Stafford Shakespeare festival a hit despite weather

Stafford's popular outdoor Shakespeare festival has recorded its best attendances in five years despite an unprecedented two-week run of wet weather.

Delighted bosses revealed audiences were up by almost a quarter and they applauded audiences for enduring the less than ideal conditions, praising their stoic British spirit.

Actors had to use umbrellas during some shows while torrential rain forced organisers to abandon one performance altogether.

Total attendance for the Gatehouse Theatre's production of Romeo and Juliet at Stafford Castle was 10,541, which was 22.5 per cent up on last year's ticket sales of 8,600 for A Comedy Of Errors.

Festival producer Derrick Gask said: "Given the weather, it's great news."

The run finished on Sunday night after 17 shows, with rain having fallen on every performance, ranging in force from a drizzle to an outright deluge.

A number of shows were interrupted in order for a support crew to clear water from the stage so that the cast could carry on.

But Gatehouse spokeswoman Becky Ward said: "It sort of added to the experience, for the actors and the audience. The technicians were gettting clapped and cheered when they came on with squeegees, and again when they went off. The audiences were very understanding and took the weather problems in good spirit. It was all very British. The actors were fantastic, too. They were completely sodden on most nights, I don't know how they did it.

"They still remained enthusiastic and were desperately disappointed when last Monday's show had to be cancelled.

She said: "You always run the risk of weather-related problems with an outside performance but the show goes on unless here's a thunderstorm or extreme weather, and Monday's weather fell into that category. The rain was so torrential, the audience couldn't actually hear what was being said, and we also had a power surge back stage."

Several of the actors expressed their dismay via Twitter. Dan de Cruz, who played Tybalt, wrote: "Thank you for your support to those who came. Totally deflated and disappointed we had to stop."

During the run audiences had to be ferried to and from the venue by coach from Stafford Rugby Club after a field used for parking near the castle became waterlogged.

By Marion Brennan