COME hell or high water, members of Ruardean's amateur theatrical society – the RATS – were determined to get their show on the road this week.
Trying to stage their 13th production has proved a nightmare for members who have been hit by one misfortune after another. It is 18 months since their last performance.
"We were beginning to think that staging our 13th production would never be achieved. We had to cancel a previous production and planned to stage a pantomime earlier this year but one of our members works for MAFF and another is a vet and they were called away at short notice to work in another part of the country. In the end we had to cancel that as well," said chairman Caroline Smith.
"Now it's foot-and-mouth disease, but come what may we were determined to go ahead this time and despite all the difficulties we successfully put on our first performance of 'Family Planning' at the Village Hall on Saturday night," she said.
But it was touch and go.
Caroline became a 'walking wounded' contributor to the event when she fell down stairs.
"It's not too serious but it does illustrate the problems we have had to get our 13th show on the road," she joked.
RATS will give a second showing of the comedy at Ruardean Village Hall this Saturday.