LLangollen Twenty Club Amateur Players

This Noel Coward play is a comical look at changing and conflicting social values in aristocratic England in 1951 discriminating taste and secrets.  Nigel, the Earl of Marshwood, woos Hollywood star Miranda Frayle, upsetting both his mother, Countess Felicity of Marshwood, and her former love, fellow Hollywood star Don Lucas. But why is Moxie, the Countess’ maid, upset; and what can be done to prevent her from leaving?

“Relative Values” opened at the Savoy Theatre, London a few nights after Noel Coward’s debut at the Café de Paris as one of the most highly paid and highly successful cabaret entertainers of the 1950s.  The original cast was headed by Gladys Cooper, Angela Baddeley and Judy Campbell.  This was Noël’s first successful comedy in almost a decade,  and attracted reviews nearly good enough to make him forget the many insults that he had received from the Press in the long years since Blithe Spirit.

Rehearsals are well underway under the direction of Christine Dukes. This is the first play that Christine has directed for the Twenty Club, but she has previous experience of directing for Grove Park Little Theatre, and is Artistic Director for Theatr Yr Ifanc Rhos 1990, and is an active member of Tip Top Productions.

The cast includes many faces that will be familiar to regular Llangollen audiences but also features two completely new members. The Twenty Club are very pleased to welcome Julie Thomas and Jenni Lloyd. Julie has appeared in professional theatre, television and film, as well as with the Llangollen Operatic Society.  Jenni moved to Llangollen in 2005 and runs the Temptations shop in Oak Street. She trained at LAMDA and has worked with various Wirral and Liverpool societies.

“Relative Values” can be seen at the Llangollen Town Hall from the 6^th to the 8^th March 2008 at 7:30pm.

To see photographs of the rehearsals click here

Based on the story by Dylan Thomas. Adapted for the stage by Jeremy Brooks and Adrian Mitchell.

Open auditions will take place in the Town Hall, Llangollen at 7:30pm on Tuesday 26th of June.

The play will be performed at the Town Hall, Llangollen from Thursday 8th of November to Saturday the 10th of November at 7:30pm.

Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and birds the colour of red flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills ... it snowed and snowed and snowed."   In this musical adaptation of Dylan Thomas's cherished childhood tale, the power of a boy's imagination will transport you to a magical time and place free from cares and filled with poetry, song, and delight.

An intriguingly comic tale of an organised re-union between bank robber Vic Parks and Douglas Beechey, the timid bank cashier who seventeen years previously "had a go" and tackled Vic when he attempted to rob his bank.

Vic is now a successful media personality, and the play is set at the poolside of his Spanish villa where TV producer Jill Rillington is making a documentary on the lines of "Where are they now?".

The play will be performed at the Town Hall, Llangollen from Thursday 8th March to Saturday the10th of March at 7:30pm.

2006 to 2007 is our 60th anniversary year and we have presented Jane Eyre in March (more details below) and will be producing Dad's Army in the autumn.  Here is the current list of events that have been organised:

A snowy Sunday in March.  Half the stage crew cannot get in to the Town Hall, because of the state of the roads, so a small party begin the always upsetting task of taking down the set.  The Llangollen Operatic Society wish to move in that same afternoon!   Twelve hours before, the hall had resounded to the sound of wind and screams, flames had flickered across the large silhouette of Thornfield Hall, smoke had billowed from doors and windows, and the mad Bertha had exacted her final revenge on a world that had abused and imprisoned her.

The play had drawn three good audiences and a small but committed matinee audience.  For once, the two dress rehearsals were virtually performances and all the elements of acting, set, costume, lighting, properties, sound and music were coming together.  The acting throughout was very strong, with a good mix of youth and experience.  The principal roles, one played by a teenager, one by a mature and experienced actor, were beautifully and intelligently played and the love story of this very oddly assorted couple was made both credible and moving.  The supporting characters, staff at Thornfield, created a caring atmosphere in which this relationship could develop, each individual establishing a distinctive character and clear links with other characters.  The enigmatic Grace Poole and the unfortunate Mason, sent halfway across the world on his futile mission added to the atmosphere of mystery and unease.  There were so many good set piece scenes.

