Time & Again Theatre Company History

Put That Light Out – Behind the Episode

Continuing our series of blogs called ‘Behind the Episode’. Our resident aviation expert, Kirsty, will be looking further into the real history threaded throughout our audio drama, particularly the aircraft featured in each episode.

“Put that light out! Put that light out! an enemy plane could see that fire for miles.”
With these caustically delivered words ARP Warden Hodges angrily berated Captain Mainwaring, whose platoon had inadvertently set fire to the church hall chimney, ironically whilst trying to help the wardens. It was a refrain that was to become all to familiar to fans of Dad’s Army, whilst Warden Hodges zealously went about his duty to ensure that not a chink of light was visible in the environs of Walmington-on-Sea in the hours after dark. And it would have been a not dissimilar scene acted out every night throughout Britain in the dark, dark years of WWII.

The Government actually imposed a total blackout throughout the United Kingdom on 1st September 1939, two days before hostilities were declared. As Warden Hodges had touched upon above, the aim was to deprive enemy bombers of anything that might provide an aid to navigation. All households were issued with blackout materials and were required to ensure that all windows and skylights were blanked out after sunset. Typically, thick dark cotton fabric, wooden boards or paint were used to comply with the regulations, with many offices or households fashioning blinds that could be quickly set up and fastened in place.

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To stop light flooding out when one entered a shop, storekeepers were often obliged to install double doors, customers having to ensure that they had closed one door before opening the next. It was a similar situation at cinemas where, because it was so dark at the pay kiosk, seasoned film goers would invariably arrive with the exact fee already counted out. When outside, people were forbidden to smoke, strike matches or use a torch or any other form of light. Needless to say, the lighting of fires was also prohibited.

Initially all streetlights were switched off and cars were only allowed to drive using sidelights. Not surprisingly, in the first few months of the war, the number of road deaths doubled, forcing the authorities to relax some of the regulations. Cars were permitted to drive on dipped headlights but had to be fitted with slit masks, indicators and brake lights had to be dimmed and reversing lights were banned. To make the cars easier to be seen, bumpers and running boards were required to be painted with matt white paint. To assist nocturnal drivers in finding their way about, white lines were painted down the centre of roads and curbs were painted white.
The death toll on the roads continued to be high, forcing the government to reduce the night-time speed limit to 20mph. Pedestrians were warned to keep away from the edge of the pavement and where possible to only cross the road at a proper crossing. Men were encouraged to wear light coloured shirts and keep their shirttails outside of their trousers to aid visibility.

Trains were also completely blacked out to such an extent that it was not always possible to detect the arrival of a train at a platform. With stations in complete darkness, passengers frequently disembarked at the wrong location or even got out at no station at all. Like street curbs, the edges of station platforms were painted white, but the blackout resulted in many accidents.

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It was officially recognised that the dark conditions made young girls and women particularly vulnerable and they were cautioned to take extra care and where possible, avoid being out on their own. Needless to say, the blackout served the criminal fraternity well, with households being particularly vulnerable due to Air Raid regulations. These required all doors to be left unlocked at night so that if a house was bombed rescuers could gain easy access to deal with casualties.

The task of enforcing the rigorous blackout regulations was entrusted to ARP Wardens, like Shuttlefield’s Mr Martin. The Air Raid Wardens Service was established in 1937 when the call had gone out for 800,000 volunteers. Such was the growth in the threat, however, that by the start of the War some 1,000,500 people were involved in ARP services.

Typically, a warden would be allocated to each street and would conduct continuous rounds to ensure that all statutes were being rigorously observed. They were not afraid to angrily identify any household in violation of the rules, so that neighbours were left in no doubt as to who had put their lives at risk. “No. 7, put that light out!”
Those flouting the regulations could expect to face the full force of the law, a stiff fine being the normal penalty. In addition to these duties Wardens were expected to keep a watch out for incendiary bombs and assist with the aftermath of air raids. Such duties included clearing streets where there were unexploded bombs, assisting with the evacuation of casualties from bomb damaged properties, finding temporary accommodation for displaced persons and coordinating the activities of the rescue services. These were dangerous duties and during the War at least 7,000 Wardens lost their lives.

