Ovingdean Arts Club Newsletter July 2017

Chair’s Report 2017 It’s been a privilege to take on the role of chair of the Arts Club – a highly successful organisation that has, I hope, carried on the aims set out in 2000 when it was founded and grown and developed. What is unique about OAC is the range of activities it encompasses – lots of communities have a choir, a book group, perhaps a history society or a music appreciation group, and other organisations run theatre trips, visits to stately homes, etc. but to have them all under one umbrella is very special. It means that a community of friends has developed, where people can follow diverse cultural activities that they are passionate about but also can try new things in a friendly and, I hope, welcoming environment. Getting tickets for Glyndebourne, for instance, if you’ve never been to opera before, or going on an art gallery tour as part of a trip to a musical at Chichester, or reading a challenging book that you would never have thought of picking up. And if you go on a theatre visit, or decide to try French conversation, or listening to music, you can be sure of good company and don’t have to go on your own. It is really important that we continue to use the newsletter and other publicity to promote the wide range of art activities people can find in the club, to welcome new members, and encourage those who have joined because of a specific interest such as choral singing, to try other group activities and visits. That’s how I see our vision as an organisation – plus the fact that we are very good at eating and drinking and not too high minded to enjoy ourselves – wine at the AGM, drinks and canapés after concerts, cream cakes at A Good Read, wonderful food and drink provided by hosts at group meetings, and a fantastic Christmas Party! Our Committee 2017 Above Left David Athill From Left to Right Pam Finch Sheila Buckingham Judith Gorton (Hon Secretary) Mike Buckingham Diana Wooldridge (Chair) Anthony Kenney (Hon Treasurer) Carolyn Candish Alan Truman

Photograph: David Ross

Thanks go to all the group leaders and the committee for their support, good humour and commitment and especially to Jack Baker who is stepping down after 3 years and to Carolyn Candish for taking on editing this newsletter.

Our various group leaders do a splendid job: The Singers go from strength to strength under Greg Moore’s inspirational leadership, putting on repeat performances and enabling more people to hear their excellent concerts. The Drama Group triumphed with Jeanie Civil’s radio play production of Under Milk Wood. The ongoing groups meeting throughout the year – History, French, Poetry, Music Appreciation, A Good Read and Playreading are all thriving – providing regular stimulus and enjoyment in informal settings for a wide range of members. Another highlight was the successful Literary Lunch, with Juliet Nicholson, and thanks to Sheila’s initiative that stimulated the book group to read Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, and the visit to Knole. During the year trips were organised to Hampton Court, Nymans Gardens and Bolney Winery, Firle Place and Chatham Dockyard. Diana Tiren has continued to organise the well-established programme of Theatre Royal bookings to a selection of really interesting plays, and Shirley Ross masterminded the annual Glyndebourne visits and picnics – a unique Arts Club experience! So please continue to support all these great activities, tell your friends and encourage new members, and take the opportunity to try a new group or activity or start up a new one yourself!

