Rain or no rain, the show will go on...

It seems ludicrous given the current downpour in Sydney, but if you cast your mind back just five years to 2007, the situation in country NSW was quite different: Australia was in drought. Australia had been in drought, in fact, for at least six years, and quite aside from the economic implications for those affected, the emotional pressures of drought were debilitating.

What could EUCMS do about this?  Why, pick up our production of Pirates of Penzance and take it all the way to Yeoval, to hold a free performance for the community there!  In June 2007, after much planning by a dedicated team, the cast and crew set off.  Wendy, a cast member, described the weekend in the EUCMS Bulletin:

It was raining as we loaded luggage onto the coach and set off for Yeoval, but spirits were high. One cast member provided activities for the journey, so over the next few hours we endeavoured to find 100 “Pirates of Penzance” related words (such as “maidens”, “paradox” and “heliogabalus”) in a mega find-aword puzzle. Cries of “I can’t see mermaids!” and “I found Frederic!” made this quite entertaining.

Throughout the journey, one cast member conscientiously put the girls’ hair in curlers. My turn for this came at morning tea time, when we huddled into a roadside shelter to escape the wet. The wind was constant and cold, so the fact that she successfully completed the task despite my shivering is a great testament to her patience and persistence!

When we arrived at Yeoval, we could immediately see that our performance was being eagerly anticipated by the community: the walls of the hall were already decorated with children’s entries from a special Pirates colouring-in competition! There were also several posters with photos of us (!), advertising the performance and encouraging people to “Come along dressed as your favourite pirate and have your photo taken with these pirates!”

In the afternoon, many set off to explore the township and buy postcards and souvenirs. I must confess I left a shop rather hastily when I noticed children gesturing to each other about the curlers in my hair… On the outskirts of the town there were lovely views across wide paddocks, which, due to the rain in the preceding weeks, were looking green once more.

Neil (our Major General) chatted with some locals and reported back some interesting information about our performance venue: the hall had originally been built elsewhere, and then dismantled and brought to Yeoval, where it sat in a paddock until enough funds were raised (through a rabbit drive) to erect it. The current hall (large though it is) is actually not its original size – a section of it was removed before it was built on its current site.

Our evening meal had been prepared by the people of Yeoval, and there was lots of it! Knowing how enthusiastic our audience was, made the evening performance particularly exciting. Everyone adapted easily to the different performance space, and it was fun to have everyone – cast and crew – together backstage, which hadn’t been possible at Marsden High. The audience was responsive, and called out for more!

After the performance, we all mingled with the audience (and yes, we had our photos taken!)

Soon we had to leave for Wellington, where some stayed in a motel and others in the Uniting Church Hall. And yes, some of those Act 2 nighties were put to good use – although the word is out that the mob caps don’t manage to stay on your head all night…

The people of Wellington were delighted to have us join in the Church service the following morning, and there were many comments about how wonderful it was to have so many voices singing together. Again, they excelled themselves in providing a lavish and scrumptious morning tea, before we had to wave goodbye and head back home.

All in all I think it was a wonderful weekend which brought a lot of pleasure both to the people of the Yeoval area and to all those who took part.

What do you remember of the 2007 Yeoval trip?  Leave a comment here or on our Facebook page.

Or, email us to share any of your own stories.