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As to whether the blackout worked, historians now argue that this is unlikely as aircraft were able to navigate by focusing on things like railways, major roads and the reflection off large bodies of water. What it did do, however, was to instil in the civilian population a common purpose and a rule structure that enabled them to cope with privations of that grim time.

Time & Again Theatre Company History

The Spitfire Fund: An early take on Crowd Funding – Behind the Episode

Continuing our series of blogs called ‘Behind the Episode’. Our resident aviation expert, Kirsty, will be looking further into the real history threaded throughout our audio drama, particularly the aircraft featured in each episode.

One could be forgiven for thinking that the idea of crowd funding is a relatively recent phenomenon. In fact, it is a concept that has been successfully employed for many centuries to raise money for projects that might otherwise not have seen the light of day. Amongst other things, crowd funding has been used to aid the publication of books, to fund music and the arts, to pay for worthy civic projects such as the plinth for the Statue of Liberty and by the use of War Bonds, even to finance military conflict. And it was an idea that was to be used to great effect when, in May 1940, Lord Beaverbrook was appointed Minister for Aircraft Production.

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Photography by Tom Barker

Still reeling from the aftereffects of the First World War and the Great Depression, Britain was in a poor financial state as, for the second time in a generation, it embarked upon war with Germany. Fiscal constraints had left its armed forces ill prepared and ill equipped to take on the massive demands now being placed upon them. The Royal Air Force had been particularly hard hit, a lack of funds for new equipment forcing it to retain many obsolete aircraft in frontline service. The Luftwaffe, on the other hand, had enjoyed massive investment and had been able to gain invaluable combat experience by its involvement in the Spanish Civil War.

The no-nonsense, bombastic management style of Canadian media tycoon Lord Beaverbrook was exactly what was needed to ramp up aircraft production. Immediately upon his appointment he set about cutting through red-tape and streamlining working practices in order to derive the maximum efficiency from the factories. Many existing managers were dismissed and replaced by foreman and engineers recruited directly from the shop floor. At the end of his first week in office he broadcast an appeal to all aircraft factory workers to accept new rotas which called on them to work both day and night shifts on a seven-day week. He also appealed for redundant garage workers to come forward and join the cause. These actions had the desired effect and within several months monthly production had increased by 200 aircraft. Air Chief Marshall Sir Hugh Dowding, head of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, would later comment that these extra fighters were the difference between victory and defeat.

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Photography by Tom Barker

The British public had taken the Spitfire to their hearts from the outset and as war ramped up there were numerous unsolicited enquiries as to how additional aircraft might be financed. Lord Beaverbrook was not slow to recognise that a Government endorsed fund-raising scheme would be a great way to both raise morale and unite the public in a common cause. Thus, the rallying cry went out and the Spitfire Fund was born.

Government Propaganda set the tone; posters adorned with slogans such as “A Spitfire a day keeps the Nazis away”. It also became the custom to inscribe the engine cowlings of aircraft so financed with names chosen by the benefactors, the inscriptions being in 4″ yellow lettering. Whilst most names would reference the village or town who had raised the funds, various sponsoring companies or organisations gave rise to some ingenious names. Woolworths, with their policy of nothing in store costing more than 6d (2 ½ p in today’s money), raised funds for two Spitfires; “Nix Six Primus” and “Nix Six Secundus” whilst the Kennel Club had “The Dog Fighter” (Mrs Holt would be pleased!)

Anxious not to price the aircraft beyond the reach of most respective fund-raisers, Beaverbrook listed the cost of a Spitfire as being £5,000. In reality, the actual cost was closer to £12,000. It is a problem that Katherine Winters touches upon in a conversation with her sister Ruby:
“Cost of fuselage, two thousand five hundred pounds; cost of engine, two thousand pounds; wings, one thousand eight hundred; undercarriage, eight hundred; guns, eight hundred; tail, five hundred – Propeller, three hundred and fifty; petrol tank (top), forty pounds; petrol tank (bottom), twenty five pounds; oil tank, twenty five pounds; compass, five pounds; clock, two pounds, ten shillings; thermometer, one pound, one shilling; sparking plug, eight shillings – So even if we raise the grand total of, what was it – one hundred pounds? We can donate just under one third of a propeller”.
Fortunately, most fund-raisers did not break it down in these terms and were quite unfazed by the challenge.

