Today will see the final performance of Bentwater Roads. I was there yesterday evening in a full house to see it for the last time. It was comfortably the best run of the show I’ve attended. Actors and chorus have settled into their roles and it showed. They played with a sense of freedom and security that had the audience nailed to their seats. At the emotional climax I looked round and there wasn’t a flicker of movement among the 200 people concentrating on the action in front of them. There were tears in front of us and behind us. Charlie and her dad had them riveted.
It’s easy to say these things in the warm afterglow of a good run, but I mean it when I say we’ve been incredibly fortunate with the company we assembled for this show. The cast have done more than just play their roles. Their talent and generosity created an atmosphere where something special could take place. So to everyone: Alex, Caitlin, Dan, Mark, Nadia, Pam, Peter, Richard and Sally I have to say a big thank you. The same must be said for the splendid chorus of Ancient Britons. And as ever the Eastern Angles team led by Ivan have done an astonishing job of keeping everything on an even keel and proving once again that great professionalism and relaxed good humour working together can move mountains.
We finished last night with a barbecue and celebratory chocolate cake sitting under the huge sky outside the Hush House. About midnight in a wonderful echo of the play a classic coach, its empty interior brilliantly lit, sailed out if the night and disappeared into the darkness like a ghost from the 1950s. It was late by the time we said our goodbyes.
Driving home I was left with one extraordinary image from the evening. After the final curtain call and the house lights came up something strange happened. Usually at this point the audience file out chatting about the play and getting ready to go home or head off in search of a drink. But not on Saturday. People seemed unwilling to leave. Instead I watched close on 200 of them flood onto the set and into the tunnel that had been our centrepiece. They wanted to touch to walls, to walk the long dark space where characters had emerged from another time zone. I like to think they were claiming the space as their own. And why not? It was their story after all.
You are very right to congratulate yourself/-ves for a wonderful play, acted with great sensitivity and energy. Normally after a good production, (my wife and I went to your Sunday matinee), I feel a bit unsettled and ready to make a run for it. Yours was a genuinely enlarging experience, seemed infused by a generous spirit, and left us feeling happily dazed! Bravo.
Thanks Nick. Glad you both enjoyed it.