Text by Gavin Peter

DAY ONE: LONDON

We start here because a wonderful send off party had been arranged at Chipo and Greg's flat, united OTE London and OTE Zim for the first time since the 10th anniversary. Gwin, Jen, Manuel, Bryan, Chipo, Greg, Sarah, Nuyen, Wiina, Simon, even Fay Chung came to wishus well and say 'Break a Leg' 'I am a Grey Hound!' 'Sadza and Oxtail', 'smiles and scabby Monkey', it was lovely.

DAY TWO: MUNCHEN

The teams of all 16 countries on the opening night

New friends in Munchen

Having breakfast with our host in Munchen

After a strange flight, thankfully short (and craig having to re pack
his heavy bag) we arrived int he capital of Bavaria, Munchen. Weh ad been
prepped about the distinct differences between Prussian Germany and
Bavaria. A few words had been mastered, which turned out to be old and
out dated! However, we were guided, as we learnt we would always be,
warmly and quickly to our appartment. Our generous host, a sweet queen
who worked for an AIDS fondation, lived in a beautiful and stylish (dont
you love the queens) appratment at the TP of the stairs. The germans
start counting after the first floor, so ,ist on the secon floor' really
means ,t s on the second floor' - Yay, i am so glad i have brought this
enormous bag.

Two thirty was our call time. We arrived. The heat and humidity is
stiffling and oppressive. We order our first drinks - ckes. The enorous
glasses are shocking. They like large drinks here. After a while, very
tired and bearly breathing in the heat, peole start to arrive. A german
team member - we take teh opprtnity to get some information on the Fouls
we have noticed mentioned n the handbook. They are in German and look
Hectic! Suddenly teh world arrves - quite literarly. Teams from
everywhere appear and there is much chit and chat and meet and greet. It
is all very overwhelming.

Six o'clock and we set off en masse for the theatre to prepare for the
opening show. We have been paired with Sweden, whom we will meet
tomorrow in Berlin. We are to end the whole show with a musical..

The main theatre is large and has been prepared with a real soccer pitch
on the stage. Grass and goals. After some instruction, we decide it
would be best to meet and rehearse with our Swedish frends. a sort warm
up on ,Ona Ona' and we go for it. First lesson - in a musical game, you
can talk inbetween the songs to build the story.

Show time. Upstairs in the sauna of a dressing room, the 16 teams all
wander around stretching and chatting. The Argentinians, cute, have
undressed and are doing karate poses. The Russian, Gallina, is changed
into a tiny mini skirt, with a zip up the front, and the lone French man
has decided to warm up sans trousers.

Weg et to watch the first half. The Mayor of unchen is invited on stage
with a lovely introduction ,Here she is . the woman who refused to give
us any money' she appeared to handle teh comment well and gained teh
applause of the audience by the end - how we will never know as it was
all in German. The most memorable moment came next when the glamorous
organiser said ,Teams - i ask you to Stopp right now and think - we are
here. Savour every moment, this is it, dont miss it.' I was moved by
this and i realised, yes, good grief we are here. Thsi is it! I felt a
surge of emotion looking at all teh crowd, thinking of all the people
from al those countries, sitting in Germany at teh World Cup! I wanted
to call home immedately.

The show began with short form scenes from duets of countries,
introduced by a video clip about the country. eg America and France, had
a silent movie with France sexily lighting a cigarette and the American
response was to seduce her with his deft coke bottle opening!

Suddenly after a death like wait in the dressng room, it was us and
sweden. We ran on and i said the word i had learnt that day from new
friends (who also treated me to a short tour of Munchen with traditional
wiess bier und wiess worst).'Serivus'. There was thunderous applause. We
asked for two differing groups of people. we got fishermen and Hells
Angels.

The scene was lovely. It worked well. Kevin was a reindeer, which i
thought was a lobster, so i became a crab, which led to me being
captured by the hells angels beach campers, finding them to be my long
ost parents and beign reunited with a big ending disney style song.

Bouncing off the walls we all took ours bows as teh World's reps for
Theatre Sports and were whisked off to a party, given bottle of bier and
vodka. However we were so hungry by ow (after 11) that we left early in
search of food adn a bed.

DAY THREE: BERLIN

Outside the mobile Radio Studio (Germany's Radio One) with Christoph and beautiful Beate.

