Outing to Derngate Centre in Northampton

We've been to see several shows at the Derngate Centre in Northampton. We last went to see a production of "A Tale of Two Cities" in the Royal Theatre which is part of the complex. I have to admit to having something of an affection for that beautiful little theatre. I think it might be there that I got my interest in theatre when I was quite young and in the late 1960's I almost got a job as a Student A.S.M., but eventually ended up at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. We have been to see larger-scale productions in the other theatre, The Derngate, which is next door. We have seen productions of "Cabaret" and "Cats" and in the past I've been to classical music concerts as well as a production of "Hamlet" which was utilising the uncut text and running for over four hours. It was a good production, but it was over two hours before there was an interval!

On this occasion we were here because we've just celebrated out 10th Wedding Anniversary. We had looked for something to see locally and had hoped the theatre in Milton Keynes might have had something we'd have liked. I'm afraid the seat prices in the Milton Keynes Theatre were somewhat too high. I had hoped we could go and see the touring production of "Funny Girl" but the only two seats I could get for a matinee performance and which were in the top-most tier of seating cost £45 each, and I'd no intention of paying £90 and then having to sit in such a poor seat with poor visibility of the stage.

So this is how I came to book us two reasonably-priced tickets for a show called "Running Wild" for a matinee performance yesterday (Saturday) at the Derngate Centre in Northampton.

On Arrival in Northampton we had to find a carpark. I knew we'd be able to park closer to the Derngate as there is a carpark virtually next door, but that is easier to get to if you come in from Bedford on the A428. But we came in on the A45 from the M1. When we'd come to see a production of 'A Tale of Two Cities' a couple of years ago we parked in a multi-storey carpark which contained a multi-screen cinema complex called The Vue. So this is where we managed to find a space this time. A lot of vacant spaces and not too far up the building.

Once we'd parked we walked towards the town centre. We had quite a lot of time to fill before we could collect our tickets from the Derngate box office and see the show. We visited a few shops to browse, including Debenhams. Carol said she needed to do a blood sugar test, so we stopped in Debenhams while she did this blood-prick test and discovered that her blood sugar level was low. Being a hot day didn't help.  The temperature outside was high and it seemed to be hotter because it was a town centre and the pavements and the enclosed nature of the streets seemed to increase the heat. It got to the point where we wanted to have some refreshment and decided we needed to find a Wetherspoon's pub.We have been to several across the country as they do reasonably priced meals. We weren't entirely sure where there was one in Northampton town centre and actually found the spot where one used to be but had been closed. There was a sign on the hoarding telling us where the nearest one was, called 'The Cordwainer' and in  street called The Ridings. There was a map on the hoardings which purported to show the route to this new pub, but we didn't manage to find it, even after we asked several people where it was. We even used Google maps on my iPhone. You'd think it would be an easy matter. After a while we did land up outside the pub and it was busy. Well, I suppose it would, seeing how it was a hot Saturday and it was lunch-time. We found a table in a corner and began to look at the menu so we could order food. Carol chose burger and I chose what was called the Three Chicken Feast, which looked perfect for what I needed because, by now I was hungry. I went to the bar to order the food as well as two sugar-free Pepsis. It didn't take long for the food to arrive at our table. The only problem we had was that unfortunately we had chosen to sit at a table near the disabled toilet. Not nice being to close at the best of times, but people kept coming and going. You had to have a special key in order to use this facility.  But never mind, the food was good and it gave us a chance to just sit and relax. Anyway, regardless of all that, the food was good and plentiful. A good enough reason to choose to eat in a Wetherspoon's pub. Also, at a very reasonable price. From The Cordwainer we walked towards the Derngate Centre. We still had plenty of time to waste and walked past the Guildhall and, in a rather  nice shady courtyard next door to this Northampton Council building we saw a statue sitting on a bench. This seems the way to present statues of famous people these days, rather than having them on plinths and too high to be able to observe properly. On inspection, the statue turned out to be of the local Northamptonshire poet, John Clare. This gave us an opportunity for rest and relaxation and to take a couple of selfies with the statue. By now it was approaching 2 o'clock so we decided to walk the short distance to the Derngate Centre where we collected our tickets from the box office. We managed to find some seating in what was the entrance to the Royal Theatre until it was time to go into the auditorium and find our seats for the play which was going to start at 2.30.

A large audience. I think the house must have been around 85%-90%. A lot of children and parents with those children. Actually good to see so many children being taken to see a live show. I was quite surprised by how many had mobile phones on. You couldn't but notice because the screens on smartphones light up. Fortunately these appeared to be turned off as the lights in the auditorium went down and the play began. Directly in front of of was the sound and lighting operator's desk and you could see the computers that the operator used for both lighting and sound control for the performance.

