Over the past 60 years, the Christmas play offering of the Rep Players has been widely varied and challenging…
In 1961, the Christmas offering was Waters of the Moon by N C Hunter, directed by Ken Lowe – his third outing as a Director in a distinguished career that would span many decades.
The play features a group of lonely people in a quiet hotel who find their lives shaken up by the arrival of the glamorous, assertive Helen Lancaster – played by Mary Bartholomew.
1971’s offering was the delightful comedy, She Stoops To Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith, directed by Peter Legge (coincidentally, his third directorial outing) and featuring such stalwarts of the Rep as John Walley, Ernest Reeves and Eric Ball.
1981 saw Angels in Love, a mock Victorian romp full of delightfully contrived nonsense. Little Lord Fauntleroy, now twenty and married, causes his mother great concern by his apparent ignorance of the reasons for marriage. Ludicrous and farcical situations develop in the course of various genteel efforts to enlighten him.
1991 was the turn of Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, recounting the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. It provided the opportunity for a number of the Young Rep to take part in a main stage production
2001, now settling in to our new home, we offered the seemingly idyllic comedy, Season’s Greetings. Hilarious highlights include a chaotically incompetent puppet show and a midnight love scene that sets off a fearful din among mechanical Christmas toys.
2011 once more saw us able to utilise the many talents of our Young Rep members as they played alongside our regular stalwarts in Wind in the Willows. Unforgettable characters sprang to life in this sparkling adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s beloved classic. Much more than a show about animals with human characteristics, Wind in the Willows is about the delicate balance among all living things, and the surpassing value of friendship.
And finally, in 2021, we offered you Funny Money – an offering that hopefully sent you home full of good cheer.
Here’s to many more decades to come!
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