Tuesday 27th November 2012 19.30

Beauty & The Beast

at The New Theatre, Oxford

Performed by Oxford Operatic Society

The New Theatre and I go back a long time, 1980 to be exact, when I appeared in the first of six Gang Shows there. Even then, as a 9 year old I was fascinated at the difference in appearance from the glamorous art-deco front of house and the frankly grotty back-stage, where we were told in no uncertain terms that if you touched the floor you should wash your hands immediately, as there was no lack of rat poison put down there.

I will never forget peering through the glare of the stagelights to spot Mum, Dad, and sister Elizabeth in a packed house during the Saturday matinee, and hearing Dad’s distinctive guffaw during one of Ralph Reader’s jokes. That and the crate of beer that was delivered to the Assistant Producer’s dressing room, conveniently placed on the ground floor….

Times change, and in recent years Mum’s health has begun to fail. Alzheimers and a crumbling hip have restricted both her movement and concentration. Any journey more than a few yards requires a wheelchair and she now finds even a quiz show almost impossible to follow. The doctors have told us to keep her active, but I drove to the theatre with a certain amount of trepidation- what if she got bored? What if the painkillers she takes for her hip wore off early? My unease was not helped when the wheelchair lift to take Mum to the stalls initially wouldn’t work, and when we got to our seats she asked for a painkiller 3 times in 5 minutes.

But when the curtain rose, for two hours she was transfixed. I became aware of her foot tapping along to the songs, and for a brief moment in time, she was the little dynamo back at the Gang Show all those years ago. For that I give thanks.