My dictionary defines ‘raucous’ as ‘harsh-sounding, loud and hoarse’. So it was with some trepidation that I ventured to a Filkins Theatre ‘entertainment’ on 14th August, even more so as it was billed as ‘audience-participatory’.

  It turned out, of course, to be a delightful event on a hot evening, in the courtyard at Cotswold Woollen Weavers, which was suitably decked with welcome sunshades. Fortified by an initial glass of wine, and some delicious and inventive canapés, ably produced by the FT team, Richard Martin set out the form. There were two platforms and four trays containing piles of paper, marked, in turn, jokes, literature, one liners and poems.  We were invited to pick from one at random and then perform from one platform, while the other was for the next performer. The jokes were said to be ‘clean’, the poems brief, and nothing longer than a minute, or less.

  First up, and she had clearly been ‘volunteered’, was the FT stalwart Sue Ashworth-Smith, who read a joke, quickly followed by FT veteran Julia Neame, with a poem, then newcomer Sarah Jane Poole with literature, then Richard himself, FT leading lady Lynne Savage, and Jonathan from Holwell with a poem, demonstrating that it was not an exclusive Filkins evening, and that there is dramatic talent across the benefice. Jeremy Irwin-Singer, Alan Law, in a splendid hat, Teresa Smallbone, Richard again, Alex Jobling all then showed that the audience were getting into their stride. Emboldened, Ian Andrews, a visitor from distant Lechlade, adlibbed an excellent joke - something to do with penguins - and so it continued.

  There were some stirring moments: Nicky from Holwell, read Auden’s “Stop All the Clocks” followed by Elaine Long with Jacques ‘All the World’s A Stage’ from ‘As You Like It’. WE had excerpts from Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, beautifully read. Later we had Jeremy Irwin-Singer reading the St Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V which he prefaced with a touching recollection of former FT member Ken Baxter MC, and the latter’s description of his progress up Sword beach on D-Day.

  Fortified by several visits to the bar, both before and during the interval, the audience got bolder. ‘Jokes’ and ‘One-liners’, though in truth it was sometimes hard to distinguish between these categories, began to flow thick and fast. Ian Grey, Diane Blackett, Debbie Law, Trish Poole, Debra Andrews, Aidan Irwin-Singer, Jane Martin …all showed that you don’t need a trek to the Edinburgh fringe to enjoy an ‘August Raucous’. Or should that be “Ruckus”... A ‘commotion’?

  Teresa Smallbone