A beautiful gift by Trevor Gill

Trevor Gill as Bottom. Pic: Topher McGrillis

The initial reason for travelling to the UK in June was to visit Belfast, meet old friends of almost forty years standing and catch my friend Trevor Gill play the role of Bottom in the Royal Shakespeare Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Trevor and his fellow amateur players were, quite simply, brilliant. It would have been impossible for anyone who didn't know the cast personally to tell which people on stage were the professionals, which the amateurs (accents aside).

Over this weekend the Belvoir Theatre mechanicals helped to bring the RSC Dream 2016 to a close at Stratford-upon-Avon. What a buzz. How richly deserved.

Trevor wrote of his feelings and impressions about being involved in this remarkable project for the last year. The RSC published his thoughts on the production's blog. Trevor started his short essay this way:

This Friday night, five of my good friends from The Belvoir Players and I will stand at the very heart of world drama. We will step out onto the stage at the RSC’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST), Stratford on Avon in the 400th anniversary year of William Shakespeare’s death. We follow in the footsteps of the great and the good of UK and international theatre. 

Sometimes I still find it hard to believe that it’s happening.

Read Trevor's whole piece here.

Lucy Ellinson (Puck), Spike, Trevor Gill (Bottom) and me at the Belfast show after-party.

If ever there could be a good reason to fly 10,000 miles around the globe it would be to cheer on Trevor and his team. We had fun. I can't imagine what it must have felt like for TG and the Belvoir Theatre players.

Brevity is an art form

Low floor bus "at present". No telling what height it will be in June.

So I wrote an e.mail to Dumfries and Galloway Council in South West Scotland on Monday ...

Hello,
We are visiting Scotland in June (we live in Australia). We are travelling to Belfast for the weekend (3rd to 6th June). Our ferry tickets are booked.
I use a wheelchair. I cannot walk at all and, therefore, cannot climb stairs into a coach or bus
I see from your web site that Route 350 – operated by McLeans – runs between the Stranraer ferry terminal and Cairnryan ferry terminal. I want to ask if that service is wheelchair accessible?
Regards,
Dougie Herd

And came the reply ...

Dear Customer, 
Thank you for your enquiry.We have now passed this to the relevant department and asked them to respond. 
Kind Regards, 
DG Direct 

Followed today by ...

Dear Mr Herd
I refer to your email below.
At present this bus is low floor
Regards

Confirmation we can travel from Ayr, where my mother lives, to Belfast and back over land and sea by public transport. When I started out on this wheelchair malarkey - thirty-two years ago - I wouldn't have been able to make it into the train station unassisted ... never mind the rest.

We are sailing ...

Ship ahoy! Pic: Stena

Almost all the 'nuts and bolts' of our trip to the UK in a few months are in place now. I've just finished making our Web booking for the ferry crossings between Cairnryan and Belast where we'll see my old mate Trevor Gill perform the role of Bottom in The Royal Shakespeare Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream. How exciting is that?

We have all but one of our flights booked now, both our ferry trips (Belast and Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands) and all of the hotel accommodation in Tokyo, Prestwick, Belfast, Kirkwall, Edinburgh, Manchester, Weymouth, London and Singapore. And all the accommodation is wheelchair accessible. Hasn't the world changed in thirty years. All that's left to do is book the travel between 

• London and Prestwick, 
• Prestwick and Belfast, 
• Prestwick and Aberdeen, 
• Aberdeen and Edinburgh, 
• Edinburgh to Manchester, 
• Manchester to Weymouth and 
• Weymouth to London. 

All train journeys, apart from the first leg. The online booking system at Scotrail hasn't reached the 6th June yet. I think that will tick over tomorrow. Choo, choo!