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Photography by Tom Barker

The call had gone out to individuals, towns and businesses alike and many came up with ingenious ways to fund their own Spitfire. In the Wiltshire village of Market Lavington a life size silhouette of a Spitfire was painted in the square and residents were challenged to fill it with coins, a task that was completed in a matter of days. Numerous raffles and sponsored events were held throughout the country with local communities outbidding each other in their attempts to raise the most. Many campaigns were backed by the local newspaper, a fund launched by the Midland Daily Telegraph on 5th July 1940 raising £18,000 in just three weeks, enough to pay for three Spitfire Mk. IIa aircraft. The first of these, christened “City of Coventry I” would serve throughout the war before succumbing to the scrap man in 1946. The other two, “City of Coventry II” and “City of Coventry III” would be less fortunate and would be written off when they collided with each other over Edenbridge on 28th November 1940, sadly claiming the life of one of the pilots.

As to the success of the scheme, depending on whose figures you believe, enough money was generated to pay for approximately 2,600 aircraft, although all donations would have gone into a common government pot rather than paying for a specific Spitfire. It is questionable whether it made any difference to the outcome of the war but it undoubtedly did much to unite the nation in their hour of greatest need.

Time & Again Theatre Company History

The Luftwaffe – Behind the Episode

Continuing our series of blogs called ‘Behind the Episode’. Our resident aviation expert, Kirsty, will be looking further into the real history threaded throughout our audio drama, particularly the aircraft featured in each episode.

‘It was definitely a Heinkel. That girl said so.’ – Nancy in Episode Two ‘The Wooden O‘.

Even those with only a passing knowledge of the Second World War, will have heard something of the allied bombing campaign. They might be familiar with the Thousand Bomber raids, and the devastating attacks on cities like Dresden and Cologne and they will almost certainly of heard of the exploits of Guy Gibson and the legendary Dambusters who wrought havoc on the dams of the Ruhr Valley. Most will also be aware of the instruments used to reap this “Whirlwind”; aircraft like the Wellington, the Halifax and most famous of all, the Lancaster.

But what of the Luftwaffe? Whilst everyone knows about the Blitz and the havoc that was wrought on London from the autumn of 1940, many will be less familiar with the actual extent of the campaign or of the aircraft used to deliver this terror. Films like “The Battle of Britain” present the argument that Hitler switched his strike force from bombing the vulnerable RAF airfields, to attacks on London because he was incensed by an audacious RAF attack on the German capital. Whatever the reason, diverting his bombers to London was to prove costly, the Messerschmitt 109 fighters lacking the endurance to provide escort to the target, so leaving them easy prey to the Spitfires and Hurricanes of Leigh-Mallory’s “Big Wing”. The Luftwaffe would pay the ultimate price and the Battle of Britain would be lost. With his plans for an invasion now stalled until the following spring, Hitler sought to break English morale by bombing them into submission.

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‘Junkers Ju 88’ – Photo by the German Federal Archive https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en

Far from being confined to London, the Blitz would extend nationwide with raids on, Southampton, Portsmouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Plymouth, Swansea, Birmingham, Coventry, Manchester, Liverpool, Hull and Belfast. North of the border, what would become known as the “Clydebank Blitz”, would see particularly devastating raids on the West Dunbartonshire town.

