Blog - The white Stag joins the First Night Riders

The white Stag joins the First Night Riders

Posted by @ 10:26 26th Jul 2013

Our White Stag was recently hired by Andy Hayles as part of a fund raising event called the First Night Riders, which raises money for a charity called The Theatrical Guild.

Andy travelled from London to Oxford and then onto Cambridge before heading home. The ride is spread out over four days and we have spotted that the participants enjoyed themselves immensely!

Here is Andy’s diary of events…

Thursday I picked up The Stag near Chichester. Remember when dashboards were really made of wood!? I then made my way to Flints Theatrical Ironmongery Shop off the Walworth Rd in South East London - a slightly scary place to park a classic car which doesn’t lock up securely!
Friday

So Friday morning we set off from the Roundhouse, having grabbed a bacon sarnie and a tour of the auditorium. I got to tell everyone my story about the cunning roof sandwich we made when we refurbed the building so that the new 20 Tonne payload could be supported. Probably the only time I’ll ever have Phyllida Law in my audience! Then we were zooming out of London via Henley and Marlowe with Sarah and Georgia of the 5th Estate in our jump seats...to the Oxford Playhouse.

Then it was off on our Oxford to Cambridge cross-country run. A twisty-turny route that saw us driving right across Woburn Abbey’s deer park. There was something a bit Trojan about being inside a Stag in a Deer Park!

After nearly 4 hours of bouncing around we arrived at the Festival Theatre in Cambridge. A unique place for three reasons :
1. It’s one of the UK’s oldest theatres - 1814.
2. It featured the work of Terence Grey - one of UK theatre’s great innovators in the 1920s - and much of the design and engineering he created (permanent cyc and revolve) are still in the building.
3. It’s now a Buddhist Centre!

Iain Mackintosh and John Earl guided us around the space - which is an intoxicating mix of a Marie Celeste theatre, an amazing potential found space - and a mellow Buddhist meditation studio!

Iain’s view is that it’s vitally important that along with Bristol Old Vic and Bury St Edmonds that the Festival Theatre is made accessible again and brought back into the theatrical fold!

We’ll have to wait and see - but it was certainly quite something to be in a space much talked about and that more than lived up to the hype!

So after a couple of beers and a good sleep in the spartan but entirely adequate Premier Inn on Friday night - Steve and I headed home leaving the bikers to head North.

The white Stag joins the First Night Riders

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The white Stag joins the First Night Riders