improvised theatre

July 01, 2003

The Viking Society

A brief addendum to explain any references to the Viking Society in past or future diary entries (or indeed in our shows - including, in fact, the one we performed this very evening).

Our photoshoot for the show's poster (at which many of the beautiful photographs currently on display in the gallery were taken) was rudely postponed when the room we had booked to take photos in turned out to be full of Vikings. The incident is best summed up by the letter drafted to the Secretary of the Viking Society for Northern Research by Andrew O:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I had contact with your society at Newnham College, Cambridge, on the 7th of
this month when my theatre group had the Old Labs booked at the same time as
you. A most unfortunate double booking: However, we were quite happy to
gracefully cede use of the hall to you.

This was no imposition for me, in particular: I can trace my family's
heritage back to the Viking invasion, and, as such, have always been a fan
of Scandanavian history.

One of the great lessons, I think, which we can learn from the Vikings is
that we must learn to live in peace with both the conquered (vide. the
Danelaw) and the conquering (vide. the Norman invastion). It has always
surpised me that manners are seen as typcially English when they are really
a Viking innovation: Better, by far, that they be called 'Danish'.

As such, our treatment at the hands of your secretary would seem most
abnormal, so far was it from being a display of good manners. As a Viking,
though, I quite understand the strength of the genetic call to unleash upon
all in your way Fire and The Sword. Racial memory is, indeed, a powerful
thing.

On the subject of memory, the show we are working on at present is Called
Out Of Your Mind. It will be performed at the Edinburgh Festival and
throughout the country. You might like to see it, or even consider
contributing towads it. Further details are available on our web-sute (sic)
(www.uncertaintydivision.org).

Yours, in Nordic fellowship, and on behalf of the Uncertainty Division


-Andrew Whitworth Ormerod

Posted by James Lark at July 1, 2003 10:26 PM
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