In every area of the production, from design through to live music, the teams and individuals worked hard and with great skill to create the appropriate illusions, with the theatrical climax coming in the fire at the hall.  The use of a slightly raised thrust stage brought the play very close to the audience, to the advantage of both actors and onlookers.  Working in the round or semi-round has certain disadvantages but it does free up the performers much more than the more conventional production.  The hard work which went into all aspects of staging was mirrored in the work of the cast, who responded easily to direction and, most importantly, dispensed with books about two weeks before the final rehearsals.  Special mention must be made of the great work of our new members, Natalie (Adele), Dianne (prompter), Ray (the Rev, Wood), Val (scenery, Jane’s paintings and understudy to Grace Poole) and of Anna ( Jane ) and Barry ( Rochester).  There were times in the play when a professional production would not have exceeded what these amateurs did.

You can gather from the tone of the above that, as director, I was very pleased with the production, and felt that all the hard work, from the first January read-through had been very worthwhile.  One major advantage from my point of view was having Val as my assistant director, with a brief which stretched from taking full rehearsals, to moving around the cast, talking to them about specific scenes and effects.  Val also involved himself in the creation of the set, in properties and in general ‘ business’.  It was a partnership that worked very well.  Too often, the assistant director is table-bound and sits throughout rehearsals without contributing very much.

Roll on ‘ Dad’s Army’, our next 60^th Anniversary production

Mike Law

A comedy by Mike Harding
Thursday 10th - Saturday 12th November, 2005

Twenty Club's latest production is "Comfort and Joy", a comedy, written by Mike Harding. It was first presented at the Oldham Coliseum in 1997. Mike Harding was born in Manchester in 1944 into a working class Irish Catholic family. Much of the inspiration for his writing comes from his early years growing up in post-war Manchester.

Since then he has earned acclaim in all fields of his work including national concert tours, television and radio, travel writing, comedy writing, poetry and play writing. Mike has written several plays, notably "Fur Coat and No Knickers" in 1980, "Last Tango in Whitby" in 1990 and "Comfort and Joy" which is his latest play. Set at Christmas time, when relatives you hardly ever see, and who are now very different from you, arrive at your house for the festivities. No one receives a present that is at all appropriate, culinary disasters abound, and long buried resentments rear their ugly heads as the alcohol flows and tongues are loosened. "Comfort and Joy" is painfully - but always amusingly familiar.

Rehearsals are now in progress with an experienced cast including: Liz Evans, Iwan Astley, Hana Gaskell, John Clifford, Valentine Shearman, David Connolly, Nicky Holmwood, Margaret Parry, Katie Powell, Marcus Crawley, Mike Law and with the support of George and Natalie Evans as carol singers and Aliens!

Bill Eastwood
Director

Mike Leigh’s devised play, ‘Abigail’s Party’, is a difficult play to direct. The difficulties arise in all sorts of directions. Firstly, since it was initially based on improvisation, actors taking on the roles have little to go on in terms of characterisation, and in a sense, have to create from scratch a believable personality and a credible set of relationships. Secondly, the play has acquired cult status over the years, and many people still remember the very strong television and stage productions of the 1970s, with the influence of Alison Steadman’s Beverly weighing heavily. Thirdly, since not a lot physically happens, actors will have problems with short, sometimes one word conversational dialogue and sequences which are very alike. Finally, the base of the play in seventies culture has to be firmly established through everything seen and heard by the audience, and this includes costume, furniture, music, drinks glasses and so on. Small details can be important. Tony, for instance, says that he played for the Crystal Palace first team; if the timings are right, this could mean that he played in what would then have been the Premiership, with all the surrounding, even in the seventies, publicity and glamour. If we suppose he is telling the truth, this makes his marriage to the awful Angie even harder to understand.