The show utilised clever staging, with minimal scenery which could be changed rapidly to get from one scene to the next. Actors performed alongside puppets which were operated in full view of the audience. One, in particular, was an elephant that moved very convincingly even though it was operated by around five puppeteers. The girl who played the central character of Lily had to ride on the elephant, so those puppeteers must have been strong to support her. The show was aimed at children, as already mentioned, but it wasn't in the least bit sentimental or morkish. As much as I like puppets, I don't prescribe to the idea that they should be mainly for children. It's a bit like animation, which up until a few years ago was aimed almost entirely at an audience of around 5-10. It wasn't until the appearance of the Muppets on British television in the mid 1970's that it became obvious that puppetry could be aimed at a far older audience.

As I said, we enjoyed the show and then left the Derngate to walk back to the car and home. No doubt we'll be visiting the Derngate again to see another show in the not-too distant future.

Booking Theatre Tickets

On the 26th of May Carol and I will celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary. We've been searching for a theatre production to see near enough to the actual day and have chosen to go and see a show at the Derngate Centre in Northampton, called "Running Wld." It's based on a Michael Morpurgo book, the same author who wrote the book "War Horse," which was adapted for a production at the National Theatre with great critical acclaim and which is still touring. We've yet to see that. With my background in theatre, and, in particular, puppetry, these shows seem very appropriate.

We thought it would be easier to book on line, so we went on the Royal and Derngate website. It should be a relatively easy process to find the relevant day we wanted to go, a Saturday, so a matinee performance. Easy enough to find. Then we had to register to use the website. It was simple enough and then we found for some reason it wouldn't accept our address. Several more attempts, changing the password needed to book tickets. It just would not work and I tried on Tuesday morning again (yesterday) with no success. By now it was getting annoying and frustrating.  On Monday we'd even attempted to ring their box office telephone number but it was closed (odd, considering it was a performance day and you would imagine it would be open up until 'curtain-up' time for whatever shows were on that day. As there are two auditoria at the Royal/Derngate there would be two shows running together with a small cinema which is within the centre. But it was not operating, so further annoyance.

So yesterday evening, when Carol got home, we rang the box office again. This time, after a bit of a wait, I managed to get through and booked two tickets as planned.

I have a particularly special love of the Royal in Northampton,  there long before the Derngate was opened, which is next door and now part of the same complex. I think it was here I got my interest and love for theatre. In 1968 I had been on an A Level course at Mander College in Bedford and was supposed to go to Bristol University to do a drama course. I had originally intended getting into television to do Floor Management, but my results on the two A Level courses (or, at least, the 'mocks'.) were not very good so I changed my direction by approaching regional theatres (or 'repertory' or 'reps.') to start off as a Student A.S.M. I wrote to as many theatres as I could (using 'Contacts,' the directory of theatre and associated industries in the theatre, television and film world.) and got interviews at, amongst others, Northampton Royal Theatre and Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham. I had an interview at Northampton but the Everyman post I was offered began well before that at Northampton, so I began off working at Cheltenham on the 16th February, 1969, thrown in at the deep-end on the technical rehearsal of a production of 'Jane Eyre.'

Yesterday I just had to get out of the house. The constant 'tap-tap-tap' and 'bang-bang-bang!' coming from next door's garden was beginning to really get on my nerves. They've been doing more work on their tiling since Saturday. I couldn't believe this was going to continue into the week. So I went into the centre of Milton Keynes and spent a good hour in the main shopping centre. Having parked where i usually park, near The Point (it's beginning to get really dilapidated and tatty. It might be closed, but the site is a real eye-sore.) I couldn't walk straight into the shopping centre because the road and paved area around that side of the shopping centre was blocked off with temporary fencing, because workmen were ripping up the old pavings and re-paving this area. I have to say it was beginning to look really shabby so it's a good thing they've decided to redevelop all this. I don't think it's been renovated since this area was built in the late 1970's. Several shops within the shopping centre have re-located. W.H.Smith have moved into a smaller unit and H.M.V. has now done the same. They probably realise that they don't need such big units. Neither now don't have a second floor. I suppose Smith's would not need so much space because they don't have a record department. Likewise, H.M.V. just don't have the selection that they once had. It's mainly D.V.D's. I imagine all this is down to being able to download music from sites such as iTunes. With Sky you can download films onto your Sky + or Sky Q box and therefore don't require a disc although you can buy and keep both downloads and then be sent a D.V.D. copy of the latest film releases.

