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And they're off... National Drama Festival Day 1

31 July 2026

Hot Glue, High Drama, and a 1 AM Pot Noodle

(or, Why You Shouldn’t Let Jamie Blog at 1am)

In the next of our series of posts reflecting on each day of the National Drama Festival, our Artistic Director, Jamie, shares his late night feedback on an action packed day.

What a day. It’s currently 1am, I’m sat on the sofa of our airbnb with some milky tea wondering why I thought writing a blog post at the end of each day would be a good idea!

Today started with loading the car at 8am. And then checking it roughly every 20 minutes after that to make sure I had everything. Over the years on the festival circuit we’ve got adept at constructing sets which can fit into the back of my Ford C-Max. But with doors, carpets, frames, wifi enabled lights, tools, bolts, boots, cats, cameras, telephones, yoga mats and a million other things this year was touch and go.

My car, fully loaded (and checked roughly fourteen times before I left).

We arrived in Bromsgrove at the Artrix Theatre shortly after 1pm for a lines run over lunch. It was lovely to see some of the NDFA festival committee too and we were made to feel immediately at ease by how effortlessly they keep everything running.

And then we started. We had our 45 minute tech time where we had to programme in all our light cues, work out how to work the projector and hope that all the wifi-enabled wizardry we use to live stream the audience onto a TV and make doors light up different colours worked. Thankfully it all did.

Our tech, as captured by Karen Carey from the NDFA. Thanks Karen!!

With tech done, all that was left was the performance. We were first on and before we knew it, 7pm rolled around and Amanda, the Host with the Most, introduced us in an incredibly unbiased way. (We had the pleasure of working with Amanda over the years at Woking Drama Festival.) Intro over, LX 1 called and we were away.

The cast did a superb job and I think we can be rightly proud of our performance tonight. I think it was our best performance - every time we’ve done it we’ve added small tweaks here and there and it felt like tonight those all aligned and paid off. And then LX 45 was called - our closing blackout. Done. The last time we’ll perform The Aviary. Bittersweet, but mostly sweet.

This year, the festival is adjudicated by the incredible Jan Palmer Sayer. She’s adjudicated a couple of our performances in previous years and we’ve always found her adjudications to be insightful and, most importantly, useful. So up she stepped to give us her review. It’s always hard to remember what’s said, because rather than being a normal human at this point, you’re just a mix of adrenaline and exhaustion, but I think the gist was largely positive. The great thing about the NDF is that there is a Feedback Forum tomorrow morning (or this morning now I suppose) where we’ll discuss the feedback in more detail. I’ll let you know how we get on there.

And so, with The Aviary having taken its last flight, we’re now free to enjoy everything else the festival has to offer. Which tonight was two more productions - Brothers by Drum Machine Theatre and Mop and Bucket by Broadly Speaking Productions. Both excellent (of course - that’s why they’ve been selected to be here) and both totally different.

Brothers

This was a superbly written, highly emotional journey play following the story of two estranged brothers who reunite when one undergoes treatment for cancer. It was touching, funny and wonderfully acted as we watched the lives of these two brothers told over the decades and uncovered a complex family history which felt very true. At times this was tough subject matter, but the production carried it off well. And as Jan rightly pointed out, the final scene was so uplifting. Really lovely work.

Mop & Bucket

And then for something completely different - a laugh out loud sitcom-esque comedy. The eponymous Mop and Bucket refer to an over-qualified cleaner and an under-qualifed CEO. Staged really simply, it let us focus on the comedy of the piece and the audience roared with laughter throughout. Some standout comedy moments involving stools, pants and job interviews. Loved it. The group are taking the production to Edinburgh Fringe this year, so if you happen to be up there - seek it out! You can thank me later.

It was also lovely to meet members of these groups and chat about their experiences - another plus of a competition like this.

So all that was left was to pack the car back up. By this point in our festival journey, most of our props (cardboard cutout emojis of things - boxing gloves, cats, telephones) were only being held together by hot glue and gaffer tape, so we made use of the Brightlight branded bins and disposed of half the set!

Here we are packing the car up at the end of the night. Can you see those yellow and pink bins?

We then realised we hadn’t bought any food for the airbnb, so a quick stop by Costcutter (who didn’t have eggs, bacon or cheese, but did have milk and teabags - and a King Size Pot Noodle for Liam). That’s going to make for an interesting breakfast. A final debrief in the kitchen before we all turned in to bed. What a day. How I love this!

Right - tomorrow. Five plays tomorrow. Yes that’s right. Five. Impact, The Irish Theatre Group, Compton Players, Semi-Circle Basel and TACT. That’s a pretty incredible line up. Add to that the feedback forum in the morning, plus workshops on how to select the best plays and stage combat. I really should get some sleep.

If you’ve read this far - I apologise. It’s 1am and I really shouldn’t be allowed to write when I’m this tired.

See you tomorow.

Jamie