I was walking along the Brayford and around Lincoln a few days back, enjoying the sites of Lincoln and then i saw the most beautiful sunset. As many of you know Lincoln sunsets always make the end of your day that little bit better. It got me thinking about my time at uni and my time in Lincoln. I grew up in Lincoln in a little village on the outskirts called North Scarle , so have lived here for 20 years. When i speak to people about why they chose Lincoln they say because its a beautiful, small town which is true. Thinking about all of this made me think about solo performance and how memories and visions could be shown on stage as for many of my ideas this would be a concept worth looking at using pictures, lighting, objects and my experiences.

The idea of a performance starting with a blinding light, which could signify anything! This idea came to me when thinking about my idea of showing epilepsy and how it makes me feel. Putting the audience into my shoes and getting them to try and understand what i go through and how it feels. The light could represent my pupils, my brain or maybe even where it happened.

“On the bonny bonny banks of loch Lomond”… “oh Danny boy the pipes the pipes are calling”… “and I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more” ahh I could sing them songs all day… if I had enough hours in the day. One hour for the walk between collingham and north scarle, then I would see the grandchildren, go to the park and even go on the slide if I was feeling adventurous. Talking of adventure I often take myself off on little walks being out in the fresh air.. feeling that breeze on my face and enjoying every bit of air I breath in… you see I worked in the pit and being underground for most of my days when I retired I wanted to experience that breeze… I know it sounds silly and I did love my job… don’t get me wrong but nothing beats a nice bottle of iron bru… glass bottles are usually the best for it, its a better taste… and being sat on a park bench or just roaming around it felt amazing and even the iron bru tasted better than usual. I then sit and think… think about life, how important my family are to me, how even though my wife had now passed I still remember every little detail about our 65 year marriage geeze saying 65 years out loud… I don’t know how I put up with her haha… no all jokes aside Margaret was one in a million. Getting used to being alone was tough and I found it hard as did the rest of the family. I told the grandchildren Kate and Mollie that she was up there… wherever there is… making her special soup which was made up of lentils, vegetables and made with stock from a ham hock bone, they instantly stopped crying and began to smile. The greatest loves in my life are my family, my wife and iron bru… I know what your thinking typical Scottish man talking about iron bru all the time and how it is made from real girders, to a secret recipe for over 100 years and do you know what your right I love the stuff I buy bottles of it… the local shop.. co-op when I walk in and go to the fizzy pop isle they know what im there for they say “ey up peters back for another five bottles of iron bru” they would then laugh and my reply would be “ I, of course I am” and do you know what they were right too and im proud of my love for the drink. With the five bottles that I had purchased I used to hide two in different places around the house for when the grandchildren came over it was like hide and seek but instead of finding a human they would find a bottle of iron bru and that was the moment that there love nearly became as strong as mine for the drink… we would make everything… ice cream floaters scooping a lump of ice cream and putting it in the glass and then pouring the beautiful orange drink that was made in Scotland over the top turning the ice cream orange and giving it that special flavour.

I have four sons Donald may he rest in peace, Alex he lives in Australia, Peter I would say like farther like son and Paul the farther of Kate and Mollie the grandchildren. There is a funny story about everyone of my children, they get the comedy gene from me. But the story I like to tell the most is about when I went on my trip to Australia… so I get to Heathrow airport… go through security and begin to get ready for my flight in the departure lounge and I get talking to one of the check in ladies and before I know it she asks me if she can take my ticket.. I say yes without hesitation but then I think what if she has just gone and robbed me of my ticket… I start to panic but then luckily she comes back and explains that she has upgraded me to first class because she thought I was a lovely gentleman… I offer to buy her a meal out of kindness and she explains that she gets her meal free as she works at the airport but she will come and sit with me. Now I would say that’s luck if you have ever seen it. The story of the ticket spread across the family and now everyone knows that I was upgraded to first class I’m like the celebrity of collingham. I walk around the village wearing my beautiful cowboy hat and just sit and think about how lucky I am to have these experiences and to have met these people.

Age – 87

Gender – male

Distinguishing features – cut on head

Marital status- Widowed

Above are all questions that are commonly asked when filling out an application for a passport. The person who i imagined was a male, aged 87 who has a cut on his head and is widowed. When thinking further about this person i had imagined, i recognized resemblance to my granddad which then gave me an idea to base my performance based on his life.

So we all have different thought processes, the way we process different events, issues and lifestyles depends on how our brain is wired up. My brain well thats’s another story… Epilepsy something that i was thinking about exploring showing the audience how it feels in that moment when you wake up and dont know why your in hospital. Putting the audience in the mindset of me almost swapping there brain with mine.