Tickets on sale for The Father

Tickets are now on sale for our next production, The Father by Florian Zeller, in April 2025.

Now 80 years old, André was once a tap dancer. He lives in a nice flat in Paris and his daughter Anne visits with her husband Antoine. Or was he an engineer? And doesn’t his daughter actually live in London now with her new partner Pierre? André can’t quite remember; he can’t find his watch and he’s wearing his pyjamas in the middle of the day. And who put that piece of furniture there?

André is a man losing his grip on reality, but he still has all his faculties… hasn’t he?

Florian Zeller’s darkly humorous and deeply poignant play, translated from French by Christopher Hampton, is a tragi-comic mystery, a sobering and realistic family story, and an unsentimental, emotionally intense look at the world through the eyes of a man experiencing dementia.

In it we meet André, whose declining mental faculties lead to confusion, frustration and a loss of identity. His daughter Anne struggles to balance her love for her father and the need to care for him with the pressures of her own life. Through André’s eyes the audience experiences the confusion, dislocation, anxiety and vulnerability associated with dementia and the impact it has on family relationships.

Shot through with moments of heartfelt emotion, humour and beautiful, poignant language, Common Ground’s latest bold production stars Jerry Smith as André and Laura Turner as Anne.

It can be seen at the Broadbent Theatre in Wickenby from Thursday 10th until Saturday 12th April 2025. Performances begin at 7.30pm.

Tickets cost £13 (£12 concessions) and can be purchased online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/broadbent/e-belqjo. Some tickets may also be available on the door.

The Father was made into an Oscar-winning film in 2020 starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman. Anthony Hopkins won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of André.

GOOD TURNOUT AT AUDITION

Thanks to everyone who turned out last night (30th January) to audition for our Noël Coward double bill. It was great to see plenty more new faces!

We will be staging two short plays by Coward at the Broadbent Theatre in October 2025: Still Life, which was the basis for the classic 1945 film Brief Encounter, and Come Into the Garden, Maud.

It will take a while for all the parts to be cast, and we are still interested in hearing from people who would like to audition. If you would like to be considered, please email stoogood1946@gmail.com.

Here’s a reminder of the roles available:

STILL LIFE

Alec Harvey – mid to late 30s
Laura Jesson – mid 30s
Myrtle Bagot – 40s-60s
Albert Godby – 40s-60s
Beryl Waters – early 20s
Stanley – early to mid 20s
Bill and Johnnie – 20s
Mildred – early 20s
Dolly Messiter – mid 30s to mid 40s
Young man – any age

COME INTO THE GARDEN, MAUD

Vernon Conklin – 55, American accent
Anne-Mary Conklin – 50s, American accent
Maud Caragnani – 44, English accent (a few lines in Italian)
Felix, a waiter – 20s – early 30s, French (a few lines in Italian)

NOËL COWARD AUDITIONS

Our autumn production for 2025 will be A Brief Encounter with Noël Coward, and open auditions will take place on Thursday 30th January.

We will be staging two short plays by Coward at the Broadbent Theatre in October 2025: Still Life, which was the basis for the classic 1945 film Brief Encounter, and Come Into the Garden, Maud.

You are invited to audition for parts in either or both plays. Ages shown are for guidance only.

In Still Life, directed by Martin Noble, Alec and Laura meet and fall in love in a railway station tearoom. Their relationship is mirrored by the courtship rituals of two other couples. But Alec and Laura are both happily married – will they follow their hearts or bury their love forever?

Roles and playing ages:

Alec Harvey – mid to late 30s
Laura Jesson – mid 30s
Myrtle Bagot – 40s-60s
Albert Godby – 40s-60s
Beryl Waters – early 20s
Stanley – early to mid 20s
Bill and Johnnie – 20s
Mildred – early 20s
Dolly Messiter – mid 30s to mid 40s
Young man – any age

In Come Into the Garden, Maud, directed by Su Toogood, an American couple are staying in a luxury Swiss hotel. Anne-Mary is petulant and domineering, while her husband Verner is quiet and philosophical. Verner is drawn to a wealthy widow, Maud Caragnani, who pays the couple a visit. Will he take a chance on love, or remain stuck in his loveless marriage?

Roles and playing ages:

Vernon Conklin – 55, American accent
Anne-Mary Conklin – 50s, American accent
Maud Caragnani – 44, English accent (a few lines in Italian)
Felix, a waiter – 20s – early 30s, French (a few lines in Italian)

Auditions will take place at 7.30pm on Thursday 30th January 2025 at St Mary Le Wigford church hall, next to Lincoln railway station.

If you are interested in auditioning but unable to attend, please email stoogood1946@gmail.com.

GOOD TURNOUT AT MEETING

There was a good turnout at our company meeting on 7th January despite the cold weather and flood situation.

We finalised dates for all our forthcoming productions and reported a very healthy bank balance!

Minutes of the meeting will be circulated to everyone on our members’ mailing list. If you’d like to be added to the list, please send an email to our Secretary, Su Toogood.

Company meeting – all welcome!

We’ll be holding our biannual company meeting upstairs at the Victoria Pub in Lincoln on Tuesday 7th January at 7.30pm.

These meetings are an opportunity for members to discuss forthcoming productions and for newcomers to get to the know the company!

Items on the agenda will include an update on our spring production of The Father and a look back at our latest show, Educating Rita.

Everyone is welcome, including new members – grab a drink at the bar before coming up to join us!

The Victoria pub can be found between The Lawn and the back of Lincoln Castle on Union Road.

Play reading: Still Life

Our final play reading for this summer season will be Still Life, the short Noël Coward play which became Brief Encounter’on the silver screen.
 
We’ll be reading this play at 7:30pm on Tuesday 3rd September in the upper room at The Victoria pub, Union Road, Lincoln LN1 3BJ. Get a drink at the bar and come up and join us!
 
Still Life is a short play in five scenes, one of ten plays that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed across three evenings. It portrays the chance meeting, subsequent love affair, and eventual parting of a married woman and a physician.

The sadness of their serious and secretive affair is contrasted throughout the play with the boisterous, uncomplicated relationship of a second couple. Still Life differs from most of the plays in the cycle by having an unhappy ending.
 
The play was first produced in London in May 1936 and was staged in New York in October of that year. It has been revived frequently and is probably best known in its film form as ‘Brief Encounter’, which was released in cinemas in 1945 starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson.
 
We are planning to stage Still Life in the near future but this is NOT an audition, just an opportunity to get to know the play.

Hope to see you there!