Love to Breezy Willow Kelly who has broken her leg in a fall. We send you our best wishes Breezy, I know you will be surrounded by friends in the hill above Glenties and they will help you through this time. Your optimism and Mother Elder are there to help you along as are good wishes.
Sorry to hear of the death of Desmond Tutu this morning. 90 years of age is good going and what a story he leaves behind.
He was no stranger to Northern Ireland, on one occasion when he was attending an Archbishop’s conference in St. Anne’s Cathedral in the early 90s or thereabouts and the Ulster Television camera crew filmed the event. My husband Alan Hailes was the director and he was full of chat about Desmond Tutu, how friendly and kind he was during and after the interview, his laughter and his good humour.
He was renowned for joking, laughing, dancing and singing as well as the serious side of his character. Indeed this South African Archbishop wasn’t always popular as I read this morning.
‘Famously outspoken, even after the fall of the racist apartheid regime, Tutu never shied away from confronting South Africa’s shortcomings or injustices.
“It’s a great privilege, it’s a great honour that people think that maybe your name can make a small difference,” he told AFP shortly before his 80th birthday in 2011.
Whether taking on his church over gay rights, lobbying for Palestinian statehood or calling out South Africa’s ruling African National Congress on corruption, his high-profile campaigns were thorny and often unwelcome.
None at the top were spared — not even his close friend, late president Nelson Mandela, with whom Tutu sparred in 1994 over what he called the ANC’s “gravy train mentality”.’
CUDDLE UP AND KEEP WARM
Such a different Christmas Day for so many of us, family gatherings depleted, zoom calls and waiting to know if your one of the many to have the corona virus. Two in our family were confirmed during last week, then I was ‘pinged’ and ended up in a car park in Duncrue Street late on Christmas Eve. It was the most efficient operation you could imagine. I suppose I was fortunate that I literally did drive through no waiting at all. A lot of forms to fill in on line before hand when I was making the booking, drove there, said hello to a young man who was most pleasant, checked my ‘credentials’ and motioned me onto to lane One where this time a young woman gave me a dark blue plastic wallet and explained that I should do what the instruction told me and if I was in diffs just to flash my lights. So I drove on the car park which was being patrolled by more young people – you get the drift, these young people were standing in the rain helping people with a smile and a reassuring word and we appreciated them. So, opened the wallet, took out the instruction book and began. Not so good, I dropped the cap of the bottle to put the swab into, turned over two pages at a time and completely messed up the test, tooted my horn in a quiet ashamed manner and a girl came over. From a distance through the window I explained I’d made a pig’s ear of the whole thing could I have another kit? No, only allowed one. Oh. “But,” she smiled, “I’ll get you another swab and container.” She didn’t add be more careful this time but I could see it in her eyes and quite right too. I would recommend you put the car seat back as far as possible to give more room to manoeuvre and have the seat beside you clear of rubbish to set things out. I’ve now done two home tests and this more elaborate one and I’ve had no difficulty with any. I was scared it would hurt before the first one but not any more, the most anxious wait is for the result – half an hour for the home one and 24 hours for the Duncrue experience which thankfully was negative. I now know what it’s like to wait for the result of a pregnancy test! When it comes to your friends and family you soon realise that you’re not invincible so – wear a mask, wash your hands, carry a sanitiser and use it and keep a safe distance. This will come to an end and it’s important to avoid becoming one of the statistics who has experienced covid in any of its shapes and forms. More people don’t have it than have it and even more of us will avoid it if we use our heads. I was in Belfast on Tuesday and appalled at the lack of mask wearing in shops and that includes staff. Big signs outside but no one taking a blind bit of notice. They can’t all be exempt. Surely it’s up to the employers to call their staff together and tell them, unless they can prove they are exempt, mask wearing is necessary. If it’s impossible then they should be displaying a badge of some sort so I and those like us can avoid dealing with that person. Sounds draconian I know but we must get through this just as many of us have got through other health dramas – by literally taking our life in our hands and managing it with care and so be responsible for the health and possibly lives of others. Here endeth the lesson.
THERE’S STILL TIME.
Be aware, be very aware, they are still around us they’ve talent over theatres, town halls, indoors and outdoors and for the last weeks there has been one near you, in fact you may well have taken advantage already. Pantomime that is. Technically this is the season to be merry, not easy but the colour, the music and laughter brings joy to both children and adults and I suspect the cast, desite the dreaded Covid lurking in the wings.
I had the great pleasure of being part of a summer pantomime once so I had my one and only view from behind the footlights or is it in front of the footlights!