On the night of 13th March 1941, a force of 236 Heinkel He.111H and Junkers Ju 88 medium bombers took advantage of a full moon to rain down terror on the unsuspecting populace. The first sirens sounded shortly after 9 pm, but the townsfolk paid little heed suspecting it was another false alarm. It was then that the first Pathfinder wave led by the He.111H aircraft of 100 Kampfgruppe duly arrived unleashing incendiaries and high-explosive bombs. The intended targets were the Admiralty Oil Depot, the Royal Ordnance Factory, John Brown’s Shipyard, the Singer Complex, which had been pressed into service as a munition’s factory, and the surrounding railways and infrastructure.

The RAF had introduced a new defence plan called Operation Fighter Night which called for the Spitfires of 602 Squadron, operating from nearby Prestwick, to assemble at 20,000 feet so that they could pick off the bombers without getting entangled with anti-aircraft fire. The bombers, however, had other ideas and had decided to take their chances with the “ack-ack” and fly low-level. The RAF pilots were refused permission to descend by Fight Control and as a result the defence plan proved worthless, not a single bomber being downed.

At midnight a second wave of German bombers arrived from the direction of Loch Lomond by which time the town’s civil defences were struggling to cope. At 2am just as the anti-aircraft guns were running out of ammunition the final aircraft in the second wave headed for home. An hour later the third wave arrived, and the endless night of hell continued. It would be shortly before 6am that the last of the night’s attackers headed home and the all-clear could sound.

The following night a further 203 bombers returned to unleash further torment on an already shell-shocked population. The final all-clear sounded on the morning of Saturday 15th March at 6:25am. During the two nights over 1,000 bombs had rained down, whilst the Luftwaffe had escaped unscathed. As most of the housing was located adjacent to the targets it had borne the brunt of the damage and out of an estimated 12,000 houses only 8 remained undamaged. At least 1,200 people lost their lives in the raids and another 1,000 were seriously injured. Over 35,000 were left homeless and many were forced to evacuate the town. Many of these would never return and thus the character of this close community was forever changed.

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‘Captured Heinkel He 111 at Celone 1944’ – Photo by the Australian War Memorial

 

Raids like this and indeed all such operations flown during the Blitz were achieved using a force of medium bombers, most typically the Heinkel He 111 or Junkers Ju88. The Heinkel He 111 could carry a bomb load of 4,400 lbs in the bomb-bay, a payload that could be increased to 7,900 lbs if the bombs were carried externally. This did, however, come with a significant reduction in performance. Compare this to the Avro Lancaster that was able to carry a bomb load of up to 18,000 lbs.
Germany had built its entire pre-war strategy on fighting a Blitzkrieg style campaign. As a result, despite repeated pleas from various experts, it had failed to develop a successful strategic bomber, instead concentrating on medium bombers and small dive bombers such as the Junkers Ju.87 Stuka. It was an error that was to cost the Reich dearly once it launched it’s attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941. With Barbarossa underway, much of the Luftwaffe’s bomber strength was diverted to the Soviet campaign, thus allowing the United Kingdom some respite before the onset of the V-Bombs. During this period the RAF by night and the USAAF Eighth Air Force by day pursued a highly organised and coordinated bombing campaign that would eventually render Germany incapable of mounting offensive operations.

So, when Katherine Winters listened to the bombers flying overhead, she would have indeed heard the sound of Heinkel He.111 aircraft. Rather than being bound for Glasgow, however, their targets were more likely to have been in the Midlands, raids on Scotland generally originating from Northern Europe.

Time & Again Theatre Company History

Sigh for a Merlin – Behind the Episode

To accompany our new audio drama, we’re starting a series of blogs called ‘Behind the Episode’. Our resident aviation expert, Kirsty, will be looking further into the real history threaded throughout our story, particularly the aircraft featured in each episode.

As Katherine Winters sits atop her lofty perch gazing out over the flightpath at Duxford, she is treated to the distinctive growl of a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine as a Spitfire passes directly overhead. It is a sound that, with the passing of time, has become forever synonymous with the brave exploits of “The Few” during the Battle of Britain. Katherine’s hawk-like vision identifies the aircraft as being K9942, a Spitfire Mk. 1 that did indeed see service during England’s finest hour. By placing it in the Cambridgeshire skies the following Spring, however, author Laura Crow has had to rely on just a little artistic licence.

