Chapter 11

Another interest of mine which spanned Racal was being involved in a local amateur dramatics group in Harrow called Proscenium. Whilst I was there it celebrated 50 years of existence, so it was well established and well respected. We put on at least four plays each season which ranged from Greek tragedy to modern comedy.

It was while I was still at Salvo that Colin Tufnell asked if I could help with set building for them. I was happy to do this as it gave me another excuse not to go home. I was with Proscenium on and off for about twelve years, starting in 1984 when I was just sixteen. Almost all the performances took place in the hall at Salvatorian College, so I did not have far to go. I was not the only Salvatorian involved, there were at least six of us who helped on and off. These included Mike Phelan, Paul Ormiston, and John Dickinson.

When I was still at school, the first performance where I helped backstage was as a props manager for the Caretaker by Harold Pinter. This was performed in the round in the middle of the hall rather than on the stage. My job was to swap various props around the performance area which the actors would then find and use. Unfortunately, I messed up one night and forgot to put a pair of slippers where it should have been during the interval. I never did props again; I just wasn't interested.

When I was in my last year at the school, Proscenium put on probably the most memorable play for me. It was A Midsummer Night's Dream and was performed in a large hall in the Harrow leisure centre. There were effectively three performance areas in the hall which had to be set up and taken down for each of the 3 days it was performed so that the hall could be used for badminton during the day. It was a lot of work, but the performances were magical. The actors were much fitter at the end due to the amount of running around that they needed to do between the sets.

After coming back from my short stay with the RAF, I took up again where I left off. My first stage manager role was for The Importance of being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. I think there was at least seven plays where I was stage manager. I also did lighting and sound as well as being a general stage crew helper for the others. In total I was involved in one way or another in more than twenty plays during my time.

There was also a strong social side of amateur dramatics. Over the years I can think of quite a few examples of musical beds and marriage breakups, I even had one or two adventures myself. Most of these personnel changes became apparent in the post play party, a tradition that seems to be common to all thespian groups. I met a girl called Helene, who was a blonde slim A-level student with an ambition to be a stage set designer. She got involved with Proscenium to produce a couple of design examples for her portfolio. I had the job of educating her in the subtleties of the restrictions that designers need to be aware of, for example brick walls cannot be brick, but must be paint and canvas. I remember she was quite keen on me, and I went round her house a few times and met the family. Her family was French Canadian and were due to move back to Canada when Helene finished her A-levels. She started to drop hints that she may not want to go back with them, which was my hint that she was keener than I thought. At that time, I was still very deeply immersed in skydiving, so I did a life changing calculation and decided not to pursue her further, nice though she was, since the two worlds that I could see were incompatible. Even though we had seen each other a few times it was not too stressful to break contact after the play we were working on finished. I thought of Helene now and then in later years and wondered if I had made the right decision …. Again.

The other notable connection was with Janet. She was a local teacher and was 8 years older than me, I was 25 at the time. It was her that initiated the relationship and me being red blooded did not turn down an opportunity dropped in my lap. I did not anticipate that we would be in contact with each other for the next 15 years. The intimate side did not last long. She was too old for me, and I needed to be looking for someone my age or younger. It was a traumatic parting for her with lots of tears and regret, but I'm afraid I was a bit cold about it since my mind was made up. Because we were both part of Proscenium it was not a permanent parting. In later plays we got to know each other again as friends and started going for drinks and the odd theatre trip. She even managed to get some rugby tickets to watch England playing at Twickenham during the Four Nations competition (It was only four nations then; Italy was not included)

I did not appreciate it at the time that this was part of her long-term plan, which only gradually became apparent to me. At the time I appreciated the friendship and going to a pub or event to break the boredom during the week when I wasn't skydiving, so it took me a while to see her strategy.

I knew that she still had designs on me when I announced that I was seeing a girl I had met in French language classes that I was taking in Newbury. The daggers look on her face made it clear to me that she wanted more than friendship from me, and I approached her very differently from that point.

We kept in touch when I moved to Denmark (next section) after Racal, and then after I returned and she took up a job at a private school in Sherborne in Dorset, but for me any contact was always strictly as a friend. When I eventually did get married, I used that as the trigger to break contact permanently and embrace the future.

One final play I need to mention is The Mysteries, which is a classic Christian Christmas story about the life of Jesus. This play was memorable due to its venue and the atmosphere that that evoked. We managed to borrow an old barn building called The Tithe Barn, which was part of the Headstone Manor Museum in Harrow. Even though I have no faith myself, the atmosphere in this old building along with the subtle lighting and sound system made it very special. All mystery plays have a feature that there is no seating, so the audience follows the action to various areas in the building as if they are bystanders. We as stage crew were also mingled in with the bystanders and emerged from the crowd to do any set changes needed. We even had the job of hoisting the cross into an upright position at the end of the play. It was the only play of this type that I had been involved in, and I enjoyed the experience.

I think I took part in one more play with Proscenium after The Mysteries and when that was finished a change of job for me meant that geography dictated that I would never see them or Colin Tufnell again. I occasionally looked back but felt no need to rekindle my interest in amateur dramatics, they were an odd bunch.

One day I decided that I had spent enough time working for Racal. I really cannot remember why I thought I needed to change, but it may have been job uncertainty, I just cannot remember. I sent my CV to a job agency and almost immediately got a phone call from a guy called Stephen Bide who worked for a company in Denmark and wanted to meet me that day in a hotel in central London. I went to see him, and he offered me a job on the spot. I was to work in Denmark for considerably more money than I was on, and there was free accommodation and a car thrown in as well. How could I say no?

Several things came to an end when I left for Denmark. As well as parting company with Proscenium, never to return, I also never returned to my old school, where the plays were performed. As I said previously, even though I brought my parachute with me, I never jumped in Denmark, or anywhere else. My links with Harrow and the people I knew there ended since I never returned to live in the area. My only reason for coming back was to occasionally visit my parents. I rented out my house in Hatch End when I was away and never moved back in again. This was a big turning point in my life. I even remember seeing my mother crying as we waved goodbye at the airport. I think she thought I would never come back. It was May in 1987, and I was 28 years old.

Chapter 11: Proscenium