r October 2010

IT WAS A NIGHT WHEN WE ALL CAME OUT TO PLAY AND THOROUGHLY ENJOY OURSELVES

Pinter’s ‘Celebration’ is a riotously funny play. It is set in "the best restaurant in Europe". At one table, Lambert and his Such a beautiful evening for an brother Matt dined with their ‘Opening Night’ and with so many wives, Julie and her sister Prue, members there, too. There was the celebrating the anniversary of irresistible savoury aroma of Kris Julie and Lambert. At a second Wessels’ barbeque on the green table, Suki chats with his wife outside Nether Compton Hall and Russell. then a reprise of our 150th railway As the play progresses, the anniversary contribution. Good food, characters get progressively good company, good entertainment, more drunk, make appalling who could ask for anything more! [Exclusive APS photo by Kris Wessels] revelations without realising it, divulge their infidelities, and yet Busman’s Honeymoon March 31 to April 2, 2011 stay oddly content and glad- No need to get excited just yet, hearted. Among the tables roam This is just a little advance info to Richard and Sonia, the owners, let you have an idea what our Spring and a hilarious intrusive waiter. 2011 production is all about. That’s the gist of it but to take a part in our unrehearsed play- Wedding bells have finally rung for amateur sleuth Wimsey reading led by Maurice Freeland and crime writer Harriet Vane! But their quiet, country honeymoon at you’ll have to be upstairs at The Talboys becomes a series of misadventures with exploding chimneys Mermaid at 7.30 pm on and unwanted guests, including a body found murdered in their own Wednesday 20 October. home. This inauspicious beginning begs the question: when life gets in the way, can love persevere?

Characters in "Busman's Honeymoon"

Lord Peter Wimsey: - an aristocratic amateur detective. It’s time to think ahead and come Harriet Vane: - now Lady Peter Wimsey, a mystery writer. up with a programme of future Mervyn Bunter: - Lord Peter's manservant. productions. Directors, aspiring Honoria Lucasta: - Dowager Duchess of Denver, Lord Peter's mother. directors and folk with ideas Noakes: - previous owner of Talboys and murder victim. gather at Charles’s house, Miss Agnes Twitterton: - niece of the murdered man. Runnymede, 69 Newland at 7.30 Frank Crutchley: - a motor mechanic and gardener. pm on Wednesday 13 October. Mrs Martha Ruddle - neighbour of Noakes and his cleaning lady. All ideas for plays and social Bert Ruddle: - her son. events very welcome. Inspector Kirk: - a police inspector. See ‘Notes on Directing’ Joseph Sellon: - a police constable. feature on page 2 overleaf. SHERBORNE 2nd LES MIZ COMES Mr Toad’s Blog INTERNATIONAL LIVE TO YEOVIL Here I am again, FILM FESTIVAL ‘Les Miserables’ bringing you all my Sherborne will host celebrates its inestimable words its second 25th anniversary of wisdom about International Film live from The O2 in Cineworld, the world and Festival from Friday, Yeovil at 7 pm on Sunday 3rd everything. 22 October to October. Tickets £15 + 70p But first, with my Sunday, 24 October booking fee. Call 0871 200 2000. ‘Access All Areas’ pass (only the at the Powell Theatre. most important are awarded Three films will be MRS MALAPROP STRIKES one) I must report on ‘The Wind screened daily with a ILCHESTER WAREHOUSE in the Willows’ rehearsals. One wide-ranging choice ‘The Rivals’, is astonished to see created from all over the Sheridan’s comedy before one’s very eyes not only globe. Many award- of manners plays at my good self, but also all my winning films are The Warehouse, friends and even those utterly being featured including this year’s Ilminster 5th to 8th despicable stoats and weasels. Oscar winner for Best Foreign October. See Diary Now, if I had my way... Anyway, Film, “The Secret in their Eyes”, Dates for contact truth to tell, I shed a tear or two. from Argentina, and the most details. recent Grand Prix winner from Cannes, the French prison film, “A It follows the meddling Mrs Prophet”. The mix of films includes Malaprop on her quest to marry a lyrical love story set during off her spirited niece, Lydia China’s cultural revolution, an Languish. But with the handsome amusing tale of a Japanese Captain Absolute and the poetic businessman’s attempt to dance, a but penniless Beverley vying for gripping spy thriller about the her hand, Lydia has ideas of her Dutch Resistance movement own. Little does she realise that during WWII plus two German films these rivals are one and the same and a Danish film. man! <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> Actually, I could have been an Tickets cost £5 per film and a George Bush malapropisms actor, I suppose, though it’s not season ticket for all nine films at really a job for someone of my £32. New this year is an official "We need an energy bill that intelligence. opening party before the official encourages consumption." Chatting to Moley the other launch film on Friday 22 October, "I am mindful not only of day about my exciting world of the sumptuous Italian film, “I am preserving executive powers for travel and adventure and he Love”; tickets for the films and for myself, but for predecessors as came out with something quite the reception are on sale at the well." surprising - and it’s not often I’m Tourist Office, Digby Road. surprised. There are no moles in Ireland! No distant relatives, not DIRECTING - READ ALL ABOUT IT one of any kind at all, Frank Hauser’s glory years covered nearly two decades apparently. Probably because (1956-73) at Oxford's Playhouse Theatre when his it’s so very cold and wet, I think. Meadow Players companies included Judi Dench, Now, here’s some important Constance Cummings, Elisabeth Bergner, Prunella news for you to spread around. Scales, Barbara Jefford, Leo McKern, Ian McKellen, As you know, ‘The Wind in the Ronnie Barker, Alan Badel, Alan Howard and Edward Willows’ is a play that can be Woodward. perfectly enjoyed by ‘children’ of In the late 1980s Hauser handed Russell Reich, his assistant all ages. So, it will come as no director, notes he thought might find helpful: “Put actors at ease, but surprise that, in addition to our don’t befriend them. You cannot expect the actor’s best work in an regular evening performances, audition situation. It’s too early in the process and too stressful.” there will also be a matinee at They first appeared as ‘Notes on Directing’ in 2003 and most 2.30 pm on Saturday 20th recently this year. "This book is a gem, witty and full of insight. It November. should be compulsory reading for every aspiring director." Dame Judi Well, that’s all for now. Next Dench. It’s even got its own website at www.notesondirecting.com time I will have lots more The cheapest you can buy a (used) copy is from Amazon UK. exciting news to tell you in my £3.65 + £2.75 p&p. bloggy thingy. See you then. A Brief History of Theatre - in several parts Euripides introduces a more unconventional view of Greek myth, seeing it from new angles or viewing mythological characters in terms of their human frailties. His vision is extremely influential in later schools of tragic drama. Racine, for example, derives Epidaurus, built in about 340 BC, rising tiers of seats, separated by ‘Adromaque’ and ’Phaedre’ from provides the best example of a aisles, provide the pattern for the the ‘Andromache’ and ‘Hippolytus’ classical Greek theatre. In the closest part of the auditorium to the of Euripides. centre of the orchestra is the stage in nearly all subsequent stone base on which an altar theatres - where these seats are stood, reflecting the religious still sometimes called the orchestra aspect of theatre in Greece. The stalls.

