Summer and Autumn 2008

... at the award-winning Talisman Theatre ...

Aug 23 - 30

The Ghost Train

by Arnold Ridley

“…it never starts from Truro an’ never runs into St. Blande. If it be a natural thing, where do it come from? Where do it go?…”

After a gap of 24 years, The Ghost Train thunders back onto the Talisman stage to terrify and delight once more!

Set in the waiting room of the haunted Fal Vale station in Cornwall on one fateful evening in the 1920s, Arnold Ridley (better known as Pte. Godfrey from BBC TV’’s much-loved Dad’s Army) brings us a spine-tingling tale to amuse and bemuse as summer begins to fade.

Talking Heads (2)

by Alan Bennett

After the success of the Bare Bones production in January 2008, Sam Harris returns with more of Alan Bennett’s critically acclaimed Talking Heads. First written and recorded for BBC television in 1987 they provide an insight into the Thatcherite era providing moments of humour and pathos. Twenty years on it is clear that the people Alan Bennett wrote about are still relevant today even though we might like to think that society has moved on.

Soldiering On presents the tale of Muriel, a full time carer and all round pillar of the community who finds herself having to adapt to life without her husband.

A Chip In The Sugar revolves around Graham and the very close relationship that he has with his mother, but with a new man on the scene how will he cope?

The final monologue, A Lady of Letters, concerns Miss Ruddock, a public spirited guardian of morals who fills her days with complaints and accusations until her life changes

unexpectedly for the better.

Oct 11 - 18 Valentino - a new musical based on the life of the first screen idol

by Hornsby and Duckham

The Talisman Theatre is pleased to present Valentino, a new musical based on the life of the first movie superstar.

The show opens with Valentino leaving Italy and joining the other immigrants at Ellis Island in the USA. After a spell as a tango dancer in a New York nightclub and a disastrous affair with one of the patrons resulting in the death of her husband,

he leaves to start a new life in the glamour of the movie business. The rest of the show charts his rise to super stardom and his romantic involvements in Hollywood

by Peter Whelan

This absorbing play is set in Accrington

during the Great War. The Pals’ experiences in the

trenches are contrasted with those of the women

left behind, adapting to new patterns of life and

drawing together in the face of social and sexual

deprivation. At times funny, at times sad, the

play paints a moving and powerful picture of the

changes in civilian life during wartime.

Come and help us remember the brave

men and women who have helped preserve our

way of life during the 90 years since the end of

World War One.

Sleeping Beauty

by Stephen Duckham

Enjoy a traditional Pantomime this Christmas with the annual TalisPanto.

The birth of Princess Aurora brings joy and delight to the court and at her christening the Fairy Queen and her three assistants bestow gifts of happiness, beauty and love. But the banished Fairy Carabosse, who has not been invited, delivers her gift of a curse that on her eighteenth birthday, Aurora will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die.

Can the King and Queen prevent this from happening? Can Nanny Nora manage to finally get Barney the Jester down the

aisle, and can Prince Michael save Aurora from the terrible curse? All will be revealed amongst the usual visual, comic and musical treats that have become theTalisman Pantomime