As director Paul Hart’s revival of a musical version of The Lord of the Rings has an alfresco prologue and epilogue in the gardens of Berkshire’s delightful riverside theatre, staff were checking weather apps like players on the last afternoon of a crucial cricket match. There seemed a risk that – in defiance of the storyline of JRR Tolkien’s mid-1950s trilogy, which became three huge early 21st-century movies – the battle for Middle-earth might end as a rain-affected draw.
But, as at the Oval the previous day, meteorological apps proved too apocalyptic and the play began and ended almost on time. Although, under dry skies, the start was briefly delayed by a low-flying helicopter. (Government press officers may be dismayed that the immediate consensus was that it was Rishi Sunak going home.)
