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| The lovely choir with choir director Maddy in the middle |
We got fantastic write-ups including four stars from the Guardian and a full set of reviews are available here. The choir was a great group of friends, many of whom had sung in York Theatre Royal's previous community productions (the Mystery Plays and Blood and Chocolate). When not on stage, most of the choir are members of other choirs around the city, so there's a great culture of invitations: I can be sure that if I try out any choir in York, there'll be someone I know! We'll be reconvening next year for the Mystery Plays, to be held next May in the Minster for Corpus Christi.
Here are a few of my personal highlights from the show:
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| The Rocket arrives on the turntable in the Great Hall |
- Rehearsing (and later holding the cast party) in the De Grey Rooms, where my local history book tells me George Hudson held some of the fateful meetings we were portraying on stage! Some days were very hot, so we had to prop open the windows and serenade passers-by with our songs as we practised. This was the point where we realised that if we all stood up, we couldn't see choir director Maddy Hudson at all! Various adaptations took place during the tech rehearsal phase to make sure that our conductor was always visible.
- Singing a great anthem as the Rocket (yes, the actual genuine Rocket!) came into the Great Hall bearing George Stephenson about a metre from my elbow (fortunately my PTS card was not required unless any of us stepped off the choir's stand while the train was moving).
- Singing parlour songs round the piano in the Station Hall, especially "Oh Mr Porter" which we sang as the audience gathered at the end of the first act - we sang as many verses as were required while the cast danced, until George Hudson came along and put a stop to all that. I must say, I'm pleased to have that song out of my head now though!
- A few nights from the end of the show, the cast of the scene which occurred in the Ellerman steam train next to the choir stand surprised us with a little parcel of chocolate biscuits with a note to thank the choir for entertaining them with songs of navvies and railway mania every night.
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| The Jenkins family arrive in York - a scene staged in a steam train next to the choir |
- The tech rehearsals required those wearing microphones to keep talking while the sound levels were adjusted to suit. Problem was, many people had only a line or two in each scene, so we were treated to a study of how to say the same line 10 times in 10 different ways (sometimes with unintentionally hilarious effect!)
- One night we had a derailment while wheeling the remains of the train crash off stage. The four "dead bodies" had to get up and walk off while the hardworking tech crew manhandled it back into place, while the next scene continued at the other end of the stage as if nothing was happening. Both the crew and the actors were true professionals - the show must go on!
- Presenting Maddy with a big bunch of flowers and her very own song with lyrics written by a choir member (rehearsed in secret just before our final show) which she loved so much, we had to sing it again for her husband in the pub afterwards!
- Sharing the ICE's advert in the programme with my friends in the cast and choir, inviting people to explore Tomorrow's Engineers and follow in the footsteps of York's first rail engineers.
If you missed out on "In Fog", why not read my series of book reviews inspired by the York Theatre Royal?
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