Tuesday 4th July 2006

Ballachulish

And on to Ballachulish….probably every touring company’s favourite venue….friendly welcome, beautiful scenery.
It’s also where we have our first run in with the midges!

Before that, though, we have to create an alternative to flares for the opening scene. Raiding the very helpful Hardware shop we stock up with chicken wire, paraffin and rags. Colin experiments- I watch – maybe a wee bit much paraffin first time – but he sorts it into something workable, safe but sufficiently alarming for the scene. Grand.

As we set up, I remember last year, doing the get out here was a bit of a midge-fest –will it be the same for the outdoor scenes? Oh well, we slap on every potion we’ve got with us to try to keep them at bay – so do the audience! The lady selling tickets offers a free skoosh with every ticket!

Scene 1 is fine – but they come out in force during scene 2. Through the midge cloud I can see the actors – swatting those that land – still staying in character. The audience discreetly top up their lotion throughout the scene.

Tomorrow, we’ll try incense in the fire – see if that keep them at bay.

The show goes well though – the audience is small, but appreciative. It’s not easy being up against the world cup semi-final. After tidying up and saying our goodbyes – we go to the pub – a full house and the tail end of the game. Excitement mounts because our sweep is on again. Despite nasty rumours to the contrary, no-one won – the 2-0 score was left in the hat – another roll-over.

Back at the B&B, we sit for a while in the living room. Wendy and Kenny find trivial pursuit and start to quiz us all, while true to form the tech boys discover lego and start constructing a huge complex crane –technical terms like counter balance and stability quotients start to be heard – but what I like best are the wee crane operators and their “Christmas tree”. Probably we’ve all had one beer too many!!

Morven Gregor