January and February 2024 News
January and February are normally the quiet times for this industry and although mostly true for us, we have been involved with some very interesting and lucrative shows. In January, we were approached by local storyteller Xanthe Gresham to arrange her lighting rig for her new venture ‘Guesthouse Storyteller’, which she took over in the new year at the Hillcrest Centre, a small venue in our home town of Newhaven. We advised and arranged the lighting so it would create a nice atmosphere for the performers. The new format has been welcomed by both performers and the audience.
In another new venture, we were asked to provide and run sound and lighting for our old friend Ty Jeffries who was performing a charity show at a new venue in Brighton called the Ledward Centre. This is a new location offering a safe and inspiring place for the LGBTQ+ communities and their friends to meet and be themselves. For this show, we used our RCF Evox system, our Mackie DL32R digital desk. For lighting, we provided some of our uplighters and a spotlight for the performer, all controlled by our Zero88 Jester24 lighting desk. The sold out show raised over £3000 for charity and we are proud to be involved. We have been asked back for future shows including their most recent starring the superb vocalist Jennie Castell, who performed a concert in tribute to the legendary Dusty Springfield. We used the same set up as the previous concert and received a lot of positive feedback.
Another venture for February, we were in Dorking at one of the smaller rooms of the Dorking Halls where we provided lighting for regulars Simply Dan. For this show, we provided our usual LED par cans along with 10 moving heads, some half metre LED uplighters and our new LED colour bars. The sold out show impressed the venue so much that the band, and us have been asked to return in October.
In the same month, we travelled up to the Hampton Hub Club London where we provided lighting for another regular, the Pink Floyd tribute band Simply Us + Them. For this show, we used the obligatory LED circle along with 10 moving heads, including our bee eye and multi prism movers, 14 lasers and half metre LED uplighters for blinder effects. We also used our LED pars for colour wash, all controlled by our Jester ML48 desk. The show was very well received and there was very positive feedback from the audience and the owner of the venue.
We were also involved with another of Julian Lewry's excellent promotions in Haslemere. This time it was a Blondie tribute band, Totally Blondie. The five superb musicians played a selection of Blondie classics and got the sell-out crowd dancing, calumniating with an eight minute version of Atomic. We supplied the usual LED par cans for up lighting the back of the stage for extra colour, plus the usual uplighters for the side stage pillars and some 1m LED bars for extra dynamics. Another successful sold out show that will return next year.
We have been working on improving our website. We have changed our galleries, so that you will be able to look at specific acts and examples of our work. Over the next few months, we will be adding other features and any feedback will be appreciated.
November and December 2023 News
The last two months of 2023 have been very busy for us and this has been our best year so far!
We started November with a week at Eastbourne’s Grove Theatre where we provided lighting for a production of the Stephen King classic story ‘the Shawshank Redemption’. The company, Redwood Productions got us on board after seeing our work with the Animal Farm production we did in October. The show’s director made the brave decision not to use any scenery and instead, wanted us to create different prison environments using just lighting. For this, we used several of our LED par cans strategically placed above the stage to create different atmospheres and scenes, plus we also provided Fresnel’s and profiles from the front for more dramatic scenes. We also used our Equinox Saber double sided LED beam moving heads for alarm effects and a pin spot to represent the escape tunnel. This was all controlled with our Jester ML24 lighting desk. The show was a great success selling out on a couple of the evenings and it received a lot of positive feedback including positive mentions for the lighting.
We travelled to London for another school presentation of Rabbit in Headlights Animal Farm production. This time the production performed at Arnold House school and again, received very positive feedback.
Music wise, we provided lighting for two more of Julian Lewry’s Haslemere concerts. The first being Fleetwood Back, a Fleetwood Mac tribute band. The sold-out show featured many of FM's greatest hits, plus a few album tracks that are not so well known. The second show featured two great legendary singers Judie Tzuke and Beverly Craven. The duo were accompanied by a four piece string section and a guitarist. The concert had Judie and Beverly taking turns in performing songs with the odd song being performed by both. We provided some extra LED uplighters and bars to create a colourful atmosphere for both shows.
