RETFORD LITTLE THEATRE
Website
2009-2010 Season
FIRST NIGHT CELEBRATIONS!
Join the First Night audience at any or all of the plays this season, and for every ticket booked you will receive a voucher for interval drinks up to the value of £1.00.
DAD'S ARMY
by Jimmy Perry and David Croft
2nd - 10th October 2009, 7.30 pm
"Don't panic! Don't panic!" The classic BBC TV comedy series comes to the stage, as the Home Guard of Walmington-on-Sea battle against the Germans and local ARP Warden Hodges. The play is based on three of the TV scripts and features all the well-known characters: Private Pike, Corporal Jones, Private Fraser, Private Godfrey, Private Walker - and, of course, the redoubtable Captain Mainwaring and his effacing deputy Sergeant Wilson. When you enter the Church Hall, if anyone asks your name in a stagey German accent - "Don't tell him, Pike".
Produced by Frank Stamp
MEMBERS' BOOKING
By post: At any time
Box Office: 25th and 26th September.
PUBLIC BOOKING
Opens 28th September.
TABLE MANNERS
by Alan Ayckbourn
20th - 28th November 2009, 7.30pm
Recently revived with great success in the West End and subsequently on Broadway, we present our own revival of the dining room version of "The Norman Conquests", which slots into Ayckbourn's joyless middle-class relationships, family rituals and lack of communication period. Frustrated Annie looks after her bedridden mother and seems destined to team up with wet vet Tom, except she has planned a weekend away with Norman, who is married to her sister Ruth. Great (and sometimes painful) comedy from the modern master.
Produced by Judith Walker
MEMBERS' BOOKING
By post: At any time
Box Office: 13th and 14th November.
PUBLIC BOOKING
Opens 16th November.
THE SHOP AT SLY CORNER
by Edward Percy
29th January - 6th February 2010, 7.30pm
After a crime-riddled past, Descius Heiss settles in London and to all intents and purposes is a respectable gentleman whose chief aim is to provide happiness and security for his daughter. He runs an antique shop - but is actually involved in a black market of buying and selling jewels. When his ambitious and unscrupulous shop assistant stumbles on the truth, the play turns into a tight thriller of blackmail, desperation, fear of exposure, murder and a Scotland Yard investigation. A classic of its kind with edge-of-your-seat suspense.
Produced by Shirley Thomas
MEMBERS' BOOKING
By post: At any time
Box Office: 22nd and 23rd January.
PUBLIC BOOKING
Opens 25th January.
THE ANNIVERSARY
by Bill MacIlwraith
19th - 27th March 2010, 7.30pm
Mother keeps a tight hold on all three of her grown-up sons with gifts, threats and ruthless exploitation of their weaknesses. But as the family is unwillingly brought together to celebrate Mum's wedding anniversary (regardless of deceased Dad), revolt is in the air. Talk of emigration and marriage put Mum in fighting mood: the gloves are off and there are no rules - except those that Mum makes and changes to maintain her ascendancy. There are some serious undercurrents - but overall this is a fast-paced and gloriously funny comedy.
Produced by Stephen Walker
MEMBERS' BOOKING
By post: At any time
Box Office: 12th and 13th March
PUBLIC BOOKING
Opens 15th March.
BLITHE SPIRIT
by Noël Coward
14th - 22nd May 2010, 7.30pm
An improbable farce full of Coward's scintillating wit. Elvira has been dead for seven years and her husband Charles Condomine has since married Ruth with whom he is reasonably happy. One of the English stage's greatest comic creations, Madame Arcati, a local medium, is invited to conduct a séance at their home, as a result of which Elvira returns from the dead. Ultimately it's all too much for Charles as he has to deal with not one but two jealous, squabbling and petulant wives.
Produced by Sheila Eyre
MEMBERS' BOOKING
By post: At any time
Box Office: 7th and 8th May.
PUBLIC BOOKING
Opens 10th May.
EXTRA TO THE SEASON:
WHAT THE BUTLER SAW
by Joe Orton
7th - 10th July 2010, 7.30pm
Joe Orton is very much in vogue: Loot, Entertaining Mr Sloane and What the Butler Saw have all had major professional revivals in recent years. Dr Prentice is a psychiatrist whose clinic becomes a world of carnivalesque chaos when rampant libidos, mistaken identities, undressing and cross-dressing add layer upon layer of mischievous confusion to this farcical masterpiece. When the clinic is subjected to a Government inspection, it becomes clear that the line between madness and sanity is a farcically fine one. The Guardian called it "an icon of modern drama", and The Independent said: "Ingenious, gleefully anarchic - very funny".
Produced by Liz Wood
PUBLIC BOOKING
By post: At any time
Box Office: Opens 2nd July.
PLAY READINGS
All productions are cast at a play reading to which interested Members are invited (whether they would like to be considered for a part