Birthday, Theatre and Broken-down Car

On Friday it was Carol's birthday. A momentous day: her 50th. I had to give her something special, out-of-the-ordinary. I decided to give her 50 presents, but not large presents, you understand. I planned to buy 50 tiny 'treats' and wrap them up in five seperate parcels, each representing each of her 5 decades. I went to the Central Shopping Centre in Milton Keynes the Friday before last and went first to perhaps her favourite shop, Paperchase, and bought 10 little figures, erasers, pencil sharpeners etc and then went round the shopping centre buying more for the parcels, from W.H.Smith, Hawkin's Bazaar, Blott etc. It was a lot of fun choosing the items, then bringing them home and carefully hiding them until I purchased wrapping paper and carefully wrapped them without her knowledge. I managed to buy a birthday card in Clinton's and a 'Happy Birthday' sign in the form of bunting on a long ribbon from Waitrose and put this up across the window in the lounge on Friday morning when she was at work.

In the evening we went to the theatre. We went with one of the girls she does tutoring for, who is studying 'A' Level English Literature. She has to study several plays and part of the study is on stagecraft so Carol thought that if she saw a 'live' performance it might be to her benefit. The play we went to see was an adaptation of the Charles Dickens' novel "A Tale of Two Cities" and was at the Royal Theatre in Northampton. We have been to see several productions of various shows in the theatre next-door  in the complex, the Derngate Centre, but nothing in the old rep theatre. I have myself seen quite a few productions over the years, and I nearly got a job there when I left school but eventually ended up going to work at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham.

We left in what we hoped would give us plenty of time to drive to Northampton but as soon as we'd got on he M1 outside Milton Keynes we encountered a tail-back of traffic caused by an accident further north and crept along at around 5 m.p.h. We eventually left the motorway near Northampton and found a multi-storey car park but had barely 15 minutes before the curtain rose on the show as it started at 7.45. The play had actually started as we took our seats in the stalls. It turned out to be a very good show which we thoroughly enjoyed. We drove back to Milton Keynes and arrived home at a little before midnight.

The next day it was really bright and sunny.  During the morning there had been a card stuck through the door by the postman, informing us that £1.09p was owing on a letter or some item or other. This was somewhat annoying as the postman never attempted to knock on the door and let us have the item, or let us pay the small amount owing, so we had to drive to the sorting office in Brinklow, which is around two miles from here. It was even more annoying to find, when we got there, that the sorting office was closed. So this item will have to remain there until we can get there to collect it. We had to do some shopping but decided it would be preferable instead  if we went out somewhere as I wanted to take Carol out for a birthday treat and we ended up at the Millennium Country Park at Marston Mortaine, somewhere we've been before with the dogs. The place was extremely busy, it must have been the warm weather which brought the people out. We had something to eat in the cafe and then drove back towards Milton Keynes and went to Tesco's store at Kingston. We did our shopping and then returned to the car and it was at this point that Carol couldn't get the car to start. No amount of attempts would get it to start. Carol had her mobile phone on her but there was very little battery life left in it so she decided to text here friend Pauline, who had worked with her as a teacher at the Academy. Fortunately she texted back saying that she and her husband Paul were on there way to us and would arrive in about 45 minutes. When they eventually arrived we again attempted to get the car to start but still no joy. Paul said that it could be something to do with the petrol, not getting into the engine or something, but that seemed unlikely as I had only  filled the car up a few days previously. But we decided to try filling it with more fuel and purchased a can from Tesco's and then went to the filling station and put £5 in the can and then transferred this to the car. But when we attempted to start the car it still wouldn't play ball.

By now it was clear that the car wasn't going to start so we were taken home with our shopping  by Pauline and her husband. When I got home I telephoned Laverne, who I know from church and who is a motor mechanic. He was as good as his word and came out to pick me up outside our house and took me back to Tesco's carpark, but he could not get the car to start. After a while he asked me whether I had any breakdown cover and remembered that we were insured with Swinton but had no reference number for the policy. As luck or sheer coincidence would Laverne said he was with the same company and said that if he used his mobile he could ring and see whether he could get Swinton to send out a recovery truck to get either the car started or transport the car home. He managed to get through and fortunately they sent someone. It took a further 45 minutes or so for a truck to arrive and the repair man eventually got the car started. It would appear that the starter mechanism where the key goes in to turn to start the car was not functioning properly and preventing the car to start. So, once the car was running the mechanic left and Laverne followed me home just to make sure the car didn't stop running. I will now have to find a garage to repair the car as it's not advisable to drive when it's likely to cut out again. The car it due for it's MoT this month so it can be done at the same time.