Sorry if this all confusing, but this was how the thought process happened. But to clear things up hear is the plot:

Alice, Mathew and sophie say good bye to Dad who is going out to sea for a week, Dad leaves Alice in charge, "No parties!" He says. That night there is a terrible storm and a whale washes up in to the garden. Mathew wakes up to hearing a strange noise, he see a baby whale in garden in the garden. The tide is out, to take try to take the whale back to sea now it will die, so they put it in the bath tub. Instead of calling the coast guard to take the whale home, they decided to keep it for the week.

Dad call's his sister aunt kate to ask her to pop in on the kids to make sure they are ok.

Mathew, being a bit of a wheeler dealer chargers all his school friends money to see the whale. While the house is full of excited children, Aunt kate arrives, they pretend it a surprise party for her birthday, Aunt kate of corse dose not buy it, but they mange to get her out of the house.

Mean while the storm out at sea, is getting worse, so bad they sailors decided to head home.

Dad is almost home, Sophie spots him, and panics, there is a load crash, the bath tub can no longer withstand the whale it has smashed! 

Dad is mad! but of corse worried for the whale so they take it back to sea, just as Dad is about to tell to tell the the children off for there crazy behaviour, a whole host of whales apper, and the whale says "Good bye". Dad concurs that this whale is very special.