Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen
presented by The Company Of Players
An amateur performance by arrangement with Samuel French Ltd. One of Ibsen's most famous and popular plays; 'Hedda Gabler' ticks all the boxes - a dark compelling story, and realistic characters with a fluent text. The year is 1890, the location a well furnished villa in a middle class university town. Tesman, a vague but decent academic has married and bought the house on the promise of a professorship at the university. His bride much to his surprise and everyone else's, is Hedda Gabler, daughter of a general, a proud, highly intelligent and self-contained woman who clearly does not love him. Two people from their past turn up, one an old school friend of Hedda's, the other a dissolute writer and academic who rivalled Tesman before becoming a drunken vagrant.... the story unravels like a thriller.
Awarded the Tony Bentley Tankard for Adjudicators Award
The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter
presented by The College Players
An amateur performance by arrangement with Samuel French Ltd. The Birthday Party was inspired by all the tatty thrillers in which Pinter appeared as a struggling young actor. The story is standard thriller fare, with a young rebel without a cause on the run, and two menacing toughies coming to pick him up. In the gaps between the spare, pungent and wonderfully funny dialogue, you occasionally catch a musty whiff of Agatha Christie and Fifties B-movies. The Birthday Party is a deeply disturbing and political play which depicts one of the great terrors of the 20th century - the knock on the door by the stranger representing authority. Long may it survive as a play that will still shock and surprise well into the 21st Century.
The Lady In The Van by Alan Bennett
presented by Heath Players
An amateur performance by arrangement with Samuel French Ltd. Alan Bennett's award winning play from 1999 is a fascinating, true life story of a complex relationship, an experiment in tolerance and a unique tale of British eccentricity. Miss Shepherd was invited to park in the playwright's garden in Camden Town for three months; she stayed for 15 years. It is a gentle bittersweet comic play with dialogue to die for.
'Night Mother by Marsha Norman
presented by Legion Players
An amateur performance by arrangement with Joseph Weinberger Ltd. On a seemingly normal evening, we meet Thelma Cates (Mama), an aging mother and widow who lives with her daughter, Jessie. Divorced, and mother of a hoodlum son, Jessie - unsatisfied and depressed - struggles with life. On this night Jessie is busy organising the household affairs and making lists, when she casually asks her mother about the whereabouts of her father's old revolver ...
Awarded the Ted Harden Rose Bowl for Runner-Up
Awarded the Roy Seamen Hart for Stage Presentation
The God Of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton
presented by The Barn Theatre Club
An amateur performance by arrangement with Samuel French Ltd. Winner of the 2009 Tony Award for Best Play, God of Carnage was written by Yasmina Reza who can skewer the middle-classes like no other. When Alan and Annette’s son hit Michael and Veronica’s son in the face with a stick, resulting in two broken teeth, something had to be done. What starts off as an agonisingly polite discussion of 'boys will be boys' and recipes for clafoutis, deteriorates into a storm of anger, drunkenness and violence. By the end of the play the living room is like a theatre of war. It’s a captive, caustic exercise in confinement and hysteria with a hint of the battle of the sexes interwoven throughout the storyline. This production contains strong language and racially sensitive references.
Awarded the Mercury Challenge Cup for Winner
Awarded the Freston Salver for Audience Award
Betrayal by Harold Pinter
presented by Be-Jou Productions
An amateur performance by arrangement with Samuel French Ltd. Inspired by Pinter's clandestine extramarital affair with BBC TV's presenter Joan Bakewell, which spanned seven years, from 1962 to 1969, the plot of Betrayal integrates different permutations of betrayal relating to a seven-year affair involving a married couple, Emma and Robert, and Robert's "close friend" Jerry, who is also married, to Judith. Betrayal begins at the end of the affair, and pursues an enthralling journey to its very beginnings. As memory reels backwards towards the moment the affair started, the lies tangle into a web of deception, and betrayal begets betrayal. Followed by the presentation of the awards.
In extreme circumstances this programme may be subject to change without notice. Refunds on tickets will only be given if there is no performance.
