Image by StueyB

This is the third and final instalment of the Guest Blogs from Scott McGarrick. The second one can be found here. 

Cheltenham was a much smaller space than we were used to and so spinning the bed frame around was very tight. On the flipside, however, it meant that the piece could become very intimate again and the two performances we did there felt more and more detailed from show to show. The large characters that came out in Devon also had to come to Cheltenham! Steve said in the notes after our first show that we should completely blow the audience away the following night. Almost like we’re taking the audience hostage!

And so it felt as though as soon as we got to Cheltenham we were leaving again! Straight off the back of our second show we were on our way to Derby, listening to a compilation CD of 100 Musical Hits the whole way there. If it did nothing else, it certainly passed the time, making a two hour journey feel like half an hour. We arrived at our hotel (reminiscent from the hotel in The Shining) in the early hours of the morning and went straight to bed.

The following morning we made our way to the theatre. Vocally and physically Derby was similar to Cheltenham and so during tech we found that we didn’t have to modify much. Again it was challenging in terms of spinning the bed and the amount of wing space available but we had started to get used to that by this point! Entrances and exits became a new challenge as we had to come through a curtain, entering wasn’t a problem but exiting in the dark did result in a bit of walking into walls occasionally, mainly by myself. There was less walking into walls for the second show and it seemed to go very well all round – we received a standing ovation and went backstage feeling immensely proud to be a part of this story.

Even though we have nine performances under our belt, it’s weird – it still feels as if we’ve just begun. In many ways we have. A couple of days ago we did the first of three school performances at Hurtwood House, the second is in a few days and the third in early December. After that we have a month and a bit off over Christmas and then it’s a three week run at the Brockley Jack Studio. Then the second half of the tour begins. There’s no doubt the show by our final performance will have evolved into a completely different beast from the one we just did at Hurtwood and that, I think, is the beauty of touring.

Fourth Monkey Ensemble are writing a guest blog for A Younger Theatre during their tour. Find out more at www.fourthmonkey.co.uk and @FourthMonkeyTC