2022 - a year more normal!
The year started with the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 pandemic messing up a second Winter break for many people and it took a while for people to relax into the new normal. Life seemed more like it used to be by the time I went to Yorkshire for Easter and went with Joel to Levisham station just north of Pickering to get my fix of steam trains.
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My little theatre had recently reopened (in November 2021) with the show 'mothballed' as Covid struck. With that sucessfully revived and Charley's Aunt safely disembarked from her ship from Brazil (where the nuts come from), it was time to start an new era of modern plays and different staging selected by our Programme Group of Margaret, Alex and Mary. We started 2022 with a minimalist set for a play called "How To Date a Feminist" - great fun! We slipped in a one nighter as a monologue about domestic abuse and in place of a summer show we had two nights of monologues, and dialogues between two actors, that got nine members back on the stage - some presenting their own material.
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I re-started my on-board lecturing with two cruise assignments with Fred. Olsen in May and September. Ship history took a prominent place in the year. The Yorkshire Music Festival had its third year in a marquee and I and five friends had a week on the River Thames in a motor cruiser.
Incognito Theatre
How to date a Feminist was done on a very plain set, with my lighting changing the emphasis and with colour change the identity of the space. The twist in the story was that it was the young man (brought up by his mum ( a Greenham Common protester) was the one with the most feminist and green values. His love interest was far more interested in cars and traditional, more 'mainstream' attitudes and the interplay was great fun. The next one Juno and the Paycock was set in a Dublin tenement with a most imaginative set.
Boom Bang a Bang followed in May which was about a Eurovision Party that never happened. A challenge in that script was a petrol can out on the balcony that had to explode when a stray cigarette was dropped - two powerful floodlights made it work.
The autumn saw 3 Women by Katy Brand about a grandmother, her daughter at 40 getting married for the first time and her 18 year old daughter. The husband-to-be facilitated a night in a Mayfair hotel for the three of them and the issues that came out were fascinating; it was so well written and had a lush set. The year ended with The Nativity set in the year our theatre was created by seople in 1948 clothes. I was also guest lighting designer for a production of 'Calendar Girls' at the Gatehouse Theatre near where I live in Highgate.
Thames River Cruise
Five friends and I who have known each other for years decided to abandon the canals and do a river trip for a change. Because of travel uncertainties when we booked, we chose the Thames. A company, Le Boat, that I had used in France also operate two centres on the river, so we were able to do a ‘one-way’ hire. We decided to start at Chertsey and end upriver at Benson in Oxfordshire. We had good weather (just after the Platinum Jubilee) and explored the pretty towns along the way, sometimes eating out, sometimes cooking on board. The scenery was very pleasant – even Reading looked fine from the water - and it made a great summer break that we all enjoyed tremendously.
Yorkshire Concerts
Having managed concerts in the pandemic years, we had hoped to get back into churches but we could not secure bookings at the time the season needed to be finalised, so it was a third year in the marquee. Feedback indicated that classical music in churches is so commonplace it is not regarded as special. The arrangement with tent, loos parking and picnic place made it feel like a true Festival and it was a preferred format and ticket sales showed an upswing in patronage. Weather co-operated (well no nasty storms to cause any abandonment) and this year the folk singer Sam Lee did a very different evening in the middle of the festival.
Cruise Talks & Ocean Liner Society 'Special'
Canberra Day
Another ship related event was ‘Canberra Day’ at the end of July and my best friend of 40 years, Clive, and I collaborated on four link pieces between the guest speakers. We had the last captain, a design historian, the naval architect who designed the Queen Mary 2 and the CEO of the shipyard that built her. The afternoon had talks from people who served on her. It had been a plan to celebrate 60 years since she was commissioned but Covid got in the way, so it was 60+1 and also 25 years since she retired and 40 years after she went to the Falklands.
Two Fred. Olsen cruises went to Oslo (their HQ) and on the fjord approacung the city the family has its village base. As I have the Fred. Olsen Story as one of my shipping history talks I got an assignment on a 15 night trip to the Baltic in May on the Balmoral and a one week cruise to Norway in September in their flagship. The weather was generally excellent (3 grey days on the May trip) and the September trip took me away for the mourning period of the late Queen and the funeral was relayed to the main lounge by streaming through a phone as the satellite reception was non-existent in the fjord. It was good to get back to this activity and I was pleased with the way talks went and got nice feedback.
