Our venue in Harrow Weald was the Salvatorian College Theatre, home to musical and theatrical productions by touring companies as well as by students of the college itself.  The theatre provides a space in which students can learn technical skills as well as opportunities to put those skills into practice by crewing for shows.

And so we met our lighting crew: young, committed and - by the time of our arrival - wrestling with control software affected by a glitch serious enough to be bothering them rather a lot.  We pressed for more detail and the description 'fluctuating light levels' turned out to mean a likely fade to black every five or six minutes throughout the performance.  Not ideal.  Cue Liz, our Producer, taking on the mantle of a college Head of Department, repeating firmly that she didn't need to know anything more about the fault but did need to know whether power could be supplied on either side of the auditorium to a pair of free-standing lamps, which would provide a minimum level of light throughout the fluctuations, and allow the show to continue reasonably uninterrupted.  The crew responded with purpose, focus and good grace, to deal swiftly with the practical problem we all faced.

Donal and Harriet became just as immersed as usual in the energetic delivery of their performances, whilst light levels fell and rose by turns.  The narrative reached a point at which - figuratively speaking - a gap opens and light is let in, offering "an illumination".  With perfect synchrony (the stuff of an entire suite of control software!) our lights rose to full power.  Fifth Province magic.

Sincere thanks and congratulations to the two Matthews, James and head of crew Jordan, along with every encouragement to pursue their interest in technical theatre.