re: conciliation – Groundhog Day 82

I prefer ‘Candlemass’ – itself a Christianisation of Imbolc. Here’s to the festivals of lights!

So, barring those unforeseens collectively feared as ‘Acts of God’…

We seem to have got out of last week’s pandemonium – with half of what we’d been expecting to top-up the funding for our shoestring budget, but hey! – with our hands clean! Yea! And if that leaves us maybe one string short of a well-strung pair of shoes, so be it –  Poor Theatre and proud! – and you may be pleased to know we eat no Goat’s Heads  in this soup-kitchen!

Yesterday too, we had a meeting with Annie the designer – and time inside the Cathedral, soaking up its remarkably feminine spirit, and imagining how best to perform to up to 400 people a night in there!

We’ve ended up with the same production team as in 2000, though with entirely new professional and community casts. This is not down to the fact that nobody else wanted to do it – back in early 2009 we talked first with Southwark Playhouse then London Bubble as prospective producers, only they understandably wanted to do it entirely on their terms and to their timescales. And those discussions, engaging though they were, reminded us that what we do best is DIY theatre – school of Ken Campbell and our own Halloween of Crossbones!

And when I got in touch with the people who’d somehow put on that extraordinary production for one day only back in 2000, they were all inspired to “do it again – differently – with a bit more time and money” (which we do now have, a bit!)

And, almost before we know it, here we are.

The Southwark Mysteries takes place on The Day of Judgement, an Eternity in which all ages are simultaneously present.

Annie and Sarah brainstormed the costume designs, the principle periods to which the various time-travellers relate – The Goose is late medieval, Cromwell 17th century, Satan… Victorian music hall?

See previous post (Day 83) for full details of how you can perform in The Southwark Mysteries in Southwark Cathedral.

Big Clue: community cast rehearsals begin Feb 22nd.

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