It’s impossible not to be drawn to the Minack Theatre if you’re a member of BROS. Talk of Porthcurno’s world famous open-air auditorium is never far away, along with the stories of relaxing on the beach in between shows, of visiting Land’s End in a rare few hours off, and, of course, stories of parties, barbecues and general holidaymaking.
I’d missed my first chance to go down to the Minack. It was 2013 and my brother was getting married during the week of the show, so when the time came I waved the rest of the cast off and watched my social media feeds fill up with pictures from sun-soaked Cornwall.
You can imagine, then, that the next time the opportunity came up, with 2015’s Carousel, that nothing short of an act of God was going to stop me getting down there. Slowly but surely, May inched forwards on the calendar as rehearsals progressed – singing was polished, movement was rehearsed and, in my case at least, dancing became less about falling over.
It’s a good eight-hour drive from London to Porthcurno, so at the end of it excitement to finally see the theatre was at fever pitch. And it didn’t disappoint. You arrive in the car park and walk forwards towards what is seemingly a cliff edge with the clear blue sea beyond. Then you look down, and it all makes sense.
The Minack is, quite literally, carved into the coastline. It falls down and away from you at a steep angle, and at the bottom you see the outline of the stage. And suddenly, the months of rehearsals, of judging the distance between the ‘fish slab’ and the ‘stone circle’ with gaffer tape make sense. It all falls into place, and you realise how special the theatre is.
Getting to perform at the Minack is one of the biggest advantages of joining BROS, and it’s something I hope to do for a long, long time to come (casting and bribery permitting, of course.) Roll on this summer, when we’ll be travelling down with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and those new to the company will get to see the theatre for the first time. I hope their Minack moment will be as special as mine was.
