Today's Dilemma

I have a contract on my table.

Yes, after all those months of fruitless letters, emails and auditions I was finally offered another job!
BUT- and here's the big but (BUT), they DO NOT PAY for rehearsals!
Now, this is actually a bit of a deal-breaker because why should I start off a paid job being out of pocket myself? Travelling to the rehearsal space takes upward of an hour and costs about a fiver to get to each day. I asked them on the phone whether they'd at least consider re-imbursing our expenses, but they said they'd have to check with the budget...

During this contract we would be required to perform 3(!) shows a day, singing and dancing (great stuff, but 3 in a row!?) plus driving duties between venues (up to 100m a day), and building and taking down the set which takes half an hour.
I got Equity to look at the contract and they advised me not to sign it.

So what's a girl to do?
I think it would be great to do this show in the 3 weeks running up to Christmas, it's a rewarding thing to do and an addition to my CV, also £250 a week isn't as bad as some other companies I have auditioned for recently offer their actors.
I just wish they would write their idea of wages into the ad or whatever, so people like me don't waste their time.
After 4 years in this business I now expect a bit more than £200 a week for 6 days work, travelling dark and icy country lanes in a clunky van with hormonal actors who are unable to map-read their way out of a paper bag, only to find our performance venue is a smoky working-mens club on the 2nd floor, filled with drunk parents and crisp-munching pre-teens running riot, where we have to change behind the set or in tiny dressing rooms filled with empty bottles and full ashtrays, then shouting my voice out to bridge the hour-long gap before Santa arrives...
If we are lucky, noone has scratched the van in the meantime, we might get a choccie bar from Santa after the play and won't trip over some hyperactive three-year-old whilst carrying the minidisc player back to the car...

I figured out that if I do this contract and after paying for the date change of my Christmas flight home (to incorporate the last performance day), I will be £30 better off in the new year than if I stay on benefits... That's if the job center don't cut me off during the rehearsal period, because technically they are full days- and so beyond the 15 hours max one is allowed to work before losing JSA (job seeker's allowance).

What agonising over a missing 40 quid travel allowance...

Oh the glamour, eh!?