After the TV shoot at a Berlin football stadium

The big city is exacty that. BIG and CLEAN. I had been reading a book
which which described Berlin as London with cleaner, wider streets.
Indeed he was right. It is beautiful. I had the unfortunate start of
having to take the train as my flight had been booked in Adam's name.
Six hours. We arrived and were taken straight away to a socer stadium
where we were interviewd for national television. We played a scene of
us and the german team running out of the changing rooms, singing our
anthems, warm ups and beginning play. Weh ad to play freeye frame whilst
they captured shots. all good until my pants started to split.right up
the crotch. And they kept on splitting, until i had gven away teh entire
farm on national tv.

From there we were taken to a radio interview. It was so cool at one
moment we realised we were standing in a television make shift studio
and that the niose and action of the spectators we were watching on the
screen was being made by the people next to us! The radio interview went
well, kevin adn I playing indian gardeners in charge of keeping the
pitch perfect. The berlin hosts were exceptionally warm and friendly.

To the theatre (by taxi thank goodness - we still had our bags!). it was
a tent, set up like a circus, called the Shake-Tent. Nervous and very
anxious we prepared.

Now the structure of Theatre sports was something very foreign to us.
You play a warm up game together, they favour freeze frame. Then the
coin toss to see who challenges who first. (we coincidetnly won every
toss save one - which we realised is not good.) one team challenges the
other to a game. Then the other team plays teh same game. The audience
votes - 1, 3 or 5 points. It is all very hectic and tense, as you are
not really warm and flowing.

Anyway, our nerves made us power through and we spoke too fast and were
almost frenetic in our performance! However, teh energy worked and we
won the match.

Off stage there were interviews, snacs and drinks. It took a long time
to settle down. Where were we? In Berlin! It is crazy! Sleep though not
far, dd not come easily as the world whirled around in my head. Good
grief this is madness.

DAY FOUR: BERLIN

Gavin and Craig's view from their Berlin appartment

With Christoph outside the Berlin Zoo.

Kevin lived in a differnt flat. Craig and i were fortunate to be staying
in a beautiful flat by ourselves - our host had moved out. Shopping! We
went fr a stroll into our suburb. Bought a few little things. Had our
washing done at a vey expensive dry cleaners - this must be a fancy
suburb. We lunched in a chinese restaurant on duck with almonds and
hazelnuts. Then hit the Euro Bazaar! I began my scrap book.
The sow was in a different theatre, around the corner from our flat. It
was teh community centre with a beautiful outdoor venue which we used to
warm up. The Canadians were very energetic and competitive. Their style
is to dominate all scenes. They are very good. We learnt the most from
their style. Tehy move their plots along rapidily and change the scene
quickly to build subplots and characters. They also, quite annoyingly,
jump into your scenes to ,help'! they were a strong force. Long before
the show weh ad al stopped talking as we conldnt get a word in edgeways!

The show went well. We played an excellent warm up game, with the two
teams split into three pairs. When soemone claps the scene moves to the
next pair who have to begin their scene with teh last line from the
previous pair. It was so much fun that i forgot i was performing and
just enjoyed watching Kevin play a drunk int eh bar and craig play a
talentless musician! I was a lover having a spat over a cucumber.

The swedes had taught us a wonderful game. In teh secodn half of the
show there is a Joker round. Anything is possible. Weh ad done teh
mirrors game in the tent. The Swedes had done a scene based on Ibsen
style theatre. It wa amazing. So we thought lets try to do a born
african style scene to give a reflection of life in Zim. We practised in
teh interval quickly. Then tried it. We asked for images of Zimbabwe. We
got ,sun, elephants, and poverty' we took poverty. The title was Sunset.
I began by playing a village mama eating groundnuts. My long lost son,
Kevin, arrived after a journey kumusha. I was so nervous but it felt
good. I coked for him, but my nerves made me appear angry. Then my otehr
son, craig, appeared. Suddenly i offered the brothers a bowl of water to
wash their hands. Craig did so. then kevin, not seeing my bowl, washed
his hands in another bowl.This was a serious error. The referee could
have fouled us there (a foul is a point off - we had lost three points
in the first match!). Craig however saved teh day, he asked why his
brother had refused to wash in the water of his mother? This sparked an
argument between teh brotehrs which brought the scene to a dramatic
conclusion. It was moving. After teh show (we lost) people were very
complmentary and admired teh braveness of the decision to play a serious
scene amongst all the comedy. It had worked and we decided weh ad foudn
our joker round style.

DAY FIVE: DRESSDEN

With the Russians at Dresden ststion shortly before boarding different trains to go to different parts of Germany

Now Dressden is in the East. East Germany, like Bavaria is very
different. This we found to our great disadvantage. We were housed in
our most interesting accomodation yet. Three in a bed (almost) n a tiny
room. Craig and i shared a bed, with kevin a breath away, but weh ad a
dining table and a tv! We were to face teh Russians fort eh first time.

We should have realised from our hosts cheeriness and clown face what
was awaiting us at the theatre. Here english is non existant. We
prepared non verbal games. One was to tae four sentences from the
audience and mime the rest of the scene. The russians were also non
english spekaing fort he most part, however teh captain spoke german,
which proved to be a great advantage. Our first challenge failed.
Inbetween the challenges there is a mixed scene for both teams to play.
This also failed. Our russian counterparts translated all their words.
We couldnt even explain our game!

Then Kevin saved the day. During a disastrous gibbeish scene where i was
singing a love song to an audience member (she as tubby and my comments
that she would bear me many children looked like i was calling her
fat!), Kevin took the mic and in the most passionate gibberish south of
the limpopo, declared his undying love for the girl. It worked a treat!
Clownery! We had to be clowns, fall over and fart! This we did fo the
second half and got fives for everything. Our joker scene was a ballet,
i and the russian went to shag some naked girl, i drank deeply from the
titty of my mother in the whore's tea house. and so on! However the
earlier misnderstanding left too great a gap and Russia took the show.
Which was good as they had not had a win yet.

We did also learn something interesting. We stayed on Karl-May strasse,
next to the Karl-May museum, around the corner from the Kar-May Saloon.
We began to realise that Karl-May was pretty important in Dressden.
Karl-May actually is famous all over Germany. He wrote plays about
cowboys and indians. Hammer Fist befriended an Indian and they did
battle, shot soem indians, rode horses and eventually brought
Christianity to the the heathen Indians. Kar-May never went to America,
never met a native american, but inspired every german child's
imagination. Our old friend from Hidden Shakespeare, Nele, told us later
in Hamburg how he used to love being sick at home as his mother woudl
put on Karl-May recordings of the plays to listen to!

The other treat was seeing pictures of an outstanding outdoor theatre
where they perform these plays, set with a back drop of mountains.
Dressden has a rich opera tradition as well. Like many cities it was
heavly bombed and almost completely destroyed. The saddest thing was
that it was not heavly involved in the war, and was only bombed on the
last day, when the war was over. The English destroyed it after peace
had been declared. Like so many german cities, ist centre is new and its
,old' bit is actally not the city centre, but the bitt hat wasnt
destroyed. It has a magnificent cathedral

DAY SIX: HAMBURG

Getting in the mood with the crowds as Germany play their quarter final match

The Hamburg team

Reunited with old friends 'hidden shakspeare' (and a few new friends)

Nele, Alexandra and Jenny (with Craig and Kevin)

What an exciting day. Firstly we were going to Hamburg where old friends
were waiting for us. Then the weather had changed and it was raining. We
had met the Russians, who turned out to be lovely friends. And it was
the day of the quarter finals of the football. When we arrived in Berlin
the HBF (central station) was BUZZING! Everywhere there were germans
dressedin their national colours singing! The HBF is a beautiful
station. From the top floor you can see all the way to teh trains four,
or five, stories below. It is all glass and chrome. Teh singing and the
high energy was electrifying.

Unfortunately the energy had whisked our train away! We had missed it as
ours had arrived a bit late and the fans were not anxious to wait! It
was interesting as someone commented how this was the first time that
germany had felt pride itself. The first time they had waved their flags
and united as a people since the war. The energy was lovely and very
positive.

We caught the next train, a fancier one and arrived in Hamburg's red
light district, where our theatre was. People were gathering to watch
the game on the big outdoor screens. Inside our theatre there was a
large crowd watching the game as well. The game wetn well, as we know,
and the moment when germany won was a point in history. It was beautiful
and began the biggest street party i have ever seen. We had five minutes
to come back from the party to warm up focus and perform!

We played the Swedes again. We were calmer now and had made a decision
to Stopp thining about the competition and the numbers anymore - we
wanted to have fun. The Swedes are a lovely team and our mixed scenes
were fun. They love to sing and so we dd - many times. Kevin got to kiss
everyone, especially teh loevly Helena. Our Born African scene was
excellent. It was called ,Shona for Beginners' with craig and I running
a sham of a school to teach english Kevin. Everyone remembered me
telling kevin to speak Shona using his ,Magubu' which means ,balls' in
my Shona!

After the show wem et up with old friends, Frank, Nele and Kiki and
adjounred to the Crazy Horst. The street party was well on ist way and
everyone who passed us said hello and we toasted teh success many many
times! Sleep was found many hours later at Nele's wonderful house.