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Future
Programme
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Please
note that productions and dates are subject to change due
to circumstances beyond our control.
 5
- 10 Mar 2012: "Blue Remembered Hills" by
Dennis Potter
Directed by Steve Smith
Trees
to climb, squirrels to chase, a whole forest to explore… The
Forest of Dean, 1943. Dennis Potter’s play recounts the activities
of seven West Country 7 year olds on a summer’s afternoon
playing in the woods and fields of Gloucestershire. But it’s
not all fun and games when around every corner could be an
escaped prisoner of war, a German parachutist, or an angry
farmer! The children are all played by adult actors and they
swagger, fight, fantasise and play in a way which reflects
relationships in the adult world.
Details
23
- 28 Apr 2012: "Dancing at Lughnasa"
by Brian Friel
Directed by Ann Brooks
Set
in Ireland's County Donegal in August 1936 in the fictional
town of Ballybeg this is a memory play told from the point
of view of the adult Michael Evans, the narrator. He recounts
the summer in his aunts' cottage when he was seven years old.
This play is loosely based on the lives of Friel's mother
and aunts who lived in the Glenties, on the west coast of
Donegal. The play depicts the late summer days when love briefly
seems possible for three of the Mundy sisters and the family
welcomes home the frail elder brother, who has returned from
a life as missionary in Africa. Tender, humorous, robust,
poignant in his characterisations, author, Brian Friel draws
us into the pattern of the women's daily lives; and what wonderful
characters they are. It takes place in early August, around
the festival of Lughnasa, in Celtic folklore, the festival
of the first fruits, when the harvest is welcomed. The play
describes a bitter harvest for the Mundy sisters, a time of
reaping what has been sown.
"A play of true greatness." The Telegraph Details
 17
- 19 May 2012: "Jubilee (A Celebration)"
by Nevil Malin
Various directors
For
the Diamond Jubilee and Kenilworth Festival. A"BARE BONES"
production.
2012
is going to be a very memorable year - not just the Olympics
but the Diamond Jubilee of the Queen. The Talisman has decided
to mark the latter in a very special way. The show is scripted
by Nevil Malin who is adamant that we are not giving a history
lesson, nor are we mounting a pageant. Rather, we have anecdotes,
gossip and scandal about selected queens, from Guinevere to
the current monarch. Details
11-16
June - "Arthur and George"
by David Edgar from the novel by Julian Barnes
Directed by Matthew Salisbury
Arthur
Conan Doyle, that titan of popular detective fiction,
needs little introduction. Edalji, on the other hand,
was a humble Anglo-Indian solicitor from Birmingham who
was arrested, tried and imprisoned in 1903 for the serial
slaughter and mutilation of sheep, cattle and horses at
night-time in fields around Great Wyrley, just outside
the city. The two men’s paths crossed in 1907, when Conan
Doyle, appalled by the facts of the case, set about campaigning
to prove Edalji’s innocence.
"The achievement of David Edgar is to have created
an evening that involves you in the whodunnit aspect of
the case ." The Telegraph
(By
arrangement with Nick Hern Books. An amateur production.)
Details
9-14
July - "Arsenic and Old Lace"
by Joseph Kesselring
Directed by Mick Ives
Written
by American playwright Joseph Kesselring in 1939, it has
become best known through the film adaptation starring
Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra. The play opened
in January 1941. In September 1943 it moved to the Hudson
Theater. It closed there on 17 June 1944 having played
1,444 performances. Of the twelve plays written by Kesselring
Arsenic and Old Lace was the most successful.
"...so funny that none of us will ever forget it."
New York Times
Details
27
August-1 September - "Stepping Out"
by Richard Harris
Directed by Wendy McClay & Graham Underhill
This
good-natured comedy chronicles several months in the life
of a beginning dance class. Led by Mavis, their eternally
patient instructor, and accompanied by the acerbic pianist
Mrs. Fraser, the students (who range from hopeless to
competent) strive to master the basics of dance. But the
steps and routines are just the background for the real
focus of the play -- the relationships and interactions
of these ten very different people. By their final performance,
not only have the class members developed some degree
of skill, but they have also overcome the inhibitions,
awkwardness and personality conflicts that have kept them
out of sync.
"Harris's play endures because it is a brilliant
display of group dynamics and disgrace under pressure."
The Guardian
Details
 1-6
October - "Richard III"
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Chris Carpenter
After
years of civil unrest between the royal Houses of York and
Lancaster, the Yorkist Edward IV is undisputed king. His
brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester, plots to seize the
throne for himself, removing anybody in his path.
One
of Shakespeare's best known and most accessible plays.
Details
November
- "Improbable Fiction" by
Alan Ayckbourn
Directed by Vicky Whitehill
Ayckbourn
is our most popular dramatist and this play shows why.
It starts as one of the comedy of modern manners that
he does so well. The first act shows a group of writers
at one of their regular meetings. Each of the writers
has a particular speciality. During the course of a rather
shambolic meeting the chairman suggests that they all
cooperate on a single project, an idea that the audience
can see is doomed to failure. After the meeting ends the
evening changes. The stories outlined earlier come to
life around the hapless chairman. He is in turn thrust
into the various works as an unwitting participant.
"Sir Alan Ayckbourn has pulled off an absolute cracker
here." Yorkshire Post
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award-winning
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