May 2014 - The Diary

Following a 3 week break we restarted the tour in The Lights, Andover and had a great show and then on to the wonderful Hackney Empire for a three day residency! Fab audiences, wonderful and friendly staff and a triumphant return to the theatre for our David Balfour, Stewart McCheyne who used to be the bar manager there! Thanks also to @DavieBalfour and the re-enactors for broadsword no.4 of the Kidnapped tour ! Here we are pictured at the beautiful Ayr Gaeity Theatre after the show last month (below).

Then back to Scotland and an audition in Edinburgh before heading south again for our shows at Tewkesbury's Roses Theatre and Norden Park, Maidenhead and yet more travel to Wolverhampton and two excellent shows at the Arena Theatre. Moving into the last leg of this mammoth UK tour the Jacobite Juggernaut that is our

KIDNAPPED landed in Coventry for a full week of 8 shows. The Belgrade Theatre B2 venue rocked all week and the audiences were fab here. I have to thank the staff at the Belgrade Theatre for their hard work in promoting the show and to BBC Coventry and the Coventry Telegraph for wonderful coverage of our show. Here we are teaching sword=fighting on the Vic Minett show.

Check out the reviews section of the blog for the latest reviews of the KIDNAPPED shows from this superb venue. Huge thanks to all there and we had a ball in Coventry this month! Now back to Bonnie Scotland and the final leg of our Jacobite trail..!

April 2014 - The Diary

April began with shows at the excellent Crawley Hawth and the Trinity Theatre in Tunbridge Wells, a converted church with great accoustics as you might imagine! Then back to London and three days in situ at The Greenwich Theatre. During the fight scene we snapped another sword! Hamish II now going the same way as his ancestor! Three swords down and still lots of shows to go!

The audiences were great and the intimate nature of the theatre lent itself marvellously to some superb shows. More positive reviews and local press coverage as well as great support from Waterstones in Greenwich, who gave over their windows to a 'Kidnapped' display!!

Following our Greenwich gigs we drove to Dundee and two sell-out shows at Dundee Rep. Thrilled to be back in Scotland and then to Stevenson country and another sold-out show at the brilliant Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh. Q&A sessions were great fun following the show and nice to get the blessing of the Stevenson Society representatives present!

Next up was the Ayr Gaeity Theatre and one of my favourite arenas in Scotland. I auditioned there 20 years ago and it was a delight to finally perform on that stage!. It's a beautiful venue and was wonderful to play. Finally we completed this Scottish mini tour in the Motherwell Civic, my first show there since 1992..!! Huge thanks to all who came to see the show and to Joyce McMillan of The Scotsman for another good review. Time now for a three week (much needed!) break before we head back to England and ten more excellent venues still to perform in!