December began with us providing sound and lighting for a community Christmas festival held at the Bandstand in our home town of Newhaven. The Newhaven Christmas Festival was a four-day free event, held in a marquee and the surrounding areas of the bandstand field. Over the four days, there were several bands and performers including a choir, children's performances, DJs and solo performers. They also had food and craft stalls along with a Father Christmas tent. We provided the event with LED par cans and a selection of DJ lighting for the stage controlled by our Jester lighting desk. We also provided festoon and outdoor lighting for the surrounding areas to add atmosphere and to make unlit areas safe for the public to walk. Sound wise, we used our DAP Sound system for front of house and our Mackie monitors for on stage. We used our Allen and Heath QU24 mixing desk to mix the bands and DJs. Although the weather kept a lot of the public away, the organisers hailed it a success and are planning to hold a Spring and Autumn events in 2024.
We finished the year at Meeching Hall in Newhaven for our friends Ignite Theatre’s annual Christmas family show. This time it was the Roald Dahl classic James and the Giant Peach. As usual with Ignite, it was a charming show with many local collaborators contributing beautiful backdrops and very clever artistry to make great use of the venue’s limited space. Seven talented actors graced the stage and were accompanied by the Northcross Dancers. They also had original music written by Kate Daisy Grand and Nick Pynn. We supplied our smaller W audio speakers to create an immersive stereo feel to all the effects and music. To make sure the performers were heard, we provided two of our Sennheiser shotgun microphones towards the stage and used our DL1608 to mix it all. With the lighting, we used some of our LED par cans for colour and profiles and Fresnel’s for the more generic effects. We also used our new vertical smoke machines for the finale and controlled it all with our Jester 48 lighting console. The show has been a huge success with many of the performances being sold out and receiving many great reviews.
September and October 2023 News
The last two months have been rather varied for MX Sound and Lighting as we have been involved with several musical and drama productions.
We started September in Uckfield Civic Centre where we provided sound for Blues musicians Bob Brooke and Miller Anderson. Anderson is one of the few remaining musicians who played at the famous Woodstock festival in 1969. The show was organised by GP Music Events based in Uckfield, who asked us back to provide sound for the another of their shows in October, The Luke Jackson Trio. For both shows, we provided our 2.1k W-Audio system with monitors and our Allen & Heath QU24 desk.
MX Sound and Lighting provided PA and lighting for the annual Bluebell Railway Beer Festival in their engine shed at Sheffield Park Station. A total of nine acts performed at the event over three days and we had to keep to strict timings and curfews to make sure we got every band got to play their allotted times. As we did last year, we provided our 2.1k W-Audio system with monitors and our Allen and Heath QU24 desk. We also provided them with Eight LED par cans controlled by one of our Zero88 Jester desks.
Staying with Music, we provided lighting for a couple of our friend Julian Lewry’s events at Haslemere Hall after his summer break. We started with Oye Santana; a Santana tribute band followed by the Eighties pop combo China Crisis. For both shows, we supplied nine of our LED par cans for up lighting the back curtain, some ADJ uplighters for the pillars on the side of the stage with four 1m LED bars. on the front of the stage to add some decorative lighting towards the audience.
Our ethos for providing PA and lighting for small shows was demonstrated when we were approached by Brighton based Punk band the Fish Brothers, who asked us to help at a gig in a small pub in Lewes. We provided them with our RCF Evox system with a couple of our 150w monitors controlled by our Mackie DL1608 mixing desk. We also provided some LED par cans to add some colour to the show.
Moving away from music, we supplied PA and lighting for the annual Brighton Girls School comedy night in October with a total of five comedians gracing the stage. Whilst the venue is waiting for its new PA and lighting system, We were asked to provide both sound and lighting for this event. We supplied our RCF Evox system with Mackie DL1608m mixing desk along with our Sennheiser radio mics. For lighting, we supplied some of our LED par cans controlled by our Jester lighting desk.
Most of October has been taken up with our new friends Rabbit In Headlights as they began touring their production of the classic story Animal Farm. The tour opened in Eastbourne Grove Theatre for three nights and then continued to venues in Lewes, Brighton, Rottingdean plus a school in Seaford. The shows sold out in several of the venues and the company are exploring taking the show to further schools. For the tour, we supplied our ADJ uplighters, LED Par cans and some generic Fresnels controlled by our. Zero88 Jester desk. Sound wise, we provided our RCF Evox system with monitor and our Mackie DL1608 digital mixing desk. The show has received many good reviews and a lot of positive feedback from the audience.
