My recent short visit to Lisbon – the Portugese capital city – brought back memories for one regular contributor.
Ralph Oswick – former Artistic Director with Bath-based Natural Theatre Company – wrote to tell me of his time there – and he’s dug out some old photos too!
“I love Lisbon. When Natural Theatre Company had a year’s residency at the Lisbon World Expo, in order to boost concessionary sales, the public couldn’t bring their own food onto the huge site.
There were strict airport-style bag searches at the gates and only one bottle of water per person was allowed.
There was a section of the fifteen-foot perimeter fence next to our dressing cabin which wasn’t regularly patrolled. On-site refreshments were horrendously expensive, and people started chucking provisions over to their families.
At first it was just tins of the ubiquitous sardines, but as the news got out, we would see loaves of bread, lumps of cheese and even whole chickens flying through the air.
The sight of diminutive, black-clad grannies taking a run up to lob entire picnic hampers over the wire to their awaiting relatives was hilarious, with everyone scampering away at any sign of the security guys.
Meanwhile, back at security HQ we imagined the burly guards tucking into groaning buffet tables of confiscated comestibles!”
Thanks for that Ralph.
