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!

News from the annual meeting

Thanks to everyone who attended our annual meeting on Tuesday 23rd July 2024.

The current committee was re-elected unopposed and Vicky Ashberry was elected as a sixth member.

Future productions were confirmed as follows:

Educating Rita
by Willy Russell, directed by Su Toogood
19th to 21st September 2024

The Father
by Florian Zeller (translated by Christopher Hampton), directed by Jez Ashberry
10th to 12th April 2025

The Birthday Party
by Harold Pinter, directed by Julia Ross
TBC

Under Milk Wood (reading)
by Dylan Thomas, directed by Colin Brimblecombe
TBC

Still Life & Come Into the Garden, Maud
by Noël Coward, directed by Martin Noble and AN Other
TBC

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
by William Shakespeare, directed by Vicky Ashberry
TBC

Confusions
by Alan Ayckbourn, directed by Vicky Ashberry
TBC

Membership subscriptions were held at £18 / £12 unwaged and are now due for 2024/5.

Annual meeting 23rd July

** Updated **

Our annual meeting will take place at the Victoria Pub, 6 Union Road, Lincoln LN1 3BJ at 7.30pm on Tuesday 23rd July 2024.

This is a revised date to avoid a clash with the Euro 2024 semi-finals!

All the committee posts are up for re-election as usual, and as we currently only have five members we’re on the lookout for a sixth to join us!

The current committee is as follows:

• Jez Ashberry, Chair
• Fraya Grove, Treasurer
• Su Toogood, Secretary
• Patrick Markham, Technical
• Anita Quigley

At the meeting we will be updating everyone on the progress of our two current productions, Educating Rita by Willy Russell and The Father by Florian Zeller. We will also be discussing and deciding on other future productions, and we would be happy to hear from anyone who has any suggestions or who would like to direct a play for us.

There will also be a report on our successful production of Dark Sublime in April 2024 and an update on our series of summer play readings.

If there’s anything you would particularly like to see on the agenda, please let our secretary Su Toogood know as soon as possible.

Remember that subscription fees will be set at this meeting, and subs fall due in July so bring some cash or your cheque book! A year’s membership currently costs £18 or £12 for the unwaged.

Everyone is welcome to attend, especially new members. We hope to see you there!

Educating Rita cast

We’re now in the happy and unprecedented position of having cast our next two productions – talk about planning ahead!

Our next production will be Educating Rita by Willy Russell and the cast is as follows:

Frank – Colin Brimblecombe

Rita – Georgina Vasey

Many thanks to everyone who auditioned – it really wasn’t an easy decision.

Educating Rita will be directed by Su Toogood and can be seen at the Broadbent Theatre in Wickenby from 19th to 21st September 2024.

Cast announced for The Father

We’re pleased to announce the cast for our production of The Father by Florian Zeller (translated by Christopher Hampton) which will be staged next spring:

André – Jerry Smith

Anne – Laura Turner

Pierre – Harry Petrie

Laura – Bianca Hutchings

Man – David Hitchings

Woman – Anita Quigley

The production will be directed by Jez Ashberry and can be seen at the Broadbent Theatre in Wickenby from 10th to 12th April 2025.

Play readings update

Many thanks to everyone who came along to read Present Laughter by Noël Coward this week. We had a very enjoyable evening, even though we only got two-thirds of the way through what is quite a long play!

Our next two play readings will take place on Tuesday 4th June, when we hope to be reading Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, and on Tuesday 2nd July, when the choice will be Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas.

On Tuesday 6th August we hope to be reading Confusions by Alan Ayckbourn.

Our summer play readings take place on the first Tuesday of each month in the upstairs function room at the Victoria pub on Union Road in Lincoln.

They’re free to attend and there’s no pressure to read if you’d prefer to just listen. These are not auditions! They’re just an opportunity for us to get together and read some different plays.

We hope to see you there!