Surfing Tommies
Bish, Bash Bosh & Iron Shoe
Heligan Gardens
Heligan launched it’s summer theatre season with the final Cornish performance of Surfing Tommies, and what a fabulous opener for the rest of the season. I felt extremely privileged to watch the play bow out, having been at the very first public performance of the original tour in 2009. Since the initial outing, it has rested, been slightly revamped and toured the country with only one change of cast member. Tommies has played to sell out audiences from Minack to Cumbria, with standing ovations for the penmanship of author Alan Kent alongside outstanding performances by a wonderful cast. Alan’s sense of humour is legendary and the fun of this play wraps itself around the audience like a warm cocoon, but Alan’s comedy is constantly tempered with sadness and difficult to accept truths. The tough lives of the Cornish throughout history are well documented, Alan’s art of mixing this up with the horrors of war and the treatment of so called ‘deserters’ make Surfing Tommies even more poignant. The story follows the loves, the lives and the loss of Cornish miners who foolishly signed up to the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry as proud Cornish boys brainwashed into believing it was to be a ‘short war’. The reality, of course, was very different and our brave Cornish lads either died in battle or returned forever changed.
Something happened during this performance on Flora’s Green at Heligan, something mysterious and magical and inexplicable – almost as if the play had come to it’s rightful home, a home that saw many Cornish lads depart for war, but not so many return.
Thank you Alan Kent for a fabulous piece of work, bravo to the cast for very special performances at Heligan and plaudits to the People’s String Foundation for the original and superb soundtrack.
Check out Heligan’s website at www.heligan.com for details of upcoming theatre performances.
For more details about Bish Bash Bosh visit www.bishbashboshproductions.co.uk