Worthing outdoor fun: finding the pinky-est pink

Half A String bring The Lost Colour to the Pavilion Promenade on Saturday, August 6 at 11.30am and 1.30pm.

Peter Morton, company artistic director, said: “We do the show from the top of our van. We've got like a touring van that we use and we bolt the set up on top of it, on top of the van. It means everyone can really see as well. We started it because of the lockdowns and Covid when we could get out and do shows outside socially distanced. The pandemic just meant that we went two metres up in the air! So we’ve got a stage on the van and we've got an actor who is up on top of the van and I am running around at the bottom.”

On the van the actor is playing Malcolm Brushell, a professional painter and amateur alchemist on a quest to find the pinky-est pink paint on the planet

“Through cracking rocks, mashing every conceivable vegetable and even bottling and fermenting his own cow’s wee, he has created every colour imaginable.”

Now he wants the pinky-est pink – a mission which will take him on a great adventure to a jungle on an island in search of a certain beetle.

" There is a rivalry between him and Sir William Gloss. It is all fiction but loosely based on a true story and they're both trying to get this colour. Malcolm is a Scottish painter who is world renowned for creating the best colours ever and the story is based around colour theory and colour history. We did a lot of research which was really interesting.

“There is not a huge moral to it. We tend to put the fun first but he doesn't squish the beetle and the beetle goes home at the end. And there is an element about Sir William being quite powerful and greedy and in the end getting his comeuppance but it's not a big moralising story.

"It is just a lot of fun and we have some great puppets, some of them quite large and some of them very intricate.”

As for the pandemic: “It was hard but we are quite a small company which means that we are quite adaptable. We are able to change what we do quite quickly. Obviously with the pandemic we had all of our shows cancelled. We had a few tours that were not viable. It took us a while to get our heads around what we could do and we did some stuff online which was good and then we thought about the van and when people could enjoy stuff outdoors.

"When we were able to put on live events, we did and when we first started back after the pandemic there was a real thirst from people to come and see things. People really enjoyed the community.”

The show lasts 20 minutes and is suitable for all. Tickets are free but Worthing Theatres and Museum are recommending people should book their tickets in advance through the website so they can keep you up to date with any last minute venue/time changes.