Bentwater Roads: Cider With Alex

The countdown has commenced. Four more performances and then oblivion. I wake up with my ankle still giving me a bit of a twinge so there is no way I'm risking aggravating it with a run, sadly that means no final jog round the park with my landlord Ivan.

Jon has organized a party for after the show tonight. There is going to be an enormous feast from the group that have been doing the grill and then a lot of drinking, music, dancing and some speeches. So I slink into Tesco on my way down to the theatre and buy myself a lot of cider or more aptly put, too much cider.

The afternoon show goes well and in the evening Ivan (the director not the landlord) is in and watching and we all up our game a little more, freshen our performances and try a few new things. It's great seeing him sitting backstage looking down the vomitorium (Aisle between the two banks of seating) at us bringing the show to life. A woman passes out on the top row of seating and the Bohran for the pagan entrance has somehow mysteriously gone missing. I jokingly whisper to Ivan ‘You've cursed the play'. The second half runs more smoothly, though Sally did let me know that I absentmindedly almost fell from the top of the tower, I really had no idea at all.

We all eagerly exited the hush house at the end of the show and gathered round the village of picnic tables. The food was amazing, spiced tuna steaks, salmon, juicy beef steaks or thai green curry chicken, so, so delicious and all organized by Jon, thank you so much. I crept away to the bar, after having eaten my dinner and the left overs from four or five other plates, I had seen that Jon still hadn't had a chance to get away from the bar and enjoy the food and atmosphere he had created. So I offered to take over the bar and was back to being a barman even before the show had officially ended its season, that was quick.

Rejoining the party an hour or so later the crowd had thinned. Alan and Ivan had said their goodbyes and a lot of sensible people who were driving had left before the temptation to drink in excess had over powered them.

Highlights of the evening as I remember from this point onwards were:

Jon's ever present behind the scenes video camera catches us dancing on the picnic tables while juggling empty wine bottles

Playing the role of DJ and having everyone up and dancing in the hush house as Max set the lights to make it a great dance floor - Latitude eat your heart out.

Lastly was seeing the sunrise after having already seen the sun set.

Not such a highlight was the terrible heartburn from too much acidic cider - I must admit my not so manly stomach doesn't have the East Anglian Cast Iron constitution I thought it may have developed.