July and August 2023 News
July and August have been another very busy for MX Sound and Lighting, where we have been involved with several music and drama events, with some being held in different venues that we have not worked at before.
We started July by providing sound and lighting for a private 70th birthday party in Chobham Golf Club. To celebrate this milestone, the client formed a band with his family. For the occasion, we supplied our 2k W Audio rig with monitors and our Mackie DL32r digital desk. For lighting, we provided some of our LED par cans running on automation mode, plus a few oil and DJ effects to add atmosphere to the rest of the hall.
The following week, we supplied a much larger PA and lighting rig for a Queen Tribute band ‘Flash’ performing at Piltdown Golf Club. The show was held outdoors with the stage being the golf drive range. For this event, we used our Allen and Heath QU24 digital mixing console 6x W Audio. Speaker tops and 2x W Audio subs plus 5x monitor speakers. For lighting, we used our LED par cans for the main band coverage, As most of the show was held in the daylight, much of the lighting was not seen to its full potential, so to combat this, we supplied our LED bars and LED wash moving heads to provide some movement. This was controlled by our Jester ML48 lighting desk. We did receive a lot of positive feedback for the lighting and for the sound
We continued the month at the Hillcrest Centre in our home town of Newhaven where we provided sound and lighting for our friend, Nick Pynn, plus folk combo the Kites. Again, our 2k W Audio rig and our DL32r was used, along with two smaller speakers added for a side fill. For lighting, we used four of our LED par cans to add atmosphere to the main stage and four more to up light the curtains at the back of the stage. This was run by our 24-channel jester desk.
We started August by providing lighting for Seriously Collins, a Phil Collins tribute band. This show was held at the Brighton Open Air Theatre or BOAT for short. As this was an outdoor show, we used our brand new IP65 rated waterproof LED par cans, which were controlled by our 48 channel Jester desk and they worked really well when a couple of heavy downpours occurred. Fortunately the weather held off during the show.
Drama wise, we got involved with another local amateur dramatics group. This time it was Meeching Amateur Dramatics or MAD for short. The event was held inside a Nissan Hut in Newhaven Fort. The show, Telstar, The Joe Meek Story. ran for four days and told the story of Sixties innovator, composer and producer Joe Meek. Once again, our W Audio rig was used for the PA along with our small Mackie desk and laptop for sound effects and music cues. We provided a wider selection of lights for this show with one of our smaller ADJ par cans inside a radio prop to give the impression of it was being switched on for the audio breaks. We also used one of our LEDJ par cans on a chase to give the impression of a burning bin. The production also used our LED par cans for colour, some generic Fresnel’s and profiles with dimmers for the main stage. All controlled by our 48 channel Jester desk. The play received really positive reviews from the audience.
May and June 2023 News
May and June have been very busy months for MX Sound and Lighting.
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In May, we started the month by supplying lighting for our friends the Floyd tribute Simply Us and Them. This was at the Ropetackle in Shoreham, where we used our 12 of our colour lasers and 12 moving heads. We did not use the LED ring this time as the band had images projected onto the screen behind. The sold-out show was well received by the public.
We provided lighting for another Julian Lewry show in Haslemere Hall. This time it was a Tom Petty tribute show. We supplied several uplighters for the bands backdrop to create a colourful array of light to the music along with up lighting the pillers on the side of the stage that created a nice framework for the performers. We also provided PA and lighting for wedding caileigh for our friends Kates Kitchen Band.
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In June we supplied sound for a council run venture in Newhaven called the Sussex Day Celebration at the Bandstand. It was a free community event and featured several acts including music, magic, dance along with the usual food and craft stalls. For this venture, we supplied our W Audio PA rig with six monitors, plus all mics, DI boxes. The event was a great success and was enjoyed by all who attended.
Our main focus the last two months has been providing technical equipment and personnel for three drama companies! With two of the productions playing in different venues.
