Is the play the thing?... by Cally Phillips
Me, many moons ago, in a theatre! My first experience of theatre came complete with plush red velvet seats at the Dundee Rep when I was about 6 years old. My mum worked in the costume department and one day (presumably to stop us running rampage through the costume store, which was complete with what my older brother convinced me was a REAL polar bear, presumably a relic from a production of A Winters Tale ) I was allowed to sit in on a rehearsal for J.M.Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton. Things got heated in the rehearsal process and allegedly (?) I got upset and confused between drama and reality (not for the last time) so I was taken backstage to see the Actor playing Crichton. As I arrived he was stripped to the waist removing his ‘slap.’ It was a very vivid memory which lingers today. Suffice it to say I was ‘hooked’ on the theatre. And that J.M.Barrie has held a special place in my heart from then on. The magic of theatre? Fast forward to 2002. I was...