The advantages of the play include the small cast and the possibility of working intensively with experienced players. The main task is for them to plot their own paths through the brief time of the party and to know in their own minds their agendas when the play starts and when it finishes. They also have to pick up the nuances of the dialogue and identify the many awkward and embarrassing moments which give the play its humour and ultimate enigmatic ending. As Laurence lies dead on the floor ( although we only have Angie’s word for it), Angie succumbs to cramp, Susan reaches tragic heights on the phone to Abigail and Bev. surveys the wreckage of the evening – and at this point, on all three nights of the production, audience laughter was at its highest.

Working in the semi-round, as we did, was a great help. It turned the actors inward and brought the audience to focus more sharply on individual moments and actions. In a wider sense, it actually brought the audience into the party, a mood of participation that was helped by our wine bar providing glasses of wine from the beginning of the evening; there were even one or two points where audience members put their glasses down on tables which were part of the set! We were very much helped by a simple but very functional working set at the fourth quarter of the circle, which provided all the ‘ things which worked ‘ (tap, lights, stereo, phone, book-case) as well as the one door which led both to hall and the stairs.

Rehearsals were very enjoyable affairs, but it was obvious, despite close attention to identifying distinct and repeated sequences, that learning words was going to prove a problem. We set ourselves a short rehearsal time of just over six weeks, with two two hour rehearsals a week. This means that actors really have to learn the part independently, rather than relying on the familiarisation process of regular daily rehearsal. From an early stage, I made the prompter part of the cast team. He was at all rehearsals, all cast discussions, and sat in the audience circle, rather than being hidden away back stage. This meant that he could see immediately when something was going wrong, and often led actors slowly and carefully through a particularly piece of dialogue. When we came to performance, he remained in full view, almost one of the cast. He was needed once or twice on the first night, but beyond that was largely superfluous, as the cast dug themselves out of any hole which they might have created. His role and influence, though, were absolutely crucial.

The last few rehearsals were rather traumatic. The hall was cold and dark, the words were still a problem, the relationships of the characters were not clearly defined. Extra rehearsals were arranged, for dialogue practice and to try to establish some flow to the play. The final dress rehearsal was very poor. A spare night was used for yet another – and suddenly, something clicked. Beverly held the rehearsal together and for the first time, the play began to find its way. The three nights had capacity audiences (because we had cut our capacity to accommodate the ‘ in the round’ configuration) and actors and audience drew from each other to produce three increasingly effective performances. The Saturday night performance was perhaps the most satisfying one that I have had as a director with the Twenty Club. The play was genuinely alive, the actors were on top of their material and they had absolute audience involvement. There were so many delightful moments, some of which occurred for the first time during that performance.

One of my big advantages was having a cast of largely experienced players. Lynne Griffiths brought her insight and energy to the very difficult role of Bev. She held the action together and succeeded, I believe, in making Bev a more sympathetic character than Steadman’s monster. The real monster, in our production, was Angie, with her sly innuendo, her crass questions, her liking for the murkier details of nursing experience, and her famous pilchard curry. June found her way into the character and occasionally drew gasps from the audience with her comments and actions. Abigail’s mother Susan, is a largely reactive role and as with Lynne and June, we were very fortunate to have the experience of Noreen to make far more of it than is evident in the script; her bewilderment at her surroundings, her fears about the increasingly anarchic party down the road and her innate politeness (finally destroyed at the end ) were as much reflected in her face and gestures as in her speech. After playing a series of eccentric roles, David Connolly had the opportunity to play a more ‘ normal’ but central character, and gave to the role of Laurence both dignity (for what he was trying to achieve in life ) and a certain kind of revulsion, in his snobbery and one-upmanship, particularly in respect of his own wife. Valentine is the least experienced actor in the cast, but he has learnt very quickly and by the time that we came to performance had made someone very real out of the misfit and potentially violent Tony. Perhaps most importantly of all, the cast worked together as a team. They were prepared to work through the sticky bits and won the reward of very good audience response and their own sense of enjoyment and fulfilment.

