by Mary Elliot Nelson and Ian B Smith
Adapted from an original short story by Philip Van Doren Stern

16th and 17th December 2004
Lincoln Drill Hall

18th and 19th December 2004
Nettleham Village Hall

Arguably the most popular Christmas movie of all time, ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ began life as a short story penned by a hopeful writer and has now been adapted as a play for the theatre. Ian Smith chose this stage version of Frank Capra’s movie masterpiece when he made his directorial debut – an ambitious choice but one which was fully justified.

The production broke new ground in a number of ways: it was Common Ground’s first appearance at the Drill Hall, Lincoln’s new community arts venue; it was the first time we had staged a play at two different venues (we took it to Nettleham Village Hall for two evening performances and a matinee); with 22 actors it was the largest cast we had assembled; and it was our most ambitious production yet in terms of the size of the budget and the technical challenges of the set and the sound and lighting cues.

In the end we pulled it off, though not before what was left of the director’s hair turned grey. The show was well received, attracted over 400 spectators during a run of five performances – easily a record for Common Ground Theatre Company – made a small profit and significantly raised the profile of the company.

The Lincolnshire Echo praised the ‘strong performances’ which ‘brought to life the feel-good story’ while the Lincoln Chronicle rated the show as ‘a production which took time to thaw but warmed into a spirited re-telling of a Christmas classic’.

A spectacular evening of Music Hall gaiety

14th, 15th, 21st & 22nd May 2004
Millennium Festival Studio Theatre, Central Methodist Church, Lincoln

Although there had been some light-hearted moments it began to dawn on us at the end of 2003 that much of what we had staged since our inception tended towards the more serious side of drama. Death and destruction had been experienced more than once, and a fictional suicide played a part in at least two of our productions.

We therefore made a conscious decision to stage something lighter for our spring 2004 production – and in the process to take a completely different tack, just to show off our versatility. We decided to plug a gap in the market by staging a Victorian music hall show featuring a live orchestra, singers, dancers, period costumes and an eloquent master of ceremonies. Moreover, we wanted to create a total Victorian experience into which the audience could really immerse itself. To that end we provided front of house staff in costumes (including two young girls selling flowers) and Victorian style ices and soft drinks in the interval, we sang the National Anthem at the end of each show and even drank a toast each evening to Her Majesty Queen Victoria.

It was almost certainly our most ambitious production to date; when we embarked on the project we had no band, no musical director and only a handful of singers and dancers. But by casting the net far and wide and unearthing some unexpected gems from within our own society we staged a show which was extremely well received by audiences and critics and a great financial success. Our total audience for six performances was 321 – easily a record for Common Ground Theatre Company.

Some performances will live long in the memory, not least Ian Smith’s incompetent Turkish strongman and Jane Walker’s impeccable soprano voice, but everyone involved really rose to the occasion.

The Lincoln Chronicle called it ‘an evening which no astute afficionado of such effusively ebullient and energetically effervescent entertainment could possibly fail to enjoy’, while the Market Rasen Mail hailed ‘a remarkable recreation of a golden age’, ‘a brave venture… which pays off with some style.’

Here’s the playbill which we presented:

by Lillian Hellman

12th-15th November 2003
Millennium Festival Studio Theatre, Central Methodist Church, Lincoln

Vicky Ashberry made her directorial bow with our autumn 2003 production – and she certainly doesn’t shrink from a challenge!

Written in the 1930s, ‘The Children’s Hour’ is the best known work of the American playwright Lillian Hellman. It tells the story of how a malicious lie told by a schoolgirl eventually destroys the lives and livelihoods of her two teachers. Its insinuations of illicit love between two women were considered shocking when it first appeared on the Broadway stage, and when it was revived in the 1950s the play struck a chord with many audiences at a time when rumour, persecution and unfounded allegations were rife in the McCarthy era.

Vicky brought in a host of new members to take the schoolgirls’ roles and coaxed excellent performances from all of them – in particular newcomer Francesca Gugliotta, who played the central role of Mary Tilford, the disturbed girl whose lies lead to the closure of the school and the suicide of one of the teachers.

Overall an utterly convincing and deeply moving piece of ensemble theatre which won rave reviews despite attracting only our usual small but loyal audiences. The Lincolnshire Echo praised the ‘intense performances’ and predicted that audiences would be ‘deeply moved’ by the plight of the two women, excellently played by Melissa Corfield and Sheryl Tribe. The Lincoln Chronicle pronounced the show ‘brave and brilliant’, ‘hugely enjoyable’ and ‘gripping and gruelling theatre’.

