27
May-1 June
2013 - "Our House" by John Godber
Directed by Matthew Salisbury
Elderly
mother, May, is finally moving house after living there
for forty-five years and her son, Jack, has come to offer
somewhat limited help. A young removal man slowly removes
the packed up boxes while scenes of the past unravel before
the old lady's eyes and we experience a potted history of
her life in the house. Time jumps forwards and back and
we see the relationship May and her husband, Ted, had with
the old neighbours to the new breed of council house tenants
who move in next door and begin to make ailing May and Ted's
lives miserable. Deliberately turning their thumping music
up loud to annoy the elderly couple, screaming at their
kids, soaking May with a hose pipe, these are certainly
the neighbours from hell.
"An enjoyable denouement is sure to make anyone
who is suffering with awful neighbours grin for a week."
The Stage
Details
4-13
July 2013
- "Little Shop of Horrors". Music
by Alan Menken, Book & Lyrics by Howard Ashman
Directed by Stephen Duckham
Seymour
Krelborn, an orphan and a nerd, is taken in and given a
job by Mr. Mushnik, the owner of a run down Florists in
the seedy part of town. Seymour spends his time doing menial
tasks and dreaming of the shop assistant, Audrey. One day,
just after an eclipse of the Sun, Seymour discovers a strange
plant. He buys it and names it Audrey II. While caring for
Audrey II, Seymour discovers the plant's rather unique appetite.
The plant grows and grows, as does Seymour's infatuation
for Audrey, but who will get her first?
The show started as a 1960 Roger Corman horror comedy, filmed
in two days; it then inspired this lavish 1982 Broadway
musical. Finally in 1986, Little Shop of Horrors graduated
into a multimillion-dollar, all-star film musical.
"Raucous, fast-moving and ridiculously entertaining."
The Stage
Details
26-31
August 2013
- "Pardon Me, Prime Minister" by
Edward Taylor & John Graham
Directed by David Draper
The Prime Minister and the Chancellor are preparing
a severely puritanical Budget, taxing Gambling, Night Clubs
and even Bingo Halls out of existence. But on the eventful
afternoon before its presentation shocks are in store. The
fact that a total stranger is intent on removing most of
her clothes in the PM's office and that her dress ends up
on his wife, who is determined to extract as much blood
as possible from anybody she meets, is bad enough, but when
two other ladies also appear in a somewhat less than fully
clothed state and declarations are made that question the
PM's suitability at such a delicate time, then the ensuing
mess needs to be handled with tact and diplomacy. Who better
than the Prime Minister's ever attentive PPS? Unfortunately
he has a personal private crisis of his own!
"Farce in its truest form."
Details
23-28
September 2013
- "Afterplay" by Brian Friel &
"The Bear" by Anton Chekhov
Directed by Ann Brooks
Brian
Friel’s one-act play takes two Chekhov characters and has
them meet up twenty years after the original plays are over.
Sonya, Uncle Vanya’s devoted niece, and Andrey, the intellectual
but henpecked brother from The Three Sisters meet in a Moscow
café and exchange stories. Each weaves a fantasy tale of
what life should have been, but while Andrey quickly admits
that he is only dreaming of what might have been, Sonya
clings to the hope that her fantasies may still come to
pass. The play is a brilliant, poignant and at times humorous
invention taking us into the later lives of these two characters.
“An autumnal, middle-aged idyll, a little gem of a
piece”. Daily Mirror
Afterplay will be accompanied by Chekhov's classic
one-act comedy, The Bear. It was described as a joke and
a vaudeville sketch by Chekhov himself. Written to amuse
and entertain us briefly, this bravura piece shows three
characters, a widow, a landownerand a servant. Their outrageous
behaviour is at times hilarious.
Details
21-26
October 2013
- "An Inspector Calls" by J B Priestley
Directed by Vicky Whitehill
The Birling
family are spending a happy evening celebrating the engagement
of Sheila Birling to Gerald Croft - a marriage that will
result in the merging of two successful local businesses.
Yet, just when everything seems to be going so well, they
receive a surprise visit from an Inspector Goole who is
investigating the suicide of a young girl.
"Still brilliantly accusatory, bracing and strange."
The Guardian
Details
18-23
November 2013
- "God of Carnage" by Yasmina Reza
Directed
by Steve Smith
A comedy of manners without the
manners! This internationally acclaimed comedy takes you
into the most dangerous place on Earth: parenthood. The
play is about two pairs of parents, one of whose child has
hurt the other at a public park, who meet to discuss the
matter in a civilized manner. However, as the evening goes
on, the parents become increasingly childish, resulting
in the evening devolving into unmannered chaos. From the
writer that brought you the hit comedy Art comes
this savagely funny Tony Award-Winning Best Play that will
leave you roaring with laughter!
"Brutally comic dissection of bourgeois values."
The Guardian
Details
December
2013/January
2014 - "Humpty Dumpty" by Stephen Duckham
February
2014 - "Hypnosis" by David Tristram
March
2014 - "An Ideal Husband" by Oscar Wilde
award-winning
theatre 
Talisman
Theatre