Season 2023-2024
WARNING - This production involves smoke effects and flashing lights.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (Spoof) by S Canny and J Nicholson Directed by Andrew Close Evenings: 9th & 11th to 16th March 2024 - 7:30pm Matinees: 10th & 16th March 2024 - 2:30pm Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most celebrated Sherlock Holmes story gets a gloriously funny makeover. When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on his estate, with a look of terror still etched on his face, and the paw prints of a gigantic hound beside his body, the great detective Sherlock Holmes is summoned from Baker Street, with Dr Watson in tow, to unravel the mysteries surrounding his death, and investigate the ancient curse of the Hound of the Baskervilles... |
Things I Know to be True
by Andrew Bovell Directed by Peter Scofield Evenings: 11th & 13th to 18th May 2024 - 7:30pm Matinees: 12th & 18th May 2024 - 2:30pm A beautifully touching, funny and bold play as well as a complex and intense portrait of the mechanics of a family – and a marriage – through the eyes of four siblings struggling to define themselves beyond their parents' love and expectations. |
Bob and Fran have worked hard to give their four children the opportunities they never had. Now, with the kids ready to make lives of their own, it's time to sit back and smell the roses. But the change of the seasons reveals some shattering truths, leaving us asking whether it's possible to love too much.
Season 2024-2025
Dear Lupin
by Roger Mortimer and Charlie Mortimer Adapted by Michael Simkins
Directed by Jon Walker
Evenings: 21st & 23rd to 28th September - 7:30pm
Matinees: 22nd & 28th September - 2:30pm
Michael Simkins' immensely charming stage adaptation of Dear Lupin, the witty and touching collection of letters from a father to his son that became a huge bestseller, winner of The Sunday Times Humour Book of the Year.
Roger Mortimer's hilarious, touching, and always generous letters to his son, Charlie, are packed with crisp anecdotes and sharp observations. Spanning twenty-five years, their correspondence forms a memoir of their relationship, and an affectionate portrait of a time gone by.
by Roger Mortimer and Charlie Mortimer Adapted by Michael Simkins
Directed by Jon Walker
Evenings: 21st & 23rd to 28th September - 7:30pm
Matinees: 22nd & 28th September - 2:30pm
Michael Simkins' immensely charming stage adaptation of Dear Lupin, the witty and touching collection of letters from a father to his son that became a huge bestseller, winner of The Sunday Times Humour Book of the Year.
Roger Mortimer's hilarious, touching, and always generous letters to his son, Charlie, are packed with crisp anecdotes and sharp observations. Spanning twenty-five years, their correspondence forms a memoir of their relationship, and an affectionate portrait of a time gone by.
Juno and the Paycock
by Sean O'Casey
Directed by John Cunningham
Evenings: 16th & 18th to 23rd November - 7:30pm
Matinees: 17th & 23rd November - 2:30pm
Juno and the Paycock tells the story of the Boyle family in the grim slums of Dublin in the early 1920s. Juno, the mother of the family (and the only member who works), desperately tries to hold her family together in the face of adversity and misfortune. However, her husband, Jack Boyle, would rather spend his time drinking with his persuasive pal, Joxer, than try to look for work and help the family. When Jack learns that the family is to come into an inheritance, he eagerly anticipates their new found wealth and borrows money from everyone around him to flaunt their new incoming fortune...
by Sean O'Casey
Directed by John Cunningham
Evenings: 16th & 18th to 23rd November - 7:30pm
Matinees: 17th & 23rd November - 2:30pm
Juno and the Paycock tells the story of the Boyle family in the grim slums of Dublin in the early 1920s. Juno, the mother of the family (and the only member who works), desperately tries to hold her family together in the face of adversity and misfortune. However, her husband, Jack Boyle, would rather spend his time drinking with his persuasive pal, Joxer, than try to look for work and help the family. When Jack learns that the family is to come into an inheritance, he eagerly anticipates their new found wealth and borrows money from everyone around him to flaunt their new incoming fortune...
It's A Wonderful Life
Adapted by Mary Elliott Nelson
Directed by Andrew Close
Evenings: 18th & 20th to 25th January 2025 - 7:30pm
Matinees: 19th & 25th January 2025 - 2:30pm
Adapted from the classic film, this is the saga of George Bailey, the Everyman from the small town of Bedford Falls, whose dreams of escape and adventure have been squashed by family obligations and civic duty, and whose guardian angel has to descend on Christmas Eve to save him from despair, and to remind him – by showing him what the world would have been like had he never been born – that he has had, after all, a wonderful life.