All in all, a difficult play to tackle, but one that was worth sweating a bit of blood for and one that every amateur society worth its salt should have a go at . 

Mike Law, Director - October 2004

December 2003

Our recent production of J. B. Priestley's 'An Insepctor Calls' was an overwhelming success. The play takes place in the dining room of the wealthy Birling Family. One evening, an Inspector Calls with the news that a girl has just died in the infirmary - young Eva Smith, an ex-employee of Birling and Company.

As the Inspector's revelations continue, one by one each member of the family discovers that they have been involved with her at some time, and have played a part in her death. A shocking story of love, deceit lies and responsibility, the audience were on the edge of their seats throughout.

 The play was performed four times in November at Llangollen Town Hall, including a well-attented matinee performance for pupils from local schools, who are studying the play for their G.C.S.E. courses. As always, the standards of production were extremely high, with a professional set and outstanding performances from all of the actors.

With this production over, we are now looking forward to the production of 'Abigail's Party', taking place in Spring 2004.

An Inspector Calls
Held 13th - 15th November, 2003

Cast
Arthur Birling - Bill Eastwood
Gerald Croft - Richard Mascarenhas
Sheila Birling - Katie Powell
Sybil Birling - Annette Hanson
Edna - Claire Davies
Eric Birling - Brian Griffiths
Inspector - Mike Law

Crew
Directed by Lynne Griffiths
Assisted by Paul Brown
Stage Manager- Keith Hall
Construction - Dennis Jones, Delwyn Roberts, Ceri Roberts, Eddie Barlow, Dafydd Jones
Lighting - Trevor Davies, Delwyn Roberts
Sound - James Barber
Properties - Jean Hall, Noreen Jones
Wardrbe - Glenys Burman, Gilly Gale
Makeup - Mary Baxter, Alma Denton
Hair - Jean Evans
Publicity - Enid Law, Joan Jones, David Connolly, Lynne Griffiths, Annette Hanson, Paul Brown
Photographs - Keith Hall
Front of House - Richard Baxter, Muriel Dyos, Mark Turner
Box Office - Joan Jones, Mair Bowen, Helen Davies
Raffle - Siobhan Griffiths, Liz Evans
Programme - Richard Baxter
Programme Sales - Pat Ballamy and young helpers
Refreshments - Marjorie Barlow, Helen Jones
Wine Bar - Terry Burman, Eddie Barlow, Dafydd Jones
Rehersal and Backstage Refreshments - Doris Davies, Dorothy Chesters, Lynne Rhone
Stewards - David Connolly, Frankie Jones, Eddie Barlow, Doris Davies, Dafydd Jones, Liz Evans, Muriel Dyos, Terry Burman, Richard Baxter

Final Rehearsals Taking Place
Thursday 30th October, 2003
With just two weeks to go before the curtain rises on the Twenty Club's autumn production of J. B. Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls', cast rehersals and behind the scenes preperations are now in full flow.

Rehersals are now taking place on stage in Llangollen Town Hall, with the set being frantically built around the practices. Much time is always set aside for the creation of an authentic set for each of our productions.

The play, written by J. B. Priestley and in this instance directed by Lynne Griffiths, is a story of deceit, lies and responsibility. The Birlings, a wealthy family from the Northern town of Brumley are visited one evening by an Inspector Goole.

Young Eva Smith has been found dead after she committed suicide. The Inspector's words to the Birlings shock them to the core - "You all helped to kill her". His revelations tear their lives apart, and the breakdown of their relationships and shattering of their self-adoration makes for gripping viewing.

The show runs from Thursday 13th to Saturday 15th November at Llangollen Town Hall. Doors open at 7.00pm, and the drama begins at 7.30pm. Tickets are available from Gwyn Davies - Butcher, A. Hardy's Card Shop and Jonkers (East).