Gilbert and Sullivan - Abridged

First Shakespeare, now G&S.

This pocket Savoy Opera compendium comes to the Civic on Valentine's Day, February 14, at 19:45.

As well as being credited as the forefathers of the modern musical, Gilbert and Sullivan are also acknowledged as having influenced everybody from Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward and Andrew Lloyd Webber in the UK, to Tom Lehrer in the USA. Their comedic parody is also discernible in a vein of British comedy that runs through Monty Python and Private Eye to television series like Yes, Minister and Black Adder where the emphasis is on wit, irony and poking fun at the establishment while managing to be both disrespectful and yet delightful.

Whether you are a Gilbert and Sullivan aficionado, a passing fan or, you’re still not even sure you know who they are, this show will have you laughing in the aisles. Gilbert and Sullivan Abridged brings you as much fun, zaniness and humour as can be found while performing all fourteen operettas in ninety, hilarious, topsy-turvy minutes!

Fable Attraction

Fable Attraction

Speed Dating with a difference

Dave and Kiki Valentine run a speed-dating night – with a difference – all of their clients are mythical! Come and join them at The Red Hedgehog on Friday 15th February 2013 and enjoy a couple of drinks, some nibbles, some music and six speed ‘dates’ with famous mythical lovers, including Narcissus, Psyche, and Bluebeard!

Local Girl Productions’ latest piece of interactive theatre follows the success of Yule Pull A Cracker at the BAC.  Your £10 ticket gets you a free drink, a £1 drink voucher (as long as your journey has been green!) and free nibbles – as well as participation in a half hour theatrical event.  You’ll visit each character for a five minute ‘date’ in groups of no more than 10, so you can be as interactive as you want. Feel free chat to the characters as part of your ‘date’, or simply enjoy hearing about their romantic trials and tribulations – whatever went down for you on Valentine’s Day will pale into insignificance in comparison!

We’ve got two shows: one from 6:30pm, with the ‘dates’ commencing at 7pm (bring a gang of mates from work) and the second, 8pm for 8:30pm.  There’s a pub and curry house just across the road and the venue is a two-minute walk from Highgate station.

Contact Local Girl Productions (artisticdirector@localgirlproductions.co.uk) for tickets or further information. 

  

On Golden Pond

On Writtle's Golden Pond

Taking inspiration from the iconic centre point of the beautiful village of Writtle – the duck pond on the village green – local amateur dramatics group Writtle CARDS have chosen to perform Ernest Thompson’s On Golden Pond for their latest production.

Norman Thayer Jnr and his wife Ethel have had a summer cottage on Golden Pond since early in their long marriage. This summer their daughter Chelsea – whom they haven’t seen for years – feels she should be there for Norman’s 80th birthday. She and her boyfriend Bill are on their way to Europe, so Ethel and Norman agree to take care of Bill’s son, Billy Ray Jnr. When Chelsea returns, her stepson has the relationship with her father that she has always wanted. Will communication between father and daughter improve at last?

On Golden Pond was released as a film in 1981 starring Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn as Norman and Ethel, who both won Oscars for their performances. Playwright Ernest Thompson also won an Oscar for his adapted screenplay. Fonda’s daughter, Jane, played the Chelsea role, reflecting the strain of her real-life relationship with her father.

Writtle CARDS’ production is set to star both their oldest and youngest actors – Boot Banes as Norman Thayer Jnr, and Toby Harris as Billy Ray Jnr in his first role for the society. Nick Caton, recently seen as Victor Frankenstein in CARDS’ Halloween production, directs for the first time since their record breaking The Haunting of Hill House in 2010. The cast also includes long-standing member Clare Williams, and new members Jodee Goodwin, Chris Ivermee and Chris Rogerson.

A romantic tale of twilight love, Writtle CARDS perform for Valentine’s weekend from Thursday 14th February until Saturday 16th February at 8.00pm, with a Saturday Matinee at 2.30pm. Performances are at Writtle Village Hall – opposite the duck pond. Tickets are just £7.00 and can be reserved at writtlecards@hotmail.co.uk or on 07742 301367.  

A Passionate Woman

A Passionate Woman at the Queen's

Kay Mellor's  life-changing love story

The Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch, launches its 60th anniversary year with Kay Mellor’s poignant love story A Passionate Woman from 1 – 23 February.

A shattering secret changes family life forever in this funny and moving play by Coronation Street writer Kay Mellor. It stars television actress Marji Campi, alongside the Queen’s award-winning professional resident company cut to the chase....

On the morning of her son’s wedding, doting mother Betty is hiding in the attic to escape her unappreciative husband and the reality of an empty nest. Surrounded by happy memories and mementos, Betty relives her youth and a passionate love affair with a man she might have married.

Actress, script-writer and director Mellor first wrote A Passionate Woman for the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 1992 and two years later, it opened in the West End to rave reviews before touring extensively all over the world. In 2010, Mellor co-directed a BBC1 drama series adaptation starring Billie Piper and Sue Johnston and in 2011, she starred in a production at the Oldham Coliseum.

Mellor is hailed one of the UK’s leading TV writers, with hits including Coronation Street,Brookside, Playing the Field, Band of Gold and most recently, The Syndicate. She was awarded an OBE in 2009 for “writing some of the most powerful and successful TV services in recent years” and the BAFTA Dennis Potter Award in 1997 for Outstanding Writing for Television.

Remarkably, Mellor based A Passionate Woman on a revelation about her own mother’s colourful past. She recalls: “One day I was round at my mother’s and she was washing up… she started to talk about a man she used to know… I suddenly saw her crying. She was telling me about an affair she’d had before I was born… she looked me straight in the eye and said ‘I really loved him Kay.’ To hear my Mum say that was unheard of… that’s how the idea for the play came about.”

Playing Betty, Marji Campi has appeared in Coronation Street, EastEnders, Brookside and most notably ITV’s Surgical Spirit.

A Passionate Woman also stars the Queen’s Theatre’s cut to the chase… company members James Earl Adair, Mark Newnham and Sam Pay. This production is directed byQueen’s Artistic Director Bob Carlton with design by Rodney Ford, lighting design byChristopher Howcroft and assistant director is Simon Jessop.

A Passionate Woman runs at the Queen’s Theatre, Billet Lane, Hornchurch, from 1 - 23 February. This production contains some adult language. Tickets cost £16 - £24.50.

Audiences can save money by joining the Queen’s jump the Q scheme and watch all threecut to the chase… shows this season – A Passionate Woman, They’re Playing our Song and Run for your Wife – for just £15 each. This offer ends on 16 February 2013.

Call the Box Office on 01708 443333 or book online at www.queens-theatre.co.uk