“We’re all going on a Summer holiday”
Well, let us hope we are. But that set me thinking about the similarities between holidays and plays. Both, if good, can transport you to another place, with different people, and, in the case of plays, even to another time. Of course, both can be bad, and you wish you had never gone. But even the bad ones give you an experience to talk about and look back on.
A few years ago I directed a play about a holiday. “Men of the World” by John Godber showed a week in the life of three coach drivers, going in convoy from Sheffield to Heidelberg (and back). As you can see from the photo, the background was the route they took across Europe, with pictures of the stops en route. The play also followed their various passengers. Mostly elderly, and the sort you see everywhere; the old dear who is always late because she goes to the wrong coach, the old buffer who always knows a better way of doing things. Accurate but kindly portraits. Of course, to the drivers this was work, and happened every week. For their passengers it was a treat to be looked forward to, savoured, and reminisced about.
It may have been a week in the characters’ lives, but for the audience it was a two hour “holiday” as they joined them, got to know them, and saw them safely back home. Two hours in another place with different people, escaping from their own everyday world.
Sometimes an audience, and us when we are rehearsing, can feel too tired, and that going out to the hall or theatre is too much effort. But, like a holiday, when they (we) get there, that tiredness vanishes and they (we!) are refreshed by those two hours. Many a time that has been me, especially after a long day at work. The armchair and TV seem a much easier option then getting ready and Going Out. But I have never regretted making the effort. We are all social animals, and being part of a show, on either side of the curtain, fulfils that social need. Just as a holiday does, but with less travelling and no passports.
Roll on Summer.
Valerie Lane
chair@thorpeplayers.co.uk