The first was with our friends Ignite Theatre, with their latest production Ella Hickson’s award winning play ‘Eight’. The drama, told in a monologue fashion, explores a collective of 8 individuals from different backgrounds trapped by a world of excess, political unrest, internal and external strife. The show premiered at the Actors Theatre in Brighton as part of the Brighton Fringe events. The mini tour ended in Ignite’s home in Meeching Hall in Newhaven to great reviews from critics and audience alike. For this production, we used our LED par cans, some Fresnel’s and uplighters controlled by our Jester lighting console. We also used our RCF EVOX system and small Mackie mixing desk for the PA.
The next project was with the Peacehaven Players amateur dramatics group, who are celebrating their 25thanniversary of the group’s formation. This production, ‘The Magic Of The Musicals’, was a showcase of songs from well-known musicals from varying periods of stage and screen. The group performed and choreographed a total of 39 songs from many classic shows. We supplied the group with our W Audio PA system, Allen and Heath QU24 mixing desk, our Sennheiser radio mics and a selection of shotgun mics along the front of the stage. Lighting wise, we supplied some of our LED par cans to create a colour wash as well as to add colour to the drape set. This was controlled by our Jester ML48 lighting desk. As the stage had very little scenery, we also provided some uplighters to add some colour to the back.
The third project was the completion of shows with our new friends Tríada Theatre Company. The company’s latest production of Dario Fo’s farcical comedy ‘Can’t Pay Won’t Pay’ continued in various venues around Sussex and concluded in Eastbourne. This play also had a lot of positive reviews from critics and audiences. We provided a technician and supplemented each of the venue’s lighting by supplying some of our own LED par cans as well as our Jester desk.
April 2023 News
MX Sound and Lighting has been busy the last month as we have been working with our friend Julian Lewry lighting his latest promotion Dutch Prog rockers Focus at Haslemere Hall. We supplied lighting bars and our small LED screens along with our LED Par cans for uplighting curtain at the back of the stage.
We have been working with Kates Kitchen Band for a caileigh to celebrate the birth of William Shakespeare. We supplied them with our W Audio 2k rig, our 150w speakers for monitoring and our Mackie DL32 digital desk.
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Along with our regular clients MX Sound and Lighting have also supplied PA equipment for an event in Crowborough. The show Blue Rose Code was a music event put on by Uckfield based GP Events. We supplied our mid sized 2k W Audio system with 350w monitors and our Mackie DL32 desk. We received a lot of positive feedback for our work that evening with one of the audience members informing us that the sound was "crystal clear".
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We have teamed up with another drama company. Tríada is a Greco-British theatre company tackling big social issues in small, intimate, diverse spaces. For this months performances, we supplied and ran our jester desk and a technician for their current production, Can't Pay Won't Pay. This show was in London and received a lot of positive feedback from the audience who attended. They have a few more runs of this show in Brighton and Eastbourne over the next couple of months and we will be supplying and running the tech for those shows.
February & March 2023 News
MX Sound and Lighting have been a little quiet the last couple of months whilst we are preparing for our upcoming summer events. We have done a few shows for our friend Julian Lewry which included a Genesis tribute band, seventies legends Sad Cafe and a Steely Dan tribute Simply Dan, who also asked us to provide lighting for them at another venue in Shoreham.
January 2023 News
January, normally a quiet time for this industry, has been a very busy month for MX Sound and Lighting. We started the year with another Pink Floyd tribute show at the Cavern Roundhouse in London where we supplied lighting for the PF tribute band Simply Us And Them. We supplied our new compact LED moving heads and lasers along with the usual LED par cans and ADJ LED circle. In total, we used eight moving heads and no fewer than twelve lasers to create a spectacular show.
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We followed on with a caileigh with Kates Kitchen Band at Lancing College. The event was held to celebrate their annual Burns Night. Held in the breathtaking dining hall, we supplied the band with our mid-sized W Audio PA system, Mackie DL32 mixing desk, mics and DI boxes.
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We finished the month with two shows from Julian Lewry. The first was Clearwater Creedence Revival, a Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute band. The second was legendary blues band Nine Below Zero. On both occasions, we supplied extra LED par cans to enhance the venue’s rig.
