Our first staged production since lockdown and first Mikado in nine months was booked for Brighton Open Air Theatre on August 25th. We’ve performed there and been to gigs there before. It’s a lovely venue…in good weather. Performing (with social distancing) in 55mph winds, however, was rather a challenge!
We headed for East Sussex a couple of days before our performance, having secured tickets for Glyndebourne’s garden opera. We had been regularly checking weather apps, rain was forecast for the day of our performance but anything could happen in a few days!
The weather was going to be fine for Glyndebourne and we choose our picnic spot. It was breezy and I noticed items on our neighbours’ table blow over. There was a sharp shower, and we smiled at the stage director sweeping water from the stage. ‘Ha ha, welcome to the world of Opera Anywhere’, I thought!
During the performance a musician’s music blew off the stand, I smiled again…and at the internationally well-known singers having to cope with the elements and minimal staging and props, just like Opera Anywhere, except they had plush dressing rooms to retreat to.
The following day I checked the weather app many times. The good news was that now the BBC app was showing only an icon depicting one raindrop at 11am the next day instead of two, the bad news was the wind speed seemed to be increasing to 40mph + !
Perhaps I should try a different weather app, one that was more optimistic?
