Country Players News

Coming next

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:23:55 +0000

Two productions are coming next!

We’re hoping to present “Hay Fever” by Noel Coward at The Place, week commencing 10th June 2012.

Before that, we’re looking at a short version of Oliver Twist to be presented at Wootton Village Hall around the end of March 2012.

Further details will be posted later.

Past productions updated

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:21:39 +0100

Waiting for Pandora and Glover’s Mange Cure Caper have been added to the Past Productions page along with The Darling Buds of May,

Panto time yet again

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 18:06:05 +0100

Doesn’t time fly!

For this year’s pantomime, we’re returning to “Cinderella”. This will be the fourth time we’ve produced it, previous times being 1980, 1994 and 2005.

This year the script is by David Williams via Limelight Scripts.

Performance dates are Thu 19th Jan 2012 evening, Fri 20th evening, Sat 21st matinee and evening and Sun 22nd matinee, all at Wootton Village Hall. Tickets and exact times will be available later.

Right: Graham Pavey and Ian McDonald from last years’s panto “Ali Baba”.

Out of focus added to past productions

Sun, 3 Jul 2011 16:33:51 +0100

This Ayckbourn style play is the tale of a panto, how it is created and what happens when it is presented at the village hall. The whole panto cast are hopeless leading to some of the funniest scenes.

See the “Out of Focus” page in the “Past Productions” section for more photos and the review from our local NODA rep.

The Darling Buds of May

Sun, 3 Jul 2011 16:28:43 +0100

Our next production will hopefully be 21st to 24th September at The Place in Bedford, we’ve started rehearsals for The Darling Buds of May by H.E. Bates.

We’ve performed this play before, back in October 1997, so it’s about time that we had another “go”!

Pandora and Glovers at The Place

Sun, 22 May 2011 10:14:00 +0100

Pandora and “Glovers Mange Cure Caper” will be repeated on Thursday 9th June at The Place theatre in Bedford. Start time is 7:30 PM.

Spring 2011 productions (updated)

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:33:13 +0100

The next production by the Youth group are two short plays: “Waiting for Pandora” by Geoff Bamber and “Glover’s Mange Cure Caper” by Louise Bottrell and Roy C. Booth; and for the Adult section is “Out of Focus” by Peter Gordon.

“Waiting for Pandora” is a humorous fantasy play for schools, with seventeen speaking parts. You can see the script online at the Lazy Bee site.

“Glover’s Mange Cure Caper” is a comedy in which two junior high-school girls in 1949 experiment with a radical beauty treatment in an attempt to become popular with less than favourable results! There is a script preview on the Hitplays site.

“Out of Focus” is a comedy which details the chaos that occurs when the Village Hall is booked simultaneously by the Badminton players, the Brownies, the Pantomime cast and Leonard, who insists he has booked the hall for an illustrated talk on steam locomotives. The script is distributed by Josef Weinberger.

Dates are as follows:

“Waiting for Pandora” and “Glover’s Mange Cure Caper”: Saturday 14th May @ 7.30PM at Wootton Village Hall.
“Out of Focus”: Thursday 19th May to Saturday 21st May at 7:30PM at Wootton Village Hall.

Ali Baba added to Past Productions

Tue, 1 Mar 2011 20:54:41 +0000

Panto 2011 was written by (and starred) Alan Gilmore as Ali Baba with the usual assortment of villagers, thieves, evil robbers and a camel!

See the “Ali Baba” page in the “Past Productions” section for more photos and the review from our local NODA rep.

Panto time again

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:28:42 +0100

We’re now gearing up for our Panto, which will be at Wootton Village Hall in January 2011.

This year we’re doing “Ali Baba”; there will be a “read-through” on 30th September and auditions are on 5th October, both at the Village Hall.

We’re always looking for new members, on-stage, back-stage, front-of-house or helping with props, scenery, costumes, painting, music and technical.

Why not come along and see what’s happening!

Left: Graham Pavey and Josh Kirkup in last year’s Panto “Old Mother Hubbard”.

Daisy Pulls it Off

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:22:03 +0100

Our next presentation is “Daisy Pulls it Off” by Denise Deegan. September 22nd to September 25th at 7:30 pm. Tickets from the usual places.

Daisy Pulls it Off is the blissfully assured pastiche of all those hearty adventure stories for girls, popularised by the likes of Angela Brazil and Elinor Brent-Dyer, which flourished through the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s up to the point where the ‘permissive society’ took hold.

Surely one of the reasons for the success of the play - which enjoyed a long run in the “West End” in 1983 - is that it has a foot in both periods. It invites a more cynical and knowing age to look back in laughter at a bygone boarding-school world of lusty innocence and moral conformism. At the same time, it evokes that world with such zest and spirit that its admirable qualities shine through - it loves the very thing it spoofs.

It is about the attempts of super-achiever Daisy Meredith to submerge her poor elementary school background and find acceptance in the snobby confines of Grangewood School for Young Ladies. Our plucky heroine undergoes a number of tribulations (including possible expulsion) before, by being honourable and straight in all things, all comes right in the end with Daisy saving the lives of sneaky Monica and toady Sybil - her arch-enemies - discovering the treasure of Grangewood and scoring the winning goal at hockey!

An evening capturing the uncomplicated innocence of a world gone by.....