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I was sitting in a restaurant in University Street. My mobile rings. Ian Wilson, then publicity manager at the Opera House today chief executive, asks if I am sitting down. Yes. “Well,” he says, “We want you to be in the summer show.” OK is my reply. “Don’t you want to think about it?” No, my theory in life is it’s better to say yes than no. ‘No’ closes too many doors. So the adventure began, two weeks rehearsal in Tower Theatre Islington, two weeks in the Grand Opera House and three weeks in the Gaiety Theatre Dublin. I was the Countess and my son Danton was none other than the late Lionel Blair.
We met under a weeping willow on 12th July 1998 when amongst a dozen actors and dancers a white tornado blew into the garden. “Sorry darlings couldn’t find a parking place so I’ve abandoned the Roller on double yellow lines and a note to say I’ll move it when I can.” He signed it ‘STAR’ but he still got a ticket!
We were immediate friends and I missed his phone call yesterday morning, “Darling it’s your son, are you all right, are you happy?”
Acting Is No Joke
It requires concentration, courage and a certain ego. Opening night was a triumph, friends and family ensured I’d plenty of flowers delivered to my dressing room, Pauline my dresser was there to sooth me and make sure my crinoline was well hooked and my headdress straight. Afterwards it was over to the Crown Bar to accept the compliments, heady stuff. But then reality hits – one show, often two shows, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow for five weeks. I ‘dried’ on one occasion but Sophie Lawrence, our Beauty, saw my eyes go blank and saved the day by immediately asking a question that put me back on track.
The nerves jangle no matter who you are, rehearsals are over and for better or worse you’re on the side of the stage, you hear the murmur of the audience and then the shout, The Iron Is Up. History in action as you step into the limelight. It goes back to the day in 1837 when the limelight was first used at Covent Garden Theatre. Here I go to the encyelopedic explanation.
‘If calcium carbonate, or limestone, is heated it produces calcium oxide, also called quicklime. Limelight is produced by heating quicklime to a high temperature. When it’s heated with a flame produced by burning a combination of hydrogen and oxygen gases through a blow pipe, quicklime glows a bright white, or, in other words, becomes incandescent – this is known as limelight.’
It was used in theatres and music halls in the 1860s and 1870s for spotlighting and creating sunlight and moonlight effects. Naturally this was a dangerous procedure, Ihe audience having to cope with dangerous fumes and numerous fires were the result. In 1876, sadly 278 people died in a fire at the American Brooklyn Theatre,
Safety First
This, and many other fires, lead to safety regulations coming into place including stronger walls to prevent collapse, improved water supplies for fire fighting; the number of exits were increased and an iron fire curtain dividing the stage from the auditorium, I remember the thrill of hearing the shout: ‘The Iron’s coming in’ heralding the start of the show. The ‘curtain’, was originally made of nine tonnes of iron lined with asbestos but more often these days, as in the GOH, it’s steel and electrically operated but still referred to as The Iron.
The cast of Beauty and the Beast included Paddy Jenkins currently playing Paddy the ringmaster husband of Dame May McFettie who owns a circus and is fighting for its survival. “It’s a fantastic show, but very different this year,” he told me. “When you and I worked together there was a lot of mixing, off to the pub and parties, always fun.” Our sausage sketch with Bella Emberg and Paul Hendy was very double entendre and a letter came from a Dublin Bishop who came to see the show before bringing his young parishioners. His letter was scathing about the morals of pantomime, the wicket behaviour and sexual innuendo of Dame Dora and Loopy Louis and he was cancelling his booking and reporting us all to the Pope. Major crisis, this was awful, what to do? Eventually, at an emergency cast meeting, I had to admit I wrote the letter! Relief and a lot of laughs. No such interaction these days as Paddy confirmed.
“No, this year we are having to stay in our dressing rooms, no Green Room to relax and no front of house coming back stage for a chat and news of audience reaction.”
The way it is in December 2021 but it’s still something wonderful for cast and guests it must be for Paddy Jenkins anyway this is his 19th pantomime and he’s approaching his 1,600th performance. to pantomime players all over the country, back stage, on stage and welcoming us at the front door thank you for the fun for making the story end in happiness for the goodies and dismissal of the baddies and love for all. Now on the rundown to New Year, may the future allow pantomimes to flourish and for those providing the audiences with such memorable shows may you soon have lots of fun in Green Rooms where ever they are and where ever you are.
PS: He was talking about Poo Bear and his best friend Tigger, in the children’s story by A.A Milne!