Nigel takes on the Flood single-handed

Cedarbrook Methodist Church will host Forty Days, a one-man dramatisation of the story of Noah written and performed by congregation member Mr Nigel Fish, on Saturday 12 September at 7pm. He has been working on it since Lent and calls it the most serious thing he has attempted.

He plays every part. Noah, Mrs Noah, the three sons, the dove, the Almighty (from behind the vestry door, for resonance) and all of the animals, which he performs two at a time. The Flood itself is eleven minutes of Mr Fish alone on the floor in silence, and is understood to be his favourite section.

The second half includes the passage in chapter nine in which Noah discovers wine and is found uncovered in his tent. Mr Fish has declined to cut it, on the grounds that it is in the Bible. Rev'd Dr Philip Simpson has asked only that the tarpaulin be secured at both ends.

Rain is provided by Cecil Hobday with a tin tray and a bag of dried peas. There is no interval, the Flood not having had one. The dress rehearsal audience laughed throughout the animals and again at the tarpaulin, which Mr Fish attributed to nerves.

Admission is free, with a retiring collection for the Wesley roof appeal. Refreshments follow, the urn having been booked since March. Mr Fish asks that no remark be made about his surname.