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Time & Again with K9942 on Armed Forces Day 2019

After making its first flight from Eastleigh in April 1939 in the capable hands of Supermarine Test-Pilot George Pickering, the operational career of K9942 was to be relatively brief. Nonetheless, it’s front-line service would see it involved in one of the most momentous events of WWII.

It was initially assigned to 72 Squadron at Church Fenton who were in the process of converting from the Gloster Gladiator, the last biplane fighter to see service with the RAF. In the first few months it was regularly flown by Flying Officer James Nicholson who would subsequently have the distinction of being the only person from Fighter Command to be awarded the Victoria Cross. That winter was the period that has become known as “The Phoney War” and although regular patrols were flown from either Church Fenton or Leconfield, log entries invariably report that “No Enemy Aircraft were sighted”.

Operational sorties flown in the early part of 1940 largely consisted of Convoy Patrols, but on 1st June, 72 Squadron was suddenly thrust into the limelight when it relocated to Gravesend to supply support for Operation Dynamo. In what has become known as the “Miracle of Dunkirk”, during an eight-day period, 338, 226 allied troops were successfully rescued from the beach by a hastily assembled armada of naval vessels and civilian boats. The 12 aircraft from 72 Squadron were in the thick of it and on 2nd June, whilst flying with 5 aircraft from 609 Squadron, engaged 5 enemy aircraft, with two confirmed kills.
Weather played havoc on 4th June and K9942, whilst returning from another sortie over Dunkirk, was obliged to make a forced landing at a farm near Lewes when it ran out of fuel. Worse was to come the following day when having sustained damage during a patrol over Dungeness, the aircraft made a wheels-up landing at Gravesend. The Spitfire could not be repaired on-site and so was transported to Hanworth Air Park for attention by General Aircraft.  The brief operational career of K9942 was at an end.

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Time & Again with K9942 on Armed Forces Day 2019

By this time the Spitfire Mk. 1 was giving way in front-line service to more advanced models. Thus, after a successful rebuild, K9942 was assigned to No.7 OTU (Operational Training Unit) at Hawarden near Chester, where an observant Katherine Winters might have noticed that it was given the Squadron Code of LV-C. By December 1940, No.7 OTU had been renumbered No.57 OTU. The Unit specialised in Spitfire training and in the Summer of 1940 some 58 aircraft were on strength. Training Courses were typically a mere two weeks in duration, primarily concentrating on type conversion. Therefore, K9942 would have spent most of its time pounding the circuit at Hawarden and it’s extremely unlikely, that with its limited fuel endurance, it would have ventured as far south as Duxford.

So why did the author elect to include this specific Spitfire in her storyline?

K9942 was to prove a real survivor. During a busy career it was to suffer quite serious damage on several further occasions, but each time the aircraft was patched up at a Maintenance Unit and returned to its vital training role. In August 1944, being an aircraft of Battle of Britain vintage, an Air Historical Branch initiative called for its retention as a future museum exhibit.

The next 30 years would see it appear at a succession of Battle of Britain Days and air-shows around the country before, in November 1971, it joined the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon as the oldest extant Spitfire. Here it would be restored to its former 72 Squadron markings, but with the Code SD-V.

In October 1997 the aircraft was transported to the Medway Aircraft Preservation Society to undergo a full rebuild. During the restoration process it was discovered that, a bit like the hammer analogy, the aircraft had been fitted with new wings after one or more of its landing accidents. The restoration process sought to strip the aircraft of the many modifications that it had received throughout its career so that it was returned to a fully authentic 1939 Spitfire Mk. 1.

With the work complete the aircraft was officially donated by the Ministry of Defence to the Royal Air Force Museum.  Initially the aircraft returned to Hendon, but having been replaced on display by Spitfire Vb BL614, in November 2002 it was transferred to the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, where it remains to this day, now with the correct Squadron Code of SD-D. And it was whilst performing at this location in June 2019 that Time & Again Theatre Company was given access to take photographs and chat to visitors in front of the plane, in between performances on Armed Forces Day. Thus K9942 truly became “The Greyhounds Spitfire”.

