Halloween Party

A fantastic(al) celebration of this spooky time of year; me and Leilani with our faces painted by Ruby (14) welcoming one hundred members to a Halloween party run entirely by home-team and Friday Club volunteers; a fright hike guided by my daughter Xandi (15) and her friends, Nell (16), Esme (14), Carly (15) and delivered by a terrifying mixture of adult and kid actors (Orin, Arwyn, Bertie, Angus, Bohdan, Michael, Josh, James, Mark) under the directorship of Bea, our creative-in-residence; my husband stepping up to the challenge of cooking 100 pizzas with a team of teenagers (Pippa, Ruby, Wren nailed it) and not enough pizza bases; our only recently-arrived French and Dutch volunteers running the Cookhouse and bar with a confusing cocktail of mulled apple juice and cider; and a wonderful array of activities around the Meeting House run by Friday Club participants - including Iris (7) and Uma (9) on the touchy-feely-yucky stall, Ella (13) toasting apples with cinnamon and sugar on the fire, the Morris family on a home-made wand stall, and volunteer mother-and-son from London on the poetry cauldron-throwing-sticks stall. The finale of the evening was a wonderful scene with all the cast and stall leaders and costume winners sat up on the log wall and an atmospheric, original poem from Kate.

Lines were blurred as they should be on this night of all nights. Who was ‘working’ and who was ‘playing’? Who was a ‘participant’ and who was an ‘actor’? Who was a ‘professional’ giving their skills and equipment (thank you Matt for the very professional lighting and Antoine for the filming) and who was an ‘amateur’ who has found their true vocation (thank you James on the Bathhouse stage!)? Which props had we made ourselves (thank you Lotty, Kate, Leilani, Mark and helpers for the wonderful home-made bats, spiders, webs and dead vegans) and which props were scoured from local charity shops (thank you Leilani)? Who was part of the ‘home-team’ and who was a ‘member’ of the woods and who was just a lucky ‘visitor’ who turned up on the night and discovered a community having a very good time celebrating this spooky time of year?