context, whether by means of a The masterpieces of Greek drama fantastic plot or through the antics date from the 5th century BC. At of ridiculous characters. that time, in Athens, the audience A good example is ‘The Frogs’, sit on the bare hillside to watch a literary satire at the expense of performances on a temporary Euripides. After the death of the wooden stage. In the 4th century a great man, Dionysus goes down to stone auditorium is built on the site, Hades to bring back his favourite and there is still a theatre there “What a lousy season - there hasn’t tragedian. A competition held down today - the theatre of Dionysus. been a good comedy in months.” there enables Aristophanes to In the first Greek theatres the From 486 BC there is an parody the style of Euripides. As a stage is a full circle, in keeping with annual competition for comedies result Dionysus comes back to the circular dance - the ‘choros’ - at Athens - held as part of the earth with Aeschylus instead. from which the theatrical Lenaea, a three-day festival in In ‘The Wasps’’ the Athenian performance has evolved. This January. Only one comic author's love of litigation is ridiculed in the stage is called the orchestra work has survived from the 5th form of an old man who sets up a (orchester, a dancer), because it is century. Like the first three law court in his home, to try his dog the place where the chorus sing tragedians, he launches the genre for stealing cheese. In ‘Lysistrata’ and dance. with great brilliance. He is the horrors of war are discussed in Aristophanes, a frequent winner of a circumstance of extreme social the first prize in the Lenaea (on crisis; the women of Greece refuse History of Drama Timeline the first occasion, in 425 BC, with to make love until their men agree - 454 BC: Euripides enters the the ‘Acharnians’. to make peace. drama contest at the City Eleven of his plays survive, Dionysia for the first time. out of a total of perhaps forty Greek theatre: 4th century BC - 425 BC: Aristophanes wins first spanning approximately the period An exclusively Greek contribution prize for the ‘Acharnians’. 425-390 BC. They rely mainly on to architectural history is the raked - 423 BC: Socrates is now a device which becomes central to auditorium for watching theatrical sufficiently prominent to be the tradition of comedy. They performances (appropriately, since satirised in ‘Clouds’, satirize contemporary foibles by the Greeks are also the inventors Aristophanes’ comedy. placing them in an unexpected of theatre as a literary form).

her dress, she should pick it up and kiss it. This, it is said, will bring a contract for the actress.