 

 

Time & Again Theatre Company Casting Call, Rural Touring

Casting Announced for Greyhounds A/W 2019 Tour

Time & Again are incredibly excited to welcome five new company members! They’ll be joining us in heading back to the 1940s and performing in Greyhounds for our Autumn/Winter 2019 tour!

Greyhounds will be coming to Sheffield 9th – 12th October and Cambridge 9th & 16th November, with more dates to be added soon. You can book tickets here and here!

From left:
Samantha Vaughan – Ruby Winters
Katherine Reynolds  – Katherine Winters
Adam Martin-Brooks – Will Croft
Kendal Boardman – Nancy Wilde
Ben Hynes – Edward Holmes

We’re really excited to welcome to our new members to the company and to see them bring this story to life once again for brand new audiences.

Written by Laura Crow, Greyhounds entwines Shakespeare’s famous story of ‘warlike Harry’ with the everyday trials and tribulations of small village life during World War Two. Whilst the war rages above them, the residents of Shuttlefield village struggle to stage a production of Henry V to raise money for their local Spitfire fund.

The original cast, from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018 run of Greyhounds, will also be performing for two nights of the tour.


From left:
Catherine Cowdrey – Ruby Winters
Laura Crow – Katherine Winters
Jacob Taylor – Will Croft
Fiona Primrose – Nancy Wilde
Tim Cooper – Edward Holmes

Greyhounds AW 2019 Touring Poster

Time & Again Theatre Company Rural Touring

Rural Touring in Kent & East Sussex!

For the past month Time & Again have had a wonderful time performing our show, Greyhounds, for rural communities in Kent & East Sussex, in association with Applause Rural Touring! This was our first experience of rural touring and life on the road, and it couldn’t have been more fun! We loved getting the chance to perform Greyhounds in actual village halls as the first act of the show is based in the fictitious Shuttlefield Village Hall so it leant itself perfectly to small local venues.

We were very excited to hit the road in our trusty VW Crew Van!

During our first leg of shows we were based in the lovely town of Tonbridge, near Tunbridge Wells. Our apartment was really nice and just a stone’s throw from the ruins of a castle (how great is that?) We explored Tonbridge during our time off, visiting a cat cafe for hot chocolate with some feline friends and having drinks in local pub The Humphrey Bean! We even managed to make it over to Tunbridge Wells for a wander along the Pantiles.

Kent gives the perfect G&T based advice…

Our shows were at Blackham Village Hall, Crowhurst Village Hall, Bredhurst Village Hall and Shoreham Village Hall (which was also near the Shoreham Air Museum. Obviously we had to drop in for a cup of tea and chat with the museum’s owner Geoff!) All the promoters made us feel very welcome, providing us with copious cups of tea and biscuits, and even a full picnic lunch.

Give us food and we’re happy. We like food.

It’s been really interesting having to adapt the show to different spaces and stages, with the entrances and exits all in different places. We’ve also become very quick at packing and unpacking all of our set into the back of the van! We also felt very proud of ourselves for cooking up a good meal before each of the shows (#adulting)!

Shoreham had pictures in the village hall from their VE Day parade!

We’ve just finished our final show at the 1000-year-old Allsaints Church in Allhallows. It was a wonderful way to end the tour. We got so many feedback cards filled in with wonderful comments and the promoters even bought us fish and chips for dinner!

We got to visit some really beautiful locations.

We’ve had so much fun on the road, a lot of laughs and hi-jinks, and it was amazing to perform our show to such friendly, engaged audiences. Thank you so much to Applause Rural Touring for organising everything – we hope you’ll have us back again soon! We’d love to return to Kent and East Sussex next year with brand new show Clouds!