News from the Groups All the groups welcome new members: If you are interested in joining, contact the appropriate group co-ordinator. Each group meets at 7.45 pm for a prompt 8 pm start, unless otherwise stated. All members (whether or not regular attenders) wishing to attend a group meeting are asked to give advance notice to the group co-ordinator (preferably) or to the host/hostess for that evening (see contact details below). History A Good Read Music Appreciation The History Group is taking its summer Monday, 31 July Please note the change of date break and will re-convene in September. 2.30 for 3.00 in the Village Hall The next meeting will be held on Please see the next Newsletter for details. 'The Lost Estate' translated from 'Le Wednesday 20 September at 8pm at Group Co-ordinator: Grand Meaulnes' by Alain the home of Janet Stern and Denis Martin Knott 01273 302561 Fournier. 'The greatest novel of Murphy, 16, Homebush Avenue, [email protected] adolescence in European literature' . …………………………………….………………….. John Fowles. Wednesday 22 November, French Conversation A reminder - please let me know if you a pot pourri, at the home of Margery I hope everyone is having a good are UNABLE to come, otherwise we Lees, 29 Tudor Close, Dean Court summer, we should have a lot to discuss have to eat too many cream cakes! Road, . when we next meet on WEDNESDAY, 19 Group Co-ordinator: Please inform either Sonia or JULY. Yes, it’s a change of day, Sheila Buckingham 01273 302351 Margery whether or not you intend Wednesday this time because there is so [email protected] to come since space is limited. much on and hope it won’t inconvenience …………………………………….. Meeting Co-ordinator: you too much. We will take a vote on it to Drama Sonia Procter 01273 303231 see which evening is preferred. Is any member interested in performing Group Secretary: Meantime, looking forward to seeing you in a Pint Pot Play? Poets and Pints Margery Lees 01273 305292 all on 19 July. evening on October 21 and 22. ……………………………………………………… Group Coordinator: If you would like to, please contact me, Poetry Mike Buckingham 01273 302351 Jeanie Civil at [email protected] Tuesday 8 August, at the home of [email protected] or 01273 305221 Shirley and David Ross, The Barn, ………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………….. Beacon Court, Ovingdean Playreading Ovingdean Singers Tel: 301075 Meets on the fourth Thursday every Rehearsals weekly in Ovingdean Village Topic: AUDEN AND HIS month at 7.30pm. Venues to be Hall on Mondays at 7.30pm. CONTEMPORARIES confirmed. There are a few vacancies at New Singers always welcome. Group Co-ordinator: the moment, if interested, please call Group Secretary: Pam Finch 01273 303781 or Mike Taylor 01273 814900 Tracy Stickland 07760 120206 [email protected] Rottingdean and Ovingdean Film Club - Richard Harris Contact Richard: [email protected] or leave a message 01273 302516.

Ella Fitzgerald Centenary Concert Saturday 2 September 7.30pm St Wulfran’s Church, Ovingdean Ovingdean’s own jazz band - Work in Progress - and friends

This year the whole world is celebrating the great jazz diva’s major anniversary. She performed almost every wonderful song you can think of. Work in Progress, many of whom are OAC members, will play and sing a whole host of them from the Ella songbook. With a surprise ending Licensed bar Tickets £7.50—from Ewart Wooldridge (390206) and on the door Doctor in the House Ovingdean Village Hall – 2pm & 7pm Saturday 29 July – 4pm Sunday 30 July

Featuring OAC members - Tickets £7 from the Village Hall and Robbie 306090 Sheila 302351 Jeanie 305221 Anthony 307360

Members car insurance OAC members should be aware that while some insurers cover volunteer driving within regular motor insurance policies, this is not automatic. We advise OAC members who use their cars for Arts Club activities to contact their insurance company to check this. Most insurance companies cover this without any extra premium, but please check to be sure. Theatre Royal Brighton Sand in the Sandwiches & Jane Eyre – SOLD OUT Tickets still available for La Cage aux Folles 2.30pm Wednesday 16 August £33 Stalls Deathtrap by Ira Levin - 2.30pm Wednesday 13 September Tickets £20 Stalls The longest running thriller in Broadway history Stage and television stars Paul Bradley and Jessie Wallace lead the cast of Deathtrap; a truly satisfying spine-chiller that is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. Sidney Bruhl, a once successful writer of stage thrillers, is in the grip of chronic writer’s block when young playwright, Clifford Anderson, sends Bruhl his brilliant new whodunit, Deathtrap. Desperate to set Broadway alight again, should Bruhl kill the newcomer and pass the play off as his own? Book now for this wickedly enjoyable ‘who’ll do it’ where no one is as they appear to be! A Killer Thriller with real caviar quality The Times More twists than a bucket of snakes The Telegraph A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell – 2.30pm Thursday 30 November Tickets £24 Stalls

A new thriller from the best woman crime writer since Christie

The Times Eunice struggles to fit in. When she joins a wealthy family as their housekeeper events lead inexorably to a terrible tale of murder in cold blood – on Valentine’s Day. Ruth Rendell’s brilliant plot unravels a lifetime of deceit, despair and cover-ups. Which, when revealed, brings a shocking revelation almost as grizzly as murder itself. The star cast includes Andrew Lancel and Sophie Ward

BOOKING: Please send a cheque made payable to Ovingdean Arts Club with a sae to Diana Tiren, 17 Longhill Road, Ovingdean, BN2 7BF, 01273 305035 Review – The Crucible by Arthur Miller – 27 April 2017 A serious play, often read by students taking A level English as evident in the appreciative audience and the performance thoroughly deserved their enthusiasm. Well cast with a simple set. Miller wrote the play in the 1950s as an allegory commenting on the ‘witch hunt’ of Communists in the USA at that time. A cracking performance, everyone loved it and a great experience. Joyce Phillips Chichester Theatre Trip – FIDDLER ON THE ROOF! - Thursday 20 July 2017 Tickets available for a splendid day out in Chichester This celebrated and much-loved musical is packed with show-stopping songs including the hits If I Were a Rich Man; Tradition; Matchmaker and the lilting Sunrise, Sunset.

