24th July 2024
Having been booked for 6.5 months, July 24th finally arrived, and 12 DonMoggers assembled on the picnic lawn at Kilworth House just after midday for their picnics and chat before the performance that started at 2.30. Previous years had seen heat waves (last year when an audience member had to be treated by the paramedics), downpours (when the picnic had to be abandoned in favour of a pub carvery), and a range of years when cloud and sun resulted in varying temperatures. Happily, this year was neither a wash out or a heat wave, although my checking of the weather forecast on Monday and giving the go ahead for the picnic nearly came a cropper when we felt spots of rain just as we were finishing lunch and getting ready to move down to the auditorium, but happily it stayed off and we made our way into the auditorium totally dry.
The auditorium at Kilworth has covered seating and the stage is covered, so that you get the feel of the open-air theatre experience, but you have the benefit of undercover fixed tiered seating, and unlike some other open-air theatres that I go to the stage is also undercover so the actors don’t get wet either! We were sitting about 2/3rds of the way up the seating block, which proved very fortuitous when we got to the title song – Singing in the Rain – with rain coming down from the level of the high stage lights, the people sitting in the front few rows seemed to be a bit damp afterwards.
Many of you will have seen the classic black and white movie Singing in the Rain with Gene Kelly, and this West End quality performance did it proud, in fact we all commented that we thought it had probably been the best performance we had seen since we’ve been going to Kilworth in what has now become our annual trip. Set in 1927 Hollywood in the era of silent movies just as they are moving into
he ‘talkies’, the set, the acting, the singing and the orchestra / music were all excellent.
It was great to see Dick and Carolyn Steele and Mike and Sally Mackay again joining us regular Kilworth fans for a second time – they had enjoyed it so much in 2023.
If you enjoy theatre and like and excuse for picnic in the summer keep your eyes open for the adverts for next year’s trip – we have to book early as if it so popular it quickly books up, I’m usually advertising in December / January time for a late June or July production.
Words & Pictures: Liz Ellis
Many thanks to Liz for arranging our trip to Kilworth – a lovely day out.