The Origin: Actresses should kiss the hems of their dresses STUMBLING IN: In the English after tripping on their first theatres, to trip on entering the entrance in order to placate the scene on the first night of a play faeries who tripped them up. is a sure sign of success. Also, if an actress trips over the hem of DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Tues 28th Sept to 2nd Oct Romeo and Juliet The Octagon, Yeovil Pilot Theatre 7.30 Mats Wed/Thurs 1.30 Sat 2.30 Thurs 30th Sept to Sat 23rd Oct The Misanthrope Bristol Old Vic Moliere's comedy of manners 7.30 Mats Thurs/Sat 2.30 - not 30th Mon 4th to Sat 9th West Side Story Tacchi-Morris, Taunton Taunton Amateur Operatic Society 7.30 Mats Thurs/Sat 2.30 pm Wed 5th to Fri 8th The Rivals The Warehouse, Ilminster Ilminster Entertainment Society 7.30 pm Tues 5th to Sat 9th Lloyd George knew my father Studio Theatre, Salisbury William Douglas Hume comedy 7.30 pm Wed 6th Frankenstein: a year without summer Bridport Arts Centre Dorset Corset Theatre Company 7 pm Thurs 14th A Disappearing Number Cineworld, Yeovil NT Live 7 pm APS Wed 20th Celebration by Pinter Upstairs at The Mermaid event Led by Maurice Freeland 7.30 pm See page 1. Sat 30th to Sat 27th, November The Picture Salisbury Playhouse Renaissance epic Times vary

Fri 5th Comedy Club Powell Theatre, Sherborne Trevor Lock Doors open 7.30. Show 8.30 Tues 9th to Sat 13th GamePlan and RolePlay Tacchi-Morris, Taunton Taunton Thespians 7.30 pm Mat Sat 2 pm Wed 10th to Sat 13th The Ghost Train Mission Theatre, Bath Classic ghost story 7.30 pm Mon 15th to Sat 20th The Memory of Water Swan Theatre, Yeovil A comedy 7.45 pm APS Thurs 18th to Sat 20th THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS Digby Hall, Sherborne event Amateur Players of Sherborne 7.30 pm Matinee Sat 2.30 pm Sun 28th A Christmas Carol The Octagon, Yeovil Chapterhouse Theatre Compnany 2 pm and 7 pm Sun 28th & Mon 29th Intimate Exchanges Powell Theatre, Sherborne Alan Ayckbourn comedy 7.30 pm Powell Theatre: Call 01935 810579 www.powelltheatre.co.uk The Warehouse: 07502 189717 Mon-Sat 10 am - 4 pm www.thewarehousetheatre.org.uk Merlin Theatre: Call 01373 465949 or www.merlintheatre.co.uk Cineworld, Yeovil: Call 0871 200 2000. Google Cineworld, Yeovil then selected advance booking. Bristol Old Vic: 0117 987 7877 www.bristololdvic.org.uk Swan Theatre: Tourist Information Centre 01935 845946. Tickets available from Wed 13th October. Bridport Arts Centre: Call 010308 424204 or www.bridport-arts.com Studio Theatre, Salisbury: Call 07789 858124 or www.studiotheatre.org.uk Salisbury Playhouse: Call 01722 320333 www.salisburyplayhouse.com Tacchi Morris Arts Centre: Call 01823 414141 or www.tacchi-morris.com The Octagon, Yeovil: Call Box Office 01935 283884 or www.octagon-theatre.co.uk Mission Theatre, Bath: Call 01225 428600 or www.missiontheatre.co.uk If you would like any local performances advertised in the Dates for your Diary Last Word... section please send any details to me at: [email protected] or give me a It is a hopeless endeavour to attract people ring on (01935) 814626. If I’m not there, leave your to a theatre unless they can be first brought message and I will ring you back. to believe that they will never get in. November Copy DEADLINE: Tuesday 26 October CHARLES DICKENS