REAL RIDER
Lotte Tickner (second from right) is one of a troupe of four actors cycling around Britain performing Shakespeare’s As You Like It
In November 2015, I was one of four women chosen from over 200 actors to join the HandleBards, through an audition process that included a fitness test! The boys [the male HandleBards troupe who featured in Cycling Plus three years ago] have been performing since 2013 and toured the world.
This year we’ve had an easy start so far, cycling from London to Edinburgh and then across the south coast. I can’t wait to start touring the Peak District – we’re performing at some amazing places, but I’m dreading the climbs.
We played at the 600-year-old timberframed Guildhall in Leicester where Shakespeare performed. We even visited the Pathfinder bike workshop, coincidentally at Stratford-upon-Avon, then ended the year flying to Khartoum, making history as the first ever all-female theatre company to perform in Sudan as part of a workshop initiative.
We perform at a theatre each evening, then camp on site or are put up by ‘Friends of the HandleBards’. The next morning we pack up and ride to the next venue. We ride for about six hours a day, though each theatre is planned not to be more than 30 miles from the next. We ride Pashley Pathfinders pulling trailers that contain our props, costumes, clothes and tents, all flying Shakespeare banners. We get some quizzical looks and shouts, especially when cycling through towns and cities, but it makes me proud when I’m asked about the performances or where we’re heading to next. I don’t like cycling on our A-roads much – I’m still surprised we’re able to ride on them when I see the speed of the cars – but for an actor who grew up cycling this is a dream role, but it’s not without its moments. Performing in Dundee last year we rode to our venue, a 19th century frigate called the HMS Unicorn. After the show we slept on deck, having been warned it was haunted and consuming plenty of whiskey for Dutch courage. Then we were all awoken in the night by loud, mysterious activity in supposedly empty decks below...
We ride for about six hours a day, though each theatre is no more than 30 miles from the next