Angry drivers found themsleves sent on a country trail after rain washed out the car parks for Stafford Castle’s Much Ado About Nothing performance.

They faced mayhem as staff at the castle ushered them away to a safe car park.

Hundreds of cars were last night sent round country lanes to the village of Derrington about two miles away, where emergency parking had been organised with buses to bring the audience back. The start of the performance was delayed until everybody had arrived.

The audience had to wait for buses to take them back to Derrington.

Read the full story in the Express & Star. 

Angry drivers found themsleves sent on a country trail after rain washed out the car parks for Stafford Castle’s Much Ado About Nothing performance.

They faced mayhem as staff at the castle ushered them away to a safe car park.

Hundreds of cars were last night sent round country lanes to the village of Derrington about two miles away, where emergency parking had been organised with buses to bring the audience back. The start of the performance was delayed until everybody had arrived.

The audience had to wait for buses to take them back to Derrington.

Among them was Diane Davies, from Hednesford. She had gone to the Shakespeare production with three friends and was left fuming when she didn’t get home until the early hours – and had to get up four hours later to go to work.

She arrived in plenty of time, following earlier warnings about possible delays because of work on the Newport Road. 

As she turned into the Castle she was redirected, sent back out and diverted to Derrington.

“There was no problem getting to Derrington,” she said today. “But there could have been signs out earlier to save us turning in.

“There seemed to be a lot of confusion about what was happening, but we got to park up OK and coaches had been specially laid on to get us back to the castle.”

She said the real problems began at the end of the performance. “To start with it was about 30 minutes late finishing.

“Add to that the wait for a coach. We got back to the car park about 11.30pm and by the time I had dropped my friends off in Great Wyrley and Handsacre it was 1am when I finally got to bed.

“I was not best amused when my alarm went off this morning at 5.45am but there must have been others who  had to wait a lot longer than us to get back to Derrington.”

Mrs Davies, a mother of two, added that the production team had pulled out all the stops to ensure the show went on. “Even the producer was helping out at the emergency car park. The problem was the grassed parking area was sodden and just could not be used.”

The show is headlined by former Cornation Street stars Sally Lindsay (Shelley Unwin) and Stephen Beckett (Dr Matt Ramsden).