Time & Again Theatre Company Edinburgh Reviews

Reviews from the Home Front – Dulce Et Decorum Est: The Unknown Soldiers

Dulce Et Decorum Est: The Unknown Soldiers by Polymorph Theatre was a captivating two-person historical drama performed at theSpace Triplex. The year is 1941, two strangers are united as they take shelter from an air raid. Tommy is a World War One veteran; haunted by his past as he saw the rest of his regiment wiped out in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Ellen, a young American woman, is awaiting word of her fiancé who has gone to war. They confide in each other in this confined space, sharing their stories and slowly realising that they may have more of a connection than they thought.

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The premise of the play piqued our interest, rocketing the show to the top of our illustrious ‘shows to see’ board before we even realised we were next-door neighbours as well as WW2-show-buddies! The interweaving stories of the two World Wars is something we’ve not seen explored in any other play here at Edinburgh Fringe. It was a really interesting to hear the two experiences compared and contrasted and the characters’ perspectives on the other’s experiences.

Emilie Maybank (Ellen) did a wonderful job of capturing and portraying the feeling of being the one left behind and the agony of not knowing the fate of a loved one. Meanwhile, Jan van der Black gave a powerful and emotional performance as Tommy. Particularly poignant was his tale of going over the top with his pals at the Somme. You could truly believe that he had been there and seen the horrors of war.

The theatre space lent itself well to the setting of a make-shift shelter, with its low ceiling and intimate seating. The set design was simple yet effective, with period appropriate props pulled out of an up-turned vintage tea chest (almost identical to the one tucked away in our Greyhounds set!).

I’d be really interested in seeing more work from Polymorph Theatre in the future as Dulce Et Decorum Est: The Unknown Soldiers was such an evocative piece of historical theatre with beautiful detail. Jolly good show chaps!

Time & Again Theatre Company Edinburgh Diary

Letters from the Home Front – Edinburgh Diary Day 10

Friday 10th August 2018

Friday dawned bright and clear. Possibly. We’ve been here for so long that we’ve lost all track of the concept of time and each day goes in a second, but also takes an eternity, and we can’t remember one from the next. However, I do remember this…

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We split off into two contingents: Jac, Paul, Fiona and Catherine went to watch Italia Conti’s The Dark Philosopher, who were performing at a fellow space venue, whilst Tim and I headed into town to sort out some admin. As the others were enjoying the play, we visited the printers to collect more posters and pull quotes. Whilst we waited we couldn’t resist popping up the road to our favourite shortbread shop to have a cheeky biscuit to keep us going (hazelnut and dark chocolate – yes please).

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We reconvened for lunch – big bowls of pasta and plates of pizza at Bella Italia, conveniently located right outside our venue. It was our final meal with Jacob (for the time being anyway) as he was leaving us to go gallivanting back to Crewe (in aid of the war effort of course). How would we cope? Who knows? Probably not very well.

We made our way to Princes Street to flyer outside the Virgin Money Half-Price Hut. 10 half price tickets were up for grabs! It was rather splendid to see our name in lights, up on the big screen. Definitely check out the Hut each day as it’s a great place to nab discount tickets to some really great shows (and I don’t just mean ours here, I’m being genuine. Really I am.) Whilst flyering, our eyes were drawn to the splendid market stalls that surrounded the National Gallery. Some marvellous insect brooches and Fringe inspired tote bags were particularly tempting.

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Afterwards we trooped back to the Royal Mile and did a spot of singing. The crowds seem to be drawn to the dulcet tones of Glenn Miller and the Andrew Sisters like a flock of seagulls to our bedroom window at 4am. They love it.

Then something very exciting happened. A new member of the company arrived in the land of Bagpipes; Anthony had arrived to take over the role of Will. He’d be filling in for the next two shows and we were delighted. To herald his grand arrival the heavens opened. Thank you weather. Love you.

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He swung by the apartment to catch up on some alterations we’ve made to the show and to collect his costume. Before he knew it, he was stood in a multi-storey car park space warming up like a professional. And then it was time for the show! Anthony hadn’t run through the show for over two weeks and yet he was word perfect and did us all proud.

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To celebrate, we decided to head to a Victorian séance at midnight. It was part of the Free Fringe. We collected Fiona from the Pleasance on the way. She’d gone for a few drinks with her friends and happened to see Dara O’Brien but was too shy to make contact. Better luck next time, Fiona.

