That is the title of our next production. And when we tell you it’s a good old return to door slamming farce then you might already suspect that things might not be as perfect as the title suggests….
Robin Hawdon’s comedy is about a couple preparing for their wedding at a country hotel. Naturally things don’t run smoothly for the unfortunate groom after a drunken stag night and he has to persuade his best man and the hotel staff to reluctantly attempt to resolve his issues. Infidelity, confusion, mistaken identities, girlfriends, chambermaids and the bride’s mother, are all in the mix to make this a hilarious farce not to be missed.
Rehearsals are now under way with Richard Bateman in the Director’s chair and the cast are in The Forum coping with a manic paced script and opening and closing imaginary doors.
The cast: on the sofa Nic Johnson and Gill Collins, behind the sofa Janet Drewery and Barbara Failey with Rob Newton and Steve Howlandon the arms.
Our Producer: Richard Bateman
Ensure the dates are in your calendar and we will let you know shortly when you can book your seats.
There are four seasons in the year at The Petuaria Players; Early Play Season, Summer Break Season, Late Play Season and The Festive Season!
Now we are between productions and taking a break for the Festive Season where we can eat, drink and get very merry. Then, during January, we will have our first meetings to kick off our next production Perfect Wedding.
Meanwhile, we thank you for your support during this eventful year. Do have a good Christmas and New Year and we will see you all again in 2024.
Photo album that is, you know we don’t do musicals! We have a few photos to share with you and you can view them below.
A successful run
It is almost a month since our run of John Godber’s Lucky Sods came to an end. It was a sellout - good for our small drama group cash reserves and help with our upkeep, and even better for the actors, performing in front of packed appreciative houses every night. The joy of live theatre is the interaction with an audience, making every performance unique.
We kept the play true to it’s original timing – the early years of the National Lottery, Cilla Black’s Blind Date and the channel tunnel referred to as ’The Chunnel’ (well, that never caught on!).
A rough journey that ended well
Janet, directing, used a simple black drapes set with minimal furniture and props to suggest the setting for each of the ten scenes. This was a good move – whilst the end product was a great success the journey there was a challenging one. Before we started rehearsals we knew that we had a minimum of actors to perform with just one person backstage and lots of scheduled holiday weeks for some actors that would impact rehearsals. But we were determined to put a show on and we planned our work accordingly around the issues; flexible rehearsals (which made life harder for Rob who had so many words to learn), and actors doubling up to carry out backstage roles when not on the stage.
As if that wasn’t enough we also had a difficult start due to an unusually late delivery of scripts from the publisher, a round of covid infections that laid a few of us low and kept us away from rehearsals – and then Gill broke her wrist which explains the photos with her elegant cast in place. How many audience members noticed though? And if they did they may yet be wondering if they had missed an element in the plot where her character Jean broke her wrist….
Gill’s broken wrist “the show must go on!”Ready to go on – seven actors and five backstage crew in one photo
With the very real issue of having no-one to operate the sound and lights we were fortunate to have Paul Morrell re-appear on the Petuaria Players scene after a gap of nearly twenty years. Paul, a regular on the stage in the past, took on the role of Sound and Lights operator and saved us a lot of grief. Good news – he’ll be doing the same on the next play too.
Lucky Sods – the Photos
Cast (Left to Right): Sue Crowston (Mother), Barbara Failey (Connie), Gill Collins (Jean), Rob Newton (Morris), Dianne Turner (Annie), Steve Howland (Norman), Sally Morland (Waiter / Vicar)Backstage (Left to Right, from back row): Nic Johnson (Stage Manager), Paul Morrell (Sound & Lights), Sally Morland (Props) and Janet Drewery (Producer) all ably assisted backstage by Dianne, Barbara, Gill and Sue)
THE PERFORMANCE PHOTOS
As usual with our thanks to Dave Hackett
TIP: to view at full size click on any image or click on the first one and then scroll right or left
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That’s it folks. That wraps up this play nicely before Christmas. Don’t forget to follow us on here or on Facebook to get our latest updates.
Luck is what you may need if you haven’t reserved your tickets yet for our next production, as we are rapidly heading towards full houses on all nights.
Barbara, Rob, Gill, Steve, Dianne, Sue, Sally – the cast of Lucky Sods
We are now approaching the end of rehearsals and will soon be ready to take the show to our stage, starting with set building the weekend before.
We hope to see you all on performance night!
LUCKY SODS by John Godber is being performed by The Petuaria Players at Elloughton / Brough Village Hall November 16, 17, 18 2023
Petuaria Players 