DETAILS Members £45; non-members £48 Depart Ovingdean (Greenways) at 9.30am to arrive in Chichester at approximately 11am for the 2.30pm matinee and leave Chichester at approximately 5.30pm, arriving back at 7pm.

BOOKING: Apply to Judith Gorton; [email protected] 01273 302957. Cheques once booking confirmed made payable to Ovingdean Arts Club, to 67 Crescent Drive South, Brighton BN2 6RA Please note the Copy Deadline for our September Edition is Thursday 24 August 2017 Contact: 01273 973250 [email protected] Knole, 6th June 2017 Fortune favours the brave! We set out on the kind of midsummer morning that only our homeland can produce - gale- force winds and driving rain - under the leadership of our own intrepid Sheila Britannia, whoops Buckingham. And how we were rewarded! Knole is beautiful, a grey stone fortress set in an undulating landscape inhabited by magnificent trees and grazing deer. First acquired by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1456, the house grew in grandeur over the following century until, fatally, it caught the acquisitive eye of Henry VIII, who intimated to the then owner, Thomas Cranmer, that he might like to own it - an offer Thomas dared not refuse. Tradition has it that in 1603 Queen Elizabeth I in turn gave Knole to her cousin, Thomas Sackville, 'to keep him near her court and councils that he might repair thither in any emergency', and from that time onwards the Sackville family made Knole their home, enriching and embellishing it over succeeding centuries, until it was ceded to the National Trust in 1946. Those of us who heard Juliet Nicholson speak of her love affair with Knole to the Arts Club's A Good Read group last November recognised the magic of the house and exquisite gardens. We learned that when The Other Boleyn Girl was filmed there, the five acres of roof stood in for the rooftops of London; more recently Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz have been filming there: look out for The Favourite, the story of Queen Anne, when it is released! The magnificent Great Hall and Showrooms contain a wealth of

paintings by, inter alia, Reynolds, van Dyck and Gainsborough; cartoons Photograph: Ewart Wooldridge (designs for tapestries) by Raphael; and ornate furniture in ebony, silver and gilt, culminating in the Royal State Bed, which is dazzlingly covered in gold and silver brocade. A very different ambiance awaited us in the Gatehouse Tower, where the late Eddy Sackville, a notable art and music critic, resided in the 1920s; he was, it is said, so good-looking that women fainted on catching sight of him. Sadly for them his tastes lay elsewhere. The skies cleared as the day advanced, five hours sped by until it was time to leave, and yet another successful Arts Club trip concluded happily, thanks to Sheila's impeccable organisation. Veronica Carter Summer Shower by Emily Dickinson

A drop fell on the apple tree, The dust replaced in hoisted roads, Another on the roof; The birds jocoser sung; A half a dozen kissed the eaves, The sunshine threw his hat away, And made the gables laugh. The orchards spangles hung.

A few went out to help the brook, The breezes brought dejected lutes, That went to help the sea. And bathed them in the glee; Myself conjectured, Were they pearls, The East put out a single flag, What necklaces could be! And signed the fete away. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

From the Editor Thank you to Pam Finch for contributing Emily Dickinson’s poem Summer Shower, so appropriate as I write! Dickinson was an acclaimed American poet who experimented with unconventional expression, considered revolutionary in her day. A prolific poet who shared her work with like-minded people but remained unpublished until after her death. Look out for a display of Green cards of seasonal Poems in the surgeries which you are invited to read or keep. These are provided by a charity called 'Poems in the Waiting Room' which the OAC Poetry Group members are supporting. Three surgeries - Woodingdean Medical Centre, Dr Baker and the Meadow Parade Surgery will all hopefully have them. Pam would appreciate your feedback. This initiative and Summer Shower really do illustrate the OAC belief that the arts are social and all around us, to be enjoyed through every day shared experiences and within our community. In an increasingly hurried and anxious world, I like to think of WH Davies’ poem What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare…. Carolyn