MX Sound and Lighting have teamed up with a new drama and arts company. The company, Rabbit in Headlights has been formed by Jon and Sue Terry to bring professional performers to Stage, Business and Education. Their first production will tour in venues around Sussex in October. We are pleased to be part of this company and are looking forward to offering our expertise to this venture. To find out more, please follow the link on our Contact/links page.
November and December News
November and December News
On 17th December, MX Sound and Lighting proudly supplied and ran a lighting rig for a worthy charity event at St John's Church in Piddinghoe. The event was organised to raise money for Seahaven Foodbanks and Community Supermarkets. Everyone, including MX, gave their time and resources for free. Despite the church having no heating and being very cold, those who attended were treated to some wonderful music from Seven Stars Folk Band, Ellie Blackshaw, Colin Chapman, Rachael Fryer, Adam Bushell and folk legends The Copper Family. Ignite Fringe collaborated with the Piddinghoe Players and performed a scene from their 'Grandma's Grimm show'. We provided six LED par cans, one of our Jester lighting consoles, plus a technician to run the event. The event raised over £1000 for the charity.
In December, we provided sound and lighting for our new friends at Ignite Theatre for their latest production 'Grandma's Grimm' which was held at Meeching Hall in Newhaven. The show featured a selection of Grimm's fairy tales, some familiar and others not.. Along with the usual actors, they also had shadow puppets and invited other community groups to participate. This made a nice varied show for everyone. With over 150 lighting cues and almost 90 sound cues, it is a very challenging, but enjoyable show to be involved with. For this production, we provided 12x LED par cans, 4x Acclaim Fresnels, 4x Altman profiles cans, a pin spot and an LED Derby all controlled by our Jester lighting desk. Soundwise, we supplied six speakers around the hall to create an immersive feel for all the sound effects that were mixed in our studio and run through our Mackie DL1608 mixing desk. We also provided microphones and DI boxes for the musicians. Outside the auditorium, we supplied a second PA and CD player to play a selection of ambient music for the entrance hall and the cafe as well as some LED fixtures to create a dreamy atmosphere for the relaxation room upstairs. The show ran for seven shows over two weeks and sold out on four of them.
From music to drama, in November, we provided lighting for the final performances of Swanwing Productions four star Edinburgh show 'Battle A Modern Mystery Play'. The play debuted in Battle in June and was written and directed by Saskia Wesnigk-Wood. It depicted the story of 1066 and other periods of history told through the eyes of its women. The performances were held in a small theatre in Brighton where we provided extra lighting, plus one of our Zero 88 jester desks and a technician to run the show.
MX Sound and Lighting has had a busy and varied couple of months. In November, we provided lighting and a technician for some more of Julian Lewry's shows. The first being at Haslemere Hall where we provided lighting and crew for Jo Harman and Mike Farris, a double bill of Blues vocalists. We also worked at the same venue with an Elton John tribute act. At Farncombe we provided lighting for Oye Santana, a Santana tribute band at St Johns Church in Farncombe. After hosting events at this venue for 15 years, this was the final show in this venue for Julian, who is moving all his events to Haslemere and other venues.
October News
MX Sound and Lighting has been busy over the last month. We started the month with another show with Pink Floyd tribute, Simply Us And Them. For this show, we were at Trading Boundaries in Uckfield. We teamed up with the venue's lighting technician by integrating our lasers, LED circle and moving heads with their system to create a very unique show.
We then were called to run tech for a comedy event at Brighton Girls School where we not only provided a technician, but we also provided our Sennheiser radio mics for their existing system.
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We were back on familiar ground where we provided a sound system for a couple of barn dances in Shoreham. We have been working with Kate's Kitchen Band for many years until the band split a year or so ago. They have now reformed and we are pleased to be working with them again. for these events, we used our W Audio system and Mackie DL32 wireless desk.
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We also have been working with our friend Julian Lewry where we provided some LED par cans for his Haslemere shows. On this occasion, it was Eighties pop stars The Blow Monkeys.