The séance was an interesting hour where we were promised that the spirits would be crossing the veil tonight. They didn’t. But Catherine did have to go to the front and check that the rope was legitimate. To settle our nerves, we indulged in a little bottle of wine or two afterwards. Purely medicinal.

Night, night,
Laura (Katherine Winters)

Time & Again Theatre Company Edinburgh Reviews, Uncategorized

Reviews from the Home Front – I, Sniper

I, Sniper tells the true story of soviet sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, deemed one of the deadliest female snipers in history. Plucked from obscurity as a teenage mother, she joins the red army and fights to take on the traditionally male task. This was an aspect of World War II history none of us knew very informed upon so we were interested to find out more from the Scotland-based student group from Acting Coach Scotland…

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The play opens in a powerful fashion, with rows of young women marching in military uniform and responding to the barks of their commander in Russian. This instantly sets the evocative tone of the piece and establishes its context in a very clear way.

The story is told in a candid diary-like style, drawing the audience into her story. This clues us into her thoughts, feelings and emotions throughout her wartime journey, helping to ensure that the character of Pavlichenko is sufficiently humanised. The lead role is passed amongst the predominantly female ensemble cast, with each actor’s portrayal impressively as strong as the next. They use the clever device of pinning a military medal on and tucking their hat into their belt so that the audience is left in no doubt as to who is portraying Pavlichenko at present.

This is a very slick and well-rehearsed production which totally hits the target. Coming out of the production, I felt well-informed about an aspect of history I’d never explored before and like I wanted to research more myself. An impressive feat for the production indeed!

Time & Again Theatre Company Uncategorized

Letters from the Home Front -Edinburgh Diary Day 8

Wednesday 8th August 2018

Another day, another review waiting for us when we opened out eyes  – this time from The List! And what’s more another amazing 4 stars! We’re getting spoilt by the morning reviews rolling in. It’ll go to our heads. No really, it will.

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Fiona was out bright and early to catch her parents (devout and loyal Greyhounds fans) for coffee before they left our adopted Scottish homeland. The rest of us were rather slower on the wake up and departed midmorning after a leisurely munch of Cheerios and Wheetabix (other brands are available.)

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We decided that today would be the day we went to the Elephant House – the birthplace of Harry Potter. J K Rowling used to write there when she first moved to Edinburgh and the toilets are now a dedicated graffiti shrine. It’s a place of pilgrimage for any Potter fan.  I can also highly recommend their Hazelnut and Nutella cake which I nibbled (lol, wolfed down) alongside a big cup of coffee. We also had a wander around some of Edinburgh’s finest vintage shops, including the National Museum of Scotland, where we made a couple of new friends…

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Due to a stroke of good fortune (and someone else not showing up) we were able to perform another round of rousing 40s close-harmony tunes on the Street Stage. The crowds gathered again – singing really does seem to be like a magnet to crowds of people – and the boys flyered to their heart’s content as the girls warbled away.

Being a kind and generous person of the highest degree, I whipped up a big bowl of pasta for everyone to devour for din dins. We ate early so we could get back to the Mile in time to catch Mission: Her, a show written to remind those with mental health issues that they are not alone. “Her is twentysomething, she has a five-year plan in place but life events put a spanner in the works. As Her begins to drown in the pressures of past and present society, her friends go on a mission to help.” It was a sharp and thought provoking performance with well integrated tech and effects to highlight the looming presence of social media.

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We finished in perfect time to hit our empty car park space for the nightly warm up and prepare ourselves for the the show (recentre ourselves so we didn’t disturb our creative energy – thanks Ruby). The performance seemed to go well again. We’re getting very quick at setting up and packing down our WW2 set: folding chairs, moving tables, sticking up posters.

After drinks and a catch up with some of Tim’s friends, we headed back to the apartment for our beauty sleep. Now proud owners of Ridercards, we can bus back and forth to our heart’s desire. Just watch us go.

Goodnight folks,
Laura (Katherine Winters)