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Hebden Bridge Little Theatre, Holme Street, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX7 6EE.
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And a Nightingale Sang
Hobsons Choice
Lord Arthur Saviles Crime
Hobsons Choice
Lord Arthur Saviles Crime
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
And a Nightingale Sang
Lord Arthur Sackviles Crime
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
By Alan Ayckbourn
Directed by Ray Riches.
February 19th -24th, 2007
At the beginning of the play things are not looking too rosy for Lynette Saxon and her teenage daughter Sorrel. The man in their lives has left, the family dot-com business has gone bust and Lynette is having to work twelve hour shifts as a cleaner to keep the wolves from the door. Sorrel thinks she has the perfect plan to save the day - she'll join the 'oldest profession in the world'. With the anonymity of the internet and using her slightly dim school chum Kelly as maid and minder, what could be an easier and simpler way of earning money and solving all their debt problems? However things don't go quite as planned and after the first uncomfortable client the play becomes a dark farce involving body disposal, brutal police questioning and media intrusion.
Part of 'The Damsels in Distress' trilogy, the play has been described as being 'at once near the knuckle, touching and outrageously funny'. Typical of Ayckbourn he gives us plenty to laugh at whilst capturing the poignancy of people desperately having to face up to the moral consequences of their actions.
A Murder is Announced
Adapted by Leslie Darbon
Based on the novel by Agatha Christie
Directed by Steve Hirst.
April 23rd-28th, 2007
The invitation in the local paper spelled it out quite clearly - "A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th at Little Paddocks, at 6-30pm". A simple bit of party fun, a murder mystery game with cards given out, role plays assigned, lights out, a victim then the usual questioning of suspects as to 'who dunnit?' All very light hearted and amusing until an actual corpse is discovered and it all becomes chillingly real. A game as murderous as this requires the best player of all - calling Miss Marple! The intriguing advert brings plenty of locals flocking to Little Paddocks to join the guests already assembled for the party and thereby swelling the number of potential suspects for Detective Inspector Craddock to question, ably assisted of course by the shrewd, all-knowing, amateur sleuth.
'Murder is Announced' was already established as a 'classic of detective fiction' and Leslie Durbon's seventies stage adaptation adds wit and humour to a plot full of the usual red herrings and larger than life characters. This was the first of the Miss Marole mysteries produced for television.
When We Are Married
By J B Priestley
Directed by Ben Sweeny.
June 18th-23rd, 2007
A plot that is so well known that it is hardly worth repeating but here goes. Three 'happily married' couples gather to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their tripple wedding ceremony but first the men have to take care of some unpleasant business. The recently appointed young church organist (a la-di-dah southerner) has been seen out at night with a pretty girl and they want it to stop. In answer he drops a bombshell - he knows that the man who married them all those years ago was not qualified to do so. Technically these pillars of society, promonent members of their chapel have been living in sin for twenty five years. Fertile ground for comedy as the men retire to fret in secret, searching for a solution to their dilemma - think of the scandal!
This is Priestley at his best, showing us pompous, smug characters being knocked off their perches. Throw in a drunken Telegraph and Argus Photographer, a 'dark lady' from the past and a servant who has listened at the keyhole, delighting in their discomfort and you have a guaranteed evening of laughter.
Humble Boy
By Charlotte Jones
Directed by Bob Morton.
October 1st -6th, 2007
Felix Humble a brilliant astro-phycicist has returned home for the funeral of his father. When we first see him he looks lost and uncomfortable, indeed a 'humble boy'. On the appearance of his mother we soon see why - she is an overbearing bully who feels that life has been unjust to her and takes it out on the people around her. Felix's feelings for her become even more negative when he learns that she has been having an affair with their crude neighbour George Pye. Felix's homecoming is made more complicated with the appearance of Pye's daughter Rosie with whom he had a relationship several years earlier. This is the heart of the play - a man more at home in the world of scientific research having to cope with complex human relationships. The play is given a haunted atmosphere by the appearances of the gardener who always seems to be more tahn he is.
Winner of the Critics Circle Theatre best new play for 2001 it has been described as "a good entertainment with enough laughter and a good bit of poignancy". Charlotte Jones has written a sensitive tragi-comedy, handling a complex son and mother story with a pleasing lightness of touch.
Jekyll and Hyde
adapted by Leonard H. Caddy
Directed by Vaughan Leslie.
November 26th -December 1st, 2007
A respected medical scientist, Dr Jekyll, goes in search of his true, primal nature, by using mind-altering drugs. Tragically, he unleashes uncontrollable forces, and soon discovers he has journeyed into the heart of darkness. ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ is a steaming Freudian brew, of repressed sexual desire and violence, with a nightmare conclusion. Come with us on this descent into Hell!
Like all good horror, ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, articulates the fears and anxieties of its time. Debauchery and drugs, the menace of the ‘underclass’, and the transforming power of science, were concerns then, but have contemporary resonance too.