Adapted by Mary Elliott Nelson
Directed by Andrew Close
Evenings: 18th & 20th to 25th January 2025 - 7:30pm
Matinees: 19th & 25th January 2025 - 2:30pm
Adapted from the classic film, this is the saga of George Bailey, the Everyman from the small town of Bedford Falls, whose dreams of escape and adventure have been squashed by family obligations and civic duty, and whose guardian angel has to descend on Christmas Eve to save him from despair, and to remind him – by showing him what the world would have been like had he never been born – that he has had, after all, a wonderful life.
The Thrill of Love
by Amanda Whittington
Directed by Peter Scofield
Evenings: 15th & 17th to 22nd March 2025 - 7:30pm
Matinees: 16th & 22nd March 2025 - 2:30pm
Amanda Whittington's play dramatises the true story of Ruth Ellis, who was the last woman to be hanged in Britain. 2025 marks the 70th anniversary of her execution at Holloway Prison, but the notoriety of her case, the public outcry over her judicial killing and its influence on the decision to abolish hanging ten years later, mean that her fate has never been forgotten. On 10th April 1955 Ruth Ellis shot dead her lover, David Blakely, outside a public house in Hampstead. At her trial, only two months later, she pleaded 'not guilty'...
by Amanda Whittington
Directed by Peter Scofield
Evenings: 15th & 17th to 22nd March 2025 - 7:30pm
Matinees: 16th & 22nd March 2025 - 2:30pm
Amanda Whittington's play dramatises the true story of Ruth Ellis, who was the last woman to be hanged in Britain. 2025 marks the 70th anniversary of her execution at Holloway Prison, but the notoriety of her case, the public outcry over her judicial killing and its influence on the decision to abolish hanging ten years later, mean that her fate has never been forgotten. On 10th April 1955 Ruth Ellis shot dead her lover, David Blakely, outside a public house in Hampstead. At her trial, only two months later, she pleaded 'not guilty'...
Pygmalion
by George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Natalie Crompton
Evenings: 10th & 12th to 17th May 2025 - 7:30pm
Matinees: 11th & 17th May 2025 - 2:30pm
One rainy, London night, phonetics professor Henry Higgins takes in a flower girl named Eliza Doolittle in an effort to win a bet with Colonel Pickering, an expert in Indian dialects. He bets Pickering that he can teach Eliza elocution and pass her off as a lady to all of London society. Despite many reservations and objections Eliza ultimately agrees to their experiment. Over the course of her education, Eliza’s father, Alfred Doolittle takes his chances with Higgins for money, but this backfires when he unwillingly becomes a well-off, middle-class gentleman thanks to Higgin’s connections with a rich philanthropist. Eliza turns out to be an apt student and easily convinces the ladies at a garden party that she is a mysterious duchess. Despite her success, Higgins is pompous about his efforts and never truly thinks of Eliza as a lady or his social equal after her stunning transformation. With a proposal from the besotted Freddy Eynsford-Hill lingering in the air, Eliza leaves Higgins to seek her own future.
by George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Natalie Crompton
Evenings: 10th & 12th to 17th May 2025 - 7:30pm
Matinees: 11th & 17th May 2025 - 2:30pm
One rainy, London night, phonetics professor Henry Higgins takes in a flower girl named Eliza Doolittle in an effort to win a bet with Colonel Pickering, an expert in Indian dialects. He bets Pickering that he can teach Eliza elocution and pass her off as a lady to all of London society. Despite many reservations and objections Eliza ultimately agrees to their experiment. Over the course of her education, Eliza’s father, Alfred Doolittle takes his chances with Higgins for money, but this backfires when he unwillingly becomes a well-off, middle-class gentleman thanks to Higgin’s connections with a rich philanthropist. Eliza turns out to be an apt student and easily convinces the ladies at a garden party that she is a mysterious duchess. Despite her success, Higgins is pompous about his efforts and never truly thinks of Eliza as a lady or his social equal after her stunning transformation. With a proposal from the besotted Freddy Eynsford-Hill lingering in the air, Eliza leaves Higgins to seek her own future.