Tingewick Ms Meirian Evans

A Pandemic Pantomime Doctor Flu: The Shoe Must Go On

Meirian Evans

(St Catherine’s College, 2017) Tingewick Serenity

Things took quite the turn after last writing in December. The Omicron variant threatened to put a stop to our plans to stage the first Tingewick since 2019, and the first Tingewick out of Oxford. University restrictions cancelled the final week of December rehearsals. So, convinced we’d all be in lockdown by January, we worked on backup plans (a Tingewick ‘mockumentary’…) Against all odds, with a carefully re-written risk assessment, fully masked, socially distanced and LFT negative audiences, and understudies for almost every character, we somehow made it to the Amey Theatre in January for a sell-out run of Doctor Flu: The Shoe Must Go On, to an audience of over 1000 over 4 nights.

And what a show it was. The curtains opened on Staff Testing at the JR in 2020 where Rose and her fellow Tingewick writers were volunteering after COVID had put a stop to their own Tingewick pantomime. Rose met the mysterious Doctor in Osler Mess, who transported her back in time to the 90s where they managed to land the leading roles in the 1996 production of Syndromella after auditioning alongside some familiar faces from the Medical School! Meddling in the past created chaos back in 2020, which forced Rose and The Doctor back to 1996 to undo their mistakes to save not only the John Radcliffe, but also to save Tingewick’s future. Our splendid cast of 110 4th year medics dealt wonderfully with all the ups and downs of a ‘pandemic Tingewick’, stepping into new roles and learning new dances at short notice as other cast members went into isolation. Behind the scenes, a 30-strong Tingewick firm worked tirelessly to bring the show we’d spent a year working so hard on to life.

Thanks to our audiences who came, despite all the challenges, and dug deep at the end of each evening – we raised £13,500! This combined with the rest of our fundraising events puts the 2021 Tingewick total at over £42,000 for Oxford Hospitals Charity and Calon Hearts, which is the most raised in recent memory and will make a huge difference to our charities.

The new Tingewick Firm are already hard at work raising money for the 2022 charities, which are Oxford Hospitals Charity and Helen & Douglas House, with an upcoming 26 mile walk from Tingewick Hall to Tingewick village, a raffle and the Three Peaks challenge before the pantomime later this year. To stay in the loop, please follow Tingewick Society on Facebook, rita_tingewick on Instagram or @RitaTingewick on Twitter.

You can donate to the 2022 total at www.tingewick-2022.raisely.com