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Jul. 19th, 2006 10:32 pmTonight we were guests at The Villagers' performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I can't say enough how much I love these people. They're an amateur dramatic group from our town who, every summer, put on a Shakespeare play in 17th century costume out in the open air. I go every year.
I wore just a shirt, tie, trousers and my civic badge. As we pulled up outside the little woodland park where the play was staged, John tried to persuade me to borrow a jacket 'to keep the midges off', but I declined. I'd deliberately left my jacket behind as it was the hottest July day in history and I knew I'd toast if I wore it, and no jacket was going to provide any more protection against midges than my long sleeved shirt already would.
At the entrance, one of the wee lassies taking tickets actually asked us to pay to get in. My mother's chain of office and my civic badge clearly didn't cut any ice with her! Bemused, me ma had just handed over our entrance money when Carol, one of the group's organisers, appeared and told us we didn't have to pay. The girl, a little put out, handed back the tenner; my mother tried to persuade Carol to let us pay, but Carol wouldn't hear of it. "Just buy some raffle tickets." The girls gave us an insect repellent spray called 'Buzz Off!' to spray ourselves with.
Carol showed us to our front row seats and we talked to her for a while; my mother recently asked The Villagers to perform an excerpt from the play at her Charity Medieval Night in September, so now Carol told her how much they were all looking forward to it. She said how special this production is as it's the group's 20th anniversary, so they'd chosen 'Dream as that was the very first one they did, in 1986. Carol recalled how she'd played Helena in that production and had rather fancied reprising the role this time, but she'd been told she was too old to be a Young Lover now! "So I have to play the old lady," she said. I pointed out that Hippolyta, who she's playing this time, "should be a beautiful, graceful, mature lady, so you're bang on." "You can come again!" Carol laughed.
Just before the start Glyn, the director, came up to us for a quick chat. I told her that I'd noticed from the programme that Mark - an old friend of mine, relative of hers and stalwart of The Villagers - wasn't involved this year. Glyn said yes, that was a great shame, but Mark was doing some professional theatre work in London so obviously he had to put that first.
The show was very well presented, though aeroplanes kept passing overhead and a couple of times we heard the prompter, and thoroughly enjoyable. Carol was a wonderful Hippolyta, Titania and Puck were standouts, and Nigel was hilarious as Bottom - even if, as Daniel remarked last year, he "as always, just played Nigel!" The fight scene between Lysander and Demetrius was hysterical; even Lysander cracked up with laughter just before they ran off at the end. Everyone did their bit towards making it a rollicking good evening.
At the interval refreshments were served in the mockup 17th century inn. My eye was caught by a bag of local handmade organic fudge for £1.80, but, deep in the red as I am, I'd only brought a quid so had to settle for a can of Coke Zero... One of my mother's raffle tickets was drawn when there were just 2 prizes left, a big bunch of flowers in a bucket or a pair of mugs. She chose the flowers.
During the second half it actually started to RAIN! Thank goodness, it never got worse than a few light spits. At the end of the evening James, who'd played Theseus and is also one of the group organisers, called up my mother to say a few words, so she complimented everyone on their work on the production and chucked in a plug for her Medieval Night.
Bed calls, back to work tomorrow...
I wore just a shirt, tie, trousers and my civic badge. As we pulled up outside the little woodland park where the play was staged, John tried to persuade me to borrow a jacket 'to keep the midges off', but I declined. I'd deliberately left my jacket behind as it was the hottest July day in history and I knew I'd toast if I wore it, and no jacket was going to provide any more protection against midges than my long sleeved shirt already would.
At the entrance, one of the wee lassies taking tickets actually asked us to pay to get in. My mother's chain of office and my civic badge clearly didn't cut any ice with her! Bemused, me ma had just handed over our entrance money when Carol, one of the group's organisers, appeared and told us we didn't have to pay. The girl, a little put out, handed back the tenner; my mother tried to persuade Carol to let us pay, but Carol wouldn't hear of it. "Just buy some raffle tickets." The girls gave us an insect repellent spray called 'Buzz Off!' to spray ourselves with.
Carol showed us to our front row seats and we talked to her for a while; my mother recently asked The Villagers to perform an excerpt from the play at her Charity Medieval Night in September, so now Carol told her how much they were all looking forward to it. She said how special this production is as it's the group's 20th anniversary, so they'd chosen 'Dream as that was the very first one they did, in 1986. Carol recalled how she'd played Helena in that production and had rather fancied reprising the role this time, but she'd been told she was too old to be a Young Lover now! "So I have to play the old lady," she said. I pointed out that Hippolyta, who she's playing this time, "should be a beautiful, graceful, mature lady, so you're bang on." "You can come again!" Carol laughed.
Just before the start Glyn, the director, came up to us for a quick chat. I told her that I'd noticed from the programme that Mark - an old friend of mine, relative of hers and stalwart of The Villagers - wasn't involved this year. Glyn said yes, that was a great shame, but Mark was doing some professional theatre work in London so obviously he had to put that first.
The show was very well presented, though aeroplanes kept passing overhead and a couple of times we heard the prompter, and thoroughly enjoyable. Carol was a wonderful Hippolyta, Titania and Puck were standouts, and Nigel was hilarious as Bottom - even if, as Daniel remarked last year, he "as always, just played Nigel!" The fight scene between Lysander and Demetrius was hysterical; even Lysander cracked up with laughter just before they ran off at the end. Everyone did their bit towards making it a rollicking good evening.
At the interval refreshments were served in the mockup 17th century inn. My eye was caught by a bag of local handmade organic fudge for £1.80, but, deep in the red as I am, I'd only brought a quid so had to settle for a can of Coke Zero... One of my mother's raffle tickets was drawn when there were just 2 prizes left, a big bunch of flowers in a bucket or a pair of mugs. She chose the flowers.
During the second half it actually started to RAIN! Thank goodness, it never got worse than a few light spits. At the end of the evening James, who'd played Theseus and is also one of the group organisers, called up my mother to say a few words, so she complimented everyone on their work on the production and chucked in a plug for her Medieval Night.
Bed calls, back to work tomorrow...
