A LITTLE OF WHAT YOU FANCY

 I hope I am not always painting a picture of doom and gloom. Every so often I receive an amusing request. “Can you do a workshop on The Thames?” I am so tempted to reply “do you have a boat in mind?”

 Not as silly as you may think. When we were asked for a performance on London Zoo, we never realised they actually wanted us to conduct some plays on a stage right by the monkey arena. So, there we were acting with the little blighters upstaging us and stealing the limelight. The late, great W. C. Fields got it right “never work with children or animals”.

 One of our finest challenges was an approach from a successful retired business man wanting a play as part of a celebration on his wife’s 60^th birthday. She loved Shakespeare and, in particular

“A Midsummer Night's Dream” So, we went to work and created a lavish 60 minutes portrayal of “The Lovers”; scenes featuring Hermia – in love with Lysander · Helena – in love with Demetrius · Lysander – in love with etc. etc. I rather enjoyed my cameo controlling the many kids as “ELF and safety”.

 Often, in Summer, we are asked to perform outdoors. Usually at parties and, weather permitting, never a problem in a large garden. However, a completely different matter at festivals, “Latitude” in Lowestoft and “The Big Feastival” (pun intended) in Kingham spring to mind. The first challenge starts on arrival with the get-in; proving you are a performer and not a gate-crasher. After passing security checks, searching for your pitch amongst the hundreds of acts of all descriptions can be demanding. Having located your spot, and adapting it to suit the show, (it may be a barn piled high with bundles of hay for seating) comes the search for power to run the sound system, a generator and a guy who understands it, and then the setting up amidst hundreds of metres of cables. Two or three hours after arrival, and all ready to go, you pray you will have an audience.

Thankfully, it all invariably comes together, and everybody loves it. I won’t bore you with the get-out!

 I will tell you about some more of our exploits sometime. But, for now some pictures from our version of “The Bard”