IN the course of a summer, we reviewers get to see many plays in fields, on coasts, in the grounds of stately homes and in beautiful private gardens, performed by intrepid actors and singers who brave the elements to entertain their loyal and devoted audiences. The summer touring open air theatre season has evolved into an expedition laden with competitive picnics, tables, comfortable camping chairs, specially curated collections of cutlery and crockery and sometimes even table decorations. Is it a play we are going to see, or are we striving for the Glyndebourne experience?

A few years ago a particularly rowdy party of theatregoers in Suffolk, who had imbibed a bit too much bubbly, made the national news with their antics. The progress towards fine dining alfresco has accelerated as determined audience members push for a position in front of the stage, where they can corral their friends and carouse – even if it means turning their backs on the actors. When the bell goes and the show is about to start, they turn round, often obliterating the view for those behind them.

At Sandford Orcas this year, where Miracle Theatre returned to perform Peer Gynt – a Comedy of Terrors, everything conspired to wreck what should have been a delightful evening.

The organisers had thoughtfully put out several rows of plastic chairs for those members of the audience who hadn’t brought their own … but the vast majority of the audience came armed with furniture, and so were forced back behind the rows of empty chairs. That meant that the audience groups surrounded Miracle’s own sound tent, where cast members retreated for quick changes. Obviously, the tent was intended to be behind the audience lines. The company technician was urgently trying to make gangways through the tables for the cast to move once the play started. One of the actors even asked the audience to move forward and occupy the plastic chairs, but most were already implanted. Some parents brought toddlers along for the show, and toddlers did what toddlers do, running around and squealing with uncontrolled glee.

The result was a seriously difficult acoustic, forcing the four-strong company to shout lines which were taken away by the (welcome) wind. Several members of the audience left at the interval.

Amelia Sutherland’s adaptation of Ibsen’s epic Peer Gynt for Miracle has won high praise throughout its tour, which is now coming to an end. Audiences and reviewers have praised its ingenuity in cutting the sprawling story to a two-hour show packed with fun and performed by a tiny cast. Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suites were cleverly intertwined with the action, which included roistering villagers, lusty wenches, trolls (the ones that live under bridges, have humps on their backs and get pregnant just by thinking about it), aging mothers and other characters. The moral of the story that lying doesn’t pay – something Peer finally learns after an often hilarious series of mishaps.

The cast is led by Daniel Richards as Peer with Rosie Hughes, Jowan Jacobs and Beck Watts as everyone else. As a veteran audient of Miracle shows, I have to say this is not the most successful – but perhaps on another night, in another venue… I’m sure the Sandford Orcas audience will continue to support the Cornish-based company, but fewer chairs and a more thoughtful approach from the audience to the actors might help in future years.

GP-W