Casperworld Forum

ohhh yes I certainly recognise that.

Just back at my hotel (decided to walk back only 30 mins) so give me a moment to unload my duty free Kilbeggan and I shall attempt to write a review.

The performance was great with Hjoertur as Biilly, and with two special roles due to illness of one of the main actors AND I got to meet two really cool people at the interval

btw Lord you could have come over, my hotel room has two beds. :P

and the bathroom certainly has enough sound proofing for me to bludgeon you to death if you snore

yes, exactly that one but I paid £7.50 for a wine at the interval!! so i think this bottle is a good idea

My trip to Reykjavik started at the reasonable hour of 8am as I left the house to catch the bus to Heathrow. The flight left on time, but then the bad news, we were flying into a headwind 25mins extra flight time! The other thing I thought was, ohh no this woman next to me is obviously a chatty one, I hope she doesn't try and engage me in conversation! Anyway, three free whiskeys from BA later... and I had a free lift back to Reykjavik with her sister, who turned out to be a lesbian who had adopted two girls with her partner. (The girls were for the most part unimpressed with my dinosaur cards - boys would have loved them!) Anyway I got to my hotel via my Icelandic chauffer service... booked into my modern and well presented room and had a tiny nap, before getting a taxi up to the theatre. The journey was fairly short so I decided I would walk back, as the weather is cold, but dry and not windy. The theatre is fairly small, and for this performance I had a seat in the sixth row. With two disinterested teenage girls on one side of me and an older woman who apparently sings in the largest women's choir in Iceland and was recently in Birmingham, UK for some concerts, on the other side of me. The performance started in a very similar way to the UK production which instantly brought a smile to my face, as it was the same, but in Icelandic!! The little boy was adorable. Today's Billy was played by Hjoertur and Michael by Grettir. Both were excellent. Some of the enjoyable moments in the first half were the dressing up and makeup scene with Michael and the letter reading, which even in Icelandic made me go misty eyed. At the interval I scurried to the bar and there was a guy ahead of me, ordering drinks in English, so I made sure he heard me ordering mine, at which point he introduced himself and invited me to his table. He was Lee Proud who had done the choreograhy for the Icelandic Billy Elliot!!! We were joined by the lady who has taught the Icelandic Billy's to dance! Not only that, but as I mentioned there were some special roles in the play today, because Mr Brathwait was ill, so the director had to step in to play the role but couldnt do the dancing so I saw a performance of Billy Elliot with a woman paying Mr Braithwaites girlfriend who did the dancing bits, who just happened to be the REAL dancing teacher for the Icelandic Billys. Cool or what? The second half flew by and we had the enoure finale with an extended dancing routine involving the whole cast before Billy got a standing ovation. Tomorrow, according to Lee, I will get to see the brand new Billy. Now, time to watch some snooker and enjoy my Irish tipple...

Bjarni

Ahem, yes, anyway, to pad out the previous post to include something other that drooling...

Today, after a museum and the sights of Reyjavik, some rotten shark and dried fish, and picking up a CD of Drengjakór Reykjavíkur from the Hallgrimskirkja, I eventually made my way back to the theatre, once again walking, as Reykjavik really is quite small. I had a seat in the third row today almost in the centre. Quite pefect really, and wow, what a time to have a good view! Bjarni was delightful! I made short notes at the interval, because I was in danger of only remembering his eyes...

I would say, Hjoetur's dancing was slightly better, you could see the difference in experience levels, but not in all aspects! I would definitely say Bjarni's tapdancing was better. My notes say he wasn't as falmboyant as Hjoetur with his boxing routine, but he was better in the Michael scene, although I liked yesterdays Michael better. His angry dance was very good! I honestly can't tell you much more other than he was brilliant, and most certainly the highlight of this trip.