September News
MX Sound and Lighting are proud to have provided sound and lighting for The Bluebell Railway Beer Festival. The main part of the event was held in the engine shed at Sheffield Park station. A total of nine acts performed over the three days throughout the weekend, ranging from a single performer with an iPad accompaniment to an 11 piece Funk and Soul band. There was also a very eclectic selection of genres. These ranging from Jazz, Soul, Folk, Rock and Pop. We used our 2k W Audio rig and our Allen & Heath QU24. Lighting was 8 x LED par cans controlled by our Zero88 Jester 24 desk.
MX Sound and Lighting is proud to announce that we have moved from Brighton to bigger premises in Newhaven. As with so many companies in this industry, MX Sound and Lighting has been unable to work during the start of this pandemic, so we decided to use the downtime to make the move. We are still renovating the premises, but once the renovations are completed, we will be able to run the company in a much smoother operation. All the contact details, except for the premises address remain the same.
MX Sound and Lighting has been supplying sound and lighting for our new friends Ignite Theatre for their ambitious new project 'Gabriel' by Moria Buffini at Meeching Hall in our home town Newhaven The play, set in a farmhouse in occupied Guernsey during the Second World War, is a tense drama about a young man with no memory found unconscious and rescued by a local family. We supplied six speakers around the hall to create an immersive feel for all the sound effects that were mixed in our new studio and run through our new Mackie ProFX8 desk. Lighting wise, we supplied 4x Fresnels, 2x profiles and 7 LED par cans controlled by our Jester lighting desk. We also supplied another PA and CD player to play a selection of WWII recordings for the entrance hall and the Forties style cafe to further enhance the wartime experience.
MX Sound and Lighting has been supplying and running equipment for two productions for Swanwing Productions. 'Battle, a Modern Mystery Play' was the new production from Swanwing productions. It opened in Battle as part of the town's bi-annual medieval festival. We supplied LED lights for the lighting as well as technical support throughout the productions run.
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We also were commissioned to run sound and lighting for Swanwing's London run of their previous work 'Love In The Time Of Lockdown' Both productions received positive feedback including a four star review for the London 'Lockdown' show.
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MX Sound and Lighting teamed up with our sister company Sound On Q to supply Sound and Lighting for an ABBA tribute band at Piltdown Golf Club in Piltdown. The show was held outdoors with the stage being the golf drive range. We supplied our 3600w DAP Audio PA along with our Sennheiser radio mics and our W Audio monitors. We also supplied our QU24 sound desk for mixing. Lighting included our JesterML desk, 8x LED par cans, 6 LED moving heads and 4x uplighter. Most of the show was held in the daylight, so the much of the lighting wasn't seen to its full potential.
MX Sound and Lighting have been busy over the last few months. We have been working with Julian Lewry music, Simply Dan/Us and Them and other interesting events. We also have been spreading our wings a and traveled to Epsom, where we supplied extra lighting for a new arts centre called the Horton. We supplied extra Fresnels, LEDs and a technician for two productions.
Another venture we made was to the Alexandra Centre in Faversham, Kent to supply lighting for Seriously Collins, a Phil Collins tribute act. We supplied Fresnels, LED par cans and up-lighters.
We have finally finished building our mixing studio for our live recording service. We have an exciting few weeks ahead of us where we will be working on two plays from Swanwing Productions and the summer production from our new friends Ignite Theatre.
MX Sound and Lighting teamed up with Newhaven’s newest production company, Ignite Theatre, for their production of The Wind In The willows. It was held in Meeching Hall in Newhaven and ran for six days over two weekends. For this production, we supplied four LED uplighter bars, nine LED par cans along with four acclaim Fresnel’s and four Altman profiles. These were controlled by our Zero 88 Jester ML48. We also supplied a PA consisting of our RCF array system accompanied with two of our W Audio PSR8 for monitors. We positioned two Sennheiser shotguns at the stage to aid with the performers dialogue. We also used our AKG C214s to pick up the sound of the musician’s accordion and soundscape bowls. We used our Allen & Heath QU24 to mix. The show also used projections for scenery and a truss was provided by us to hang the projector and the LED pars. We also supplied lighting for the relaxion room next to the bar. The result was an enchanting retelling of this classic story. The show sold well despite the threat of Covid cancelling the event and it has been well received by all those who attended.
