Handlebards, a four-strong all-male troupe, are travelling 926 miles by bike, touring their take on Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet from Glasgow to London. They are keeping a travel diary for AYT along the way…

HB 1

So here we are, sat in the beautiful Bowhill House, ready to perform our tenth show of the tour. It’s been a busy week: we began our performances last Tuesday, at the Riverside Museum in Glasgow. After two full days of rehearsal at the venue, the shows were ready (just about!), but the weather was grey and drizzly, forcing us indoors for our first Romeo and Juliet. Most of the people we met in Glasgow greeted us with: “Well it’s Glasgow… what did you expect?”. The shows went down well and we had some lovely audiences, including two young babies who kindly napped all the way through, much to the delight of their mum. On Tuesday, straight after our first show, Callum and Paul cycled from the venue to the BBC Scotland building – a five minute ride which was not so pleasant in the sheeting rain – to do an interview on the Culture Studio programme, making it back with 20 minutes to spare before the afternoon show. We had a great time at the Riverside Museum and in the lovely city of Glasgow, and prepared ourselves on Wednesday night for our first long ride – from Glasgow to Falkirk along the Forth and Clyde Canal.

And what a ride it was… The morning began with heavy rain, but that was fine – it was our first ride and we were all quite excited. On the first leg of the route we formulated a few phrases which we’d use as a geeky sort of code. It’s silly, but it works:

On, lusty gentlemen – Let’s go!

Gallop apace – Let’s go quicker!

Are we all met? – Self explanatory (and also not from one of our plays… actually from A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

Pat pat – Yes, we are all here (also from Dream)

We also named our trailer ‘Tillyvally’ (a Twelfth Night reference), and little did we know how much of a battleaxe she would turn out to be… Around halfway along our route, with the sun peeping through the clouds and the sun cream being optimistically applied, Tillyvally began her reign of terror. Tom was happily pulling her along, when a few puddles came up ahead. We each sail across them with a small bump, until Tom passes over them with a slightly larger bump, and a shout to stop. The clamp (which we had been so pleased about having acquired in our last post) had twisted and hit the spokes of his back wheel, breaking some of the spokes, stalling the wheel and shearing the derailer, leaving his bike in tatters. Sometimes pathetic fallacy is more than just a literary device, as at that point the heavens opened, too.

James (our director) offered Tom his bike so that the Bards could carry on the ride and get to the Falkirk Wheel in time for the 2:30pm show. He carried Tom’s bike back to the last town we had passed, where he had noticed there was a bike shop.

HB2

We arrived at the Wheel in good time for the show, with bikes battered and bruised but with Bards in high spirits, and immediately ran to the cafe for some food (a haggis-filled jacket potato!). James arrived around an hour later with a temporarily-fixed bike for Tom, and the shows went ahead in front of the spectacular Falkirk Wheel, which has got to be one of the strangest and most impressive feats of engineering we’ve seen so far on the tour. It’s basically a boat lift, which raises boats between the Forth and Clyde Canal (Glasgow – Falkirk) and the Union Canal (Falkirk -–Edinburgh), but operates by turning 180 degrees to do so. It’s all very interesting. While we were performing the Dawson Bike Club – a volunteer-run cycle shop in Falkirk – fixed our bikes ready for the cycle on Friday morning. We can’t believe how incredibly helpful they were, and we couldn’t have got through the week so far without their help, along with the support of the Helix (particularly Ben Williams, who organised the show for us) and the Falkirk Wheel.

Friday morning came and we set off for a ride along the Union Canal towards Lauriston Castle in Edinburgh. The day started off very grey, but as the morning went on the sun came out and hasn’t stopped shining since. This made for a lovely ride – some amazing things along the route such as a kilometre-long rough stone tunnel hewn through the side of the hill which we had to walk our bikes through, and some beautiful views. We had a lovely ride through the Dalmeny Estate in Edinburgh after a road diversion sent us that way… little did we know that it would cause a 10-mile detour. Some unhappy Bards (and a very unhappy James, suffering from a backside injury he’d gained after a small crash the day before). However, we made it to the venue just in time for the show and performed Twelfth Night to a very receptive audience, before seeking out some food.

James headed back to London on Saturday, and the Bards quietly mourned the loss of their director and surrogate mother for the week. Two shows followed that day in the glorious sunshine, and the midges descended at the end of the second show to painful and itchy effect the next morning. Don’t worry, we have placed an order of Avon Skin So Soft (which we have been assured by every Scotsman we have met is the ONLY thing that will keep away the flies) with Paul’s mum, and will be begging, borrowing and stealing a supply for the next couple of weeks until it arrives. Aside from the multiple insect bites, Lauriston Castle treated us very well and we had a fantastic time there, and we’d like to thank Mike Durnan, the steward of the Castle, for all his help and hospitality during our time there.

Sunday was our first day off of the tour, but still consisted of a 28-mile cycle (does that count as a day off?). We headed from Lauriston Castle to Roslin (where the Rosslyn Chapel is – the one that’s at the end of The Da Vinci Code). The news of Andy Murray’s Wimbledon victory carried us on through a gorgeous cycle through the Scottish Borders to Peebles. For any cyclists reading this, we highly recommend the Scots Borders area for cycling – there’s some amazing routes.

We arrived at the campsite around 7, had a barbecue and slept after a long week. A morning cycle (another fantastic one from Peebles to Selkirk) got us to Bowhill by 1pm, and so we thought we’d use this time before the show to let you know what we’ve been up to! We’d like to thank anyone who’s seen the shows already for coming along – thanks for chatting to us after the shows and sending us messages to let us know what you thought  – we love meeting and hearing from all of you!

A busy week ahead now, but let’s hope the sun stays out…