The Forks Swap for Fun
The Grosvenor
Fri 12th Nov, 1999

Well, Friday 12th of November will go down as a very special Rocky for me, It was the Rocky where I finally played Columbia! I have been all the major characters - and some of the minor ones too - it's only taken 22 years to get them all under my belt - so to speak! We had two shows back to back at The Grosvenor Cinema over the weekend of November 12th/13th of November 1999 so to avoid staleness creeping into our performances we decided we would change characters. We didn't know what a monster we were creating! The show was going to raise a little problem - that of the pre-show.

Question: How were we going to do a credible pre-show AND still be able to get in to costumes we were NOT familiar with in time?
Answer: Get another group to do the pre-show! 

The Sonic Transducers, a group from East Kilbride, had wanted to do a local show but up to now had been unsuccessful. We asked them if they would mind putting together a pre-show for us on the Friday night, they said they'd love to. We were all set. Next problem there were some costumes to be created - as for example there was NO way on this Earth that I was going to fit into Katy's Columbia cozzie. (Not even if you had 4 of them and sewed them together!) So Katy and I sat down and planned what we would need, the sequined version was to be the biggest problem. There was also no money in the kitty to attempt any of this! As luck would have it Katy had a pair of gold baggy pantaloons from the ABBA pre-show, and I had a bustier that I had bought from a closing down sale several years ago. So a little inventiveness and raiding the off cut bags we were able to knock together an OK Columbia. The other cozzies were a little easier to manage!

The night of the show was utter panic! No one knew where anything was, but we got through it, with a few gaffs - most notably that entrance and exits seemed to randomly move round the theatre depending on where a character just happened to be. This has at least taught me that a full rehearsal will be required if we do this again! The audience seemed to enjoy it; one girl emailed the following to Layla:

"Hi there! I was at both nights of the RHPS at the Grosvenor. I had a ball. My Friend Debs nearly won the prize for best costume, but was pipped to the post by another Frank; however, her boyfriend won second prize as Brad.
I thought that Friday night was tres bizarre, it was filled with great laughs, kitsch comedy and high feelings of campness.
Six friends and I went to the show dressed as our favourite characters, we had never ever,ever,ever seen the RHPS on the big screen and by gum, I have a detailed picture of Tim Curry's groin in my sick little mind.
The floor show was absolutely fan-bloomin-tastic, the greatest part of all was the costume swap Columbia was the most frightfully good; Mizz M looked so normal as the narrator."

She also commented on the Saturday performance:

"The Saturday night performance was one to behold. After being mutilated and thrashed by Frank's whip before the show, I was aching to see what was yet to come (hee hee hee). A few soakings later and half a pound of rice down my pants, I was again, really beginning to enjoy myself until.........ROCKY ATE MY POPCORN.
All I can say is THANK YOU, Dr. SCOTTS' EXTRA FORKS...HOOPLA!!!!!!!!"

Thanks, Sharon Murray.

Saturday was supposed to have had everyone in a little earlier so that we could manage to get the photos of the few characters that could not make the PhotoShoot. To this end we asked The Sonic Transducers to put together another pre-show for the Saturday to allow us to get the photos we needed. Unfortunately the messages seemed to be a little garbled, and some of the cast did not arrive until it was too late to do the photos - Oh well! Maybe next time. The pre-show we were treated to this time was a "Cabaret" ensemble - Mel performed "Don't Tell Mama" with great aplomb, and captured the essence of the song very well! Blondie, Gilly and Laura performed "Two Ladies", it was hilarious, and so watch out they may be doing some more stuff for us in the future! The pics at the side are of Friday Night, and there is a further review on RockyScot.

Next Show