So, we asked her about her work with wardrobe and were, really, blown away by Margaret’s ingenuity and how much she’s put into the Barn over the years. Nobody has the whole picture, but here’s a snapshot, hugely condensed!

Ma Wallace, as she’s affectionately known, has dressed around 40 shows, and says she’s ‘put her fourpenneth in’ to many others! She’s sourced and made costumes and, with her team, spent Monday and Tuesday mornings at the Barn repairing and keeping them in good condition. Even during lockdown they were in there, sorting out scrubs for a local GP surgery and expelling the moths that had made themselves particularly at home among the uniforms. They went through every single piece of costume: ‘I wouldn’t describe it as an infestation,’ she said, ‘but left alone for months it could have been, and a valuable asset would have been lost’. 

And she even gave us illustrated instructions on how to make a mask, modelled in Barn News by the lovely Alan!

In the 70s, long before her boys (Rob, Simon and Trevor) joined the Barn, Margaret used to like to go to see shows, with her friend Kim, and she’d sit there wishing she could be involved in some way.

Then, when Rob, John (Cook) and Paul (Brown) joined the Barn Youth Group, Margaret and Alan used to go and watch what they did – and they did a lot. Trevor and Simon came later, joining that hugely talented group who bring so much creativity to the Barn today. Perhaps we should write a piece about them? Anyway, eventually Margaret and Alan joined the Barn themselves because, she said, ‘We were so grateful to the Barn that our boys had joined the youth group and stayed out of trouble!’.

Her introduction to dressing came in 2005, when Janet While (fantastic costume lady, Margaret said) asked her to help with Gigi. ‘Annie Woolmington, who played Alicia, had such a quick change, it took three of us to do it. It was a fantastic show and we swept the board at Hertford that year.’

There have been fabulous costumes over the years – the sumptuous Playhouse Creatures, beautifully authentic Brontë. She wasn’t only an extraordinary wardrobe mistress and dresser: in 2003, Margaret was instrumental in bringing Festival Costumes to the Barn. And it turned out to be quite an earner!

‘Janet and I had gone to Festival Costumes, who were in Codicote then,’ she said, ‘to look for costumes for The Crucible, that Simon was directing. We got on really well with the owner, then, out of the blue, she asked us if we wanted to buy the business! She’d already asked Lou! But Janet took it to Council and they said yes. Then we found we didn’t have room for all the costumes, so another room was added, which was paid for by the income from costume hire.’

She continued, ‘I think at one time the year’s income from Festival was around £7,000. We had a huge team to hire out costumes, run brilliantly by Judith Claxton and Shirley Thompson, and then eventually it came to me. I’ve never gone looking for jobs, I’ve just got them by default really’.

Margaret struggled to say which was her favourite show to dress, because there’ve been so many, but some stood out. A Slice of Saturday Night in 2007, for the fun of it, Cinderella in 2011 – ‘the best pantomime we’ve ever done. Robert, playing Buttons, had such a quick change, he didn’t change at all, just put one costume on top of another’.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore stands out for a different reason. ‘There was so much blood that I’d have to bring all the costumes home each night. Alan had the bath ready with cold water and we’d plunge them all in, thump them around a bit and leave them to soak overnight, then get them out next morning, by which time there wasn’t a trace of blood, get them dry and pressed, ready for that night’s performance.’

There are so many of these stories Margaret can recount. ‘I remember one show when we needed a Mary Quant dress and hadn’t been able to find one, I got up at six in the morning and had it made ready for the dress rehearsal that night.’

So that’s it, in a very small nutshell. But don’t just take our word for it – director John Davies says:

‘Margaret was a wonderful person to have in charge of costumes. She took a lot of trouble to get things right, spent a lot of time on it, met the deadlines, and made no fuss at all, however pernickety the cast might be.’

All through this interview Margaret has constantly reminded us that she hasn’t worked alone – she’s had a terrific team of women working with her.

You can still find Margaret at the Barn on a Tuesday morning, with a smaller team, and they’re still keeping the costumes in good order. At the moment it looks as if that might continue.

Last word to Margaret:

‘I landed on my feet, all those years ago, when Simon asked me to dress The Crucible. Thank you, son – I’ve had a wonderful time!