Three one-act plays with supper

10-12th April 2003
Croft Street Community Centre, Lincoln

Our spring 2003 production was a new venture for us: an evening of one-act plays with supper. When one of our members thought up the bright idea most of us imagined something tasty but simple, like shepherd’s pie or curry and rice. But another of our members is a professional chef, so we finished up serving posh nosh as an accompaniment to three one-act plays.

We took the decision to stage one-act plays because our director Su Toogood was keen to enter ‘A Dog’s Life’ by Pam Valentine into the Lincoln Music and Drama Festival in March 2003. She chose a second play to accompany it – ‘Shoppers’ by Jean McConnell – and we enlisted the support of Metheringham Players for the third play as their production of ‘The Ark’ planned for performance in May featured a cast made up entirely of Common Ground members.

The three plays were all very different but sufficiently similar in tone to make for a coherent evening’s entertainment. Each is ostensibly entertaining, with scope for comedy, but each is tinged with a darker, sadder side.

In ‘The Ark’ Cecilia and her two daughters grieve for their recently departed Dad. In their own way each tries to come to terms with his death, and the strain of the situation begins to tell on the sisters before a revelation brings them closer together. By the end of the play Cecilia herself has reconciled herself somewhat to her husband’s death and begins to see how she can pick up her life again.

‘Shoppers’ apears to be a harmless conversational duologue featuring two well-to-do ladies who meet on the seafront after a hard day’s shopping at the most exclusive stores. But as the play progresses the audiences begins to sense that all is not what it seems. By the end of this short play it becomes apparent that Rosemary and Angela are in fact serial shoplifters addicted to the thrill of thieving as a way of bringing meaning and purpose to their otherwise directionless lives.

‘A Dog’s Life’ is a challenge for four of the cast who have to portray dogs waiting patiently in a dog shelter, hoping one day to be chosen by a new owner. Again, most of the cast for this play were newcomers to Common Ground and all but a couple were largely inexperienced, so were pleased with the quality of the end result.

The Lincolnshire Echo described the three plays as ‘appetising, tenderly cooked and perfectly well baked,’ while the Lincoln Chronicle declared the ‘ambitious’ but ‘totally successful’ event as ‘a five-star evening’.

For the record, Ian Smith cooked salmon with a duxelle filling wrapped in noodle paste with red pepper and mushroom mash and drizzled with red onion and balsamic vinegar gravy followed by warm polenta cake with summer berries and Cornish ice cream finished off with coffee and home-made biscuits.

by Peter Whelan

27th-30th November 2002
Millennium Festival Studio Theatre, Central Methodist Church, Lincoln

For our autumn 2002 production we chose a play with a sombre subject. ‘The Accrington Pals’ tells the story of a group of friends from Accrington in Lancashire who answered Kitchener’s call and enlisted in the British Army at the beginning of the Great War. Accrington was the smallest community in the country to raise its own ‘Pals’ battalion, and on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916 – its first major action – the battalion suffered devastating losses. Of some 720 Accrington Pals who took part in the attack, 584 were killed, wounded or missing. The losses were hard to bear in a community where nearly everyone had a relative or friend who had been killed or wounded.

‘The Accrington Pals’ is based on real history, but its characters are fictitious. It is not only the story of a band of young men who enlisted and died in France; it is also the story of the womenfolk who were left behind, who grew into their new-found independence and who slowly came to realise that the propaganda they were being fed was based on lies.

Steve Watters directed a cast of ten which included experienced actors as well as two newcomers to the stage. The production was the first to be staged by Common Ground at the Millennium Festival Studio Theatre, a recently refurbished theatre space above Lincoln’s Central Methodist Church.

Those who took part and those who watched were moved by the sense of history made flesh on the stage. The Lincoln Chronicle described the production as ‘an impressive ensemble showing, bringing real credibility to the script’s everyday banter’ with ‘a range of accomplished individual performances.’ It concluded: ‘The Accrington Pals confirms the company as welcome reinforcements on the city’s drama front.’

The Lincolnshire Echo agreed that ‘the director successfully balanced the play’s action while providing a touching insight into real people’s lives.’