Sept17

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Gladys Gallivants
On a Cornwall Caper
“We have just been to the most amazing open air theatre near Penzance,“
my thespian friend waxed lyrical as she handed me a roneo machine
pamphlet. It was 1979 at an am dram rehearsal in South Africa, I read
the fascinating story of Rowena Cade and how she had carved out this
granite auditorium. Without hesitation my bucket list acquired another
goal.
Following correspondence with the organisers of the summer
programme and a bank draft by return, remember this was still the days
of snail mail, my ticket finally arrived in South Africa.
The British National Anthem boomed out from the miniature TV in
the hotel bedroom in Falmouth as Seb Coe stepped on to the podium
for the 1500 metres at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. I was on a bus
tour through Devon and Cornwall and my fellow passengers were most
intrigued at my breakaway solo expedition the following day. While they
took a cruise out of the harbour, my destination was the Minack Theatre
for the matinee of “Ring around the Moon”.
The hotel receptionist handed me a packed lunch and enquired, “Hope
you have your two garbage bags ?” Did I have to clean up after
the performance, I wondered. My puzzled look brought forth her
explanation, “ You climb into one of the bags up to your waist and slit a
hole in the other and put it over your head, thus you will stay dry during
the performance. The forecast is for a typical British summer day – rain.“
Discovering the evening before that there was to be a strike, I set off at
8am to walk to the bus station in Falmouth. “We will take a bus out
when there are enough people to justify a
trip,” was the inspector’s best assurance.
So there I sat in a lovely red double decker
in the transport shed awaiting any further
passengers wishing to go to Penzance. This
was going to be a long day.
Eleven thirty the headcount had reached an acceptable level so we
trundled out onto the road and meandered through the most picturesque
countryside, stopping wherever folk wished to alight. The driver slowed
down to ask how a lady’s son was who had chicken pox, picked up a
dozen eggs from the honesty box on the following corner and delivered
them to a cottage in the next hamlet, where an anxious woman was
waiting for them to bake her daughter’s wedding cake. I had certainly
never experienced a more social jaunt on municipal transport.
Two other travellers identified themselves as audience for the afternoon
play. We eventually arrived in the Penzance car park where a jeep was
to pick up patrons for the theatre. It was the sort of vehicle used for an
African game spotting drive but all we did was bump along a track to the
base of a final steep incline.
“You can either join the coastal foot path around the edge of the rocky
outcrop, that is if you have hiking boots. Alternatively you can scramble
up the hill, your destination is just over the brow,” was the safari driver’s
farewell and then he reversed and bounced his way back to town.
Will I be in time for the imaginary ‘curtain up ?’
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