After three weeks, I finally finished my Brief History of Rhubarb animation yesterday, just on the deadline. My decision to enliven the Zucca Bar scene by inviting Rhuben Cushstead, head gardener, and all the other characters to the wrap party proved to involve an awful lot of animation. The Chinese doctor seems to have got into an argument about the medicinal properties of rhubarb with Nicholas Culpeper while his patient, the mandarin, is at the other end of the bar evidently suffering from the effects of one too many Rubarbaro Zuccas. The Zucca Bar is in Milan, so it was a bit of surprise to see Marco Polo from Venice bobbing around in the background. As usual Rhuben is propping up the bar, oblivious to the smart signore, who is trying to attract the barman’s attention behind him.
The snippet of music is Rhuben’s theme from the animation. My friend, Karen Chalmers, writes:
‘for the Rhubarb patch, I put together a little ditty on my keyboard, featuring clarinet (which to me, always reminds me of Yorkshire). I added a few train sounds (haha) for your steam train. It should fit together pretty well timing-wise.’
It fitted perfectly. Sorry there are just a couple of bars here, but you can hear the full soundtrack next week: I’ll post the final cut next week, when this animation and another featuring Barbara’s rhubarb cheesecake recipe get their world premiere at Wakefield’s Rhubarb Festival.
No red carpet at the old market hall next to the bus station where my work will be screened alongside that of seven other animators, but there will be a chance to step inside a recreation of a rhubarb shed, candle lit and full of real, growing, forced rhubarb rootstock.