Conkering in September...

If you've seen The Forest already, then you'll know there is a moment (I won't say when!) that features rather a lot of conkers. Real conkers from real horse-chestnut trees.Conker season is September/October... our show is touring this year in February and March. Not conker season. So we've had some forward planning to do to make sure that, come the moment in the show, our conkers hit their mark.So, for the last few weeks, I've been running conker control in the Fevered Sleep office, spending many hours scouting around Greenwich Park and others, looking for the tell-tale fan-like leaves, green spikey balls and shiny brown shells of conkers.I never collected conkers as a child... don't know why... so this has been a new experience for me! And I'm ashamed to say it started with me brushing up on just which trees conkers came from. Pictures of Aesculus hippocastanum in my head, off I went.Collecting conkers is one thing. Getting them home is another. And the biggest challenge of all is making sure they're in good form for the show, months later. Leave them stacked in boxes and they'll go rotten, mouldy and very very smelly. So thanks to our production manager Ali for creating a conker dying stack, to keep them drying!You can see the results in the pictures below!