Writing for Fun
May 2016
Judgement - Jeanette Rothwell
Sally drove her car over the rough surface of the makeshift car park by the side of the old village community theatre. She grabbed her script and hurried into the Stage Door where her fellow artistes were excitedly getting into their costumes for the Dress Rehearsal.
They were about to perform a one act play by Alan Ayckbourn called 'Gosforth's Fete' described as follows:
'Publican Gosforth is running the village gala. Milly Carter announces that Gosforth has made her pregnant after a one night stand when she was feeling low, and inadvertently this is publicised over the public-address system. Milly's fiancé Stewart Stokes, who is also the Scoutmaster, becomes extremely aggravated by this news and drowns his sorrows with alcohol. The tea urn in the marquee proves to be too efficient and the tap can't be turned off much to the dismay of the Vicar. Heavy rain ensues causing chaos with the scouts. The tea eventually affects the PA system and Councillor Mrs Pearce, after the most disorganised greeting, is electrocuted by the PA system. 'Gosforth's Fete' starts like all village fetes do. However it develops into chaos and as things continue to go wrong, the play climaxes to a complete disaster.'
Sally was playing the part of Milly and dressed herself in a very unflattering jumper and skirt covered in an equally unflattering overall. Thankfully everyone knew their words but technically the play was extremely difficult to perform. A good team of technicians got to work to put things right and the whole cast were relieved to get to the end of the rehearsal.
The play was to be performed at a local Amateur Drama Festival to be held in a big theatre in a nearby town. It attracted many theatrical groups from the surrounding villages and towns. The Festival would last for 6 days, two plays per night and the awards announced at the end of the Saturday event.
The Drama Festival annual event was struggling to survive because only the host theatre received any income by way of ticket sales and the entrance fee paid by the theatre groups There was no income for the groups themselves and they had to pay out for costumes, scenery, transport, technical costs and royalties for their choice of play. They would only receive a small percentage of the ticket sales and, consequently, they all made a great effort to persuade their friends and family to attend.
However, for all the groups, the kudos of getting any sort of award for their performance was considered well worth the effort. An experienced Actor or Qualified Drama Teacher was hired for the week to judge the performances.
'Gosforth's Fete' was to be performed on the Wednesday evening. The whole cast and back stage staff were on edge. They were only given a short time (the theatre's stage manager with a stop watch) to set up their scenery and props. Sally peeped through the curtain and spotted her husband, Tim, in the audience. He had been very supportive during the rehearsals and had patiently helped her to learn her words, etc.
'Beginners please,' came through the dressing room tannoy. A deep breath, 'Break a Leg', hugs etc. and the play began. Much to the cast's amazement, it went extremely well. The tea urn almost ran out of tea and the actor playing the Vicar pretended to carry on putting cups underneath the tap, Councillor Mrs Pearce had to come in from the rain covered in mud and soaked through and Sally had to bite her lip not to laugh at her appearance. Her wronged fiancé went over the top a bit with his drunken scene, but the audience laughed loudly and applauded enthusiastically at the end.
Then came the judgement. The Judge was a large theatrical lady wearing a suit that was well past its sell by date. She wore strong colours, plus a floaty scarf, dangling earrings, and spectacles on a chain around her neck. While delivering her notes the scarf, earrings and spectacles frequently became entwined and had to be disentangled, her brown, grey streaked hair was untidily swept up into a bun but her exaggerated arm and head movements caused the bun to slowly descend much to the audience's fascination. She had a voice that could have filled the Royal Albert Hall.
However, she seemed to like the play. Congratulated the Director on tackling such a difficult piece, felt that the sound of the rain on the tent roof had been too loud, the Scoutmaster's drunken performance was rather over the top. She felt that technically it had been a triumph and ended by saying 'well done' to the cast. Although she did say that to all the casts.
Saturday arrived. Two more plays were performed. The audience was sent out so that the stage could be set up for the awards. This would consist of the various trophies being attractively set out, and the local dignitaries comfortably sat on the stage, including the Mayor.
The Best Play went to a group who had performed what a lot of drama festival actors referred to as a 'Pot hunter'. It had been a very intense, wordy, deeply meaningful play which only a few really understood. However, 'Gosforth's Fete' received the Best Comedy award and Sally was given the Best Supporting Actress award. This consisted of a silver cup hardly bigger than an egg cup, but to Sally it was like winning the World Cup and she was ecstatic. In the bar later, there was a lot of Prosecco and sparkling wine on offer. Tim brought her over a glass but she put it down on a nearby table and pulled him to one side.
'I am nowhere near a PA system at the moment, so for the moment please keep this to yourself, but I've taken the test and I'm pleased to say as well as the role I played, I'm also pregnant.'
She wished she could have taken a photo of Tim's face; he was obviously over the moon and gave her a big hug as the Director walked towards them with a bottle of wine.
'Hey Tim, don't make a fuss of her. The next thing you know she will want a star on her dressing room door!' warned the Director.