Kat, Group Organiser of Midsummer Nightmares, shares an update about her group’s festival preparations so far…

At the start of September, it seemed a bit odd, scheduling “Nightmares” into the diary. Surely people do all they can to avoid nightmares? Especially when organising a performance group in the run up to a festival. Thankfully these were a nightmare with a difference, summer stuck in the revelry they enjoyed at midsummer, but now verging on insanity as they obliviously waltz their merry way towards Winter and their ultimate death.

With Midsummer Nightmare rehearsals in full swing now, it has turned out to be anything but a nightmare. When we started out, we had an idea of how we wanted the character to be but until the first rehearsals, we had no way of knowing whether others would understand our vision or even want to be part of it. Thankfully people turned up and the first couple of rehearsals focused on being silly together, playing games that began to push people out of their comfort levels and starting to think about what “Summer at Samhuinn” might look and act like.

As character developed so did the movements. They changed easily from walking like normal people (or as normal as they could manage) to demented, flamboyant, insane, old, greedy, jealous, summery and back to normal. We invited our group to join our “debauched ceilidh” and so when it came to ideas for performance, well, where better to start? There was some unease and nervousness when we first asked them to dance, especially when they had no music and were given styles to dance to rather than just making it up as they went along. It was picked up really quickly and now they can ceilidh dance just as well as the next drunk guy. When they are in full flow playing about in character they are a beautiful depiction of a tormented state.

With a month of Nightmares ahead of us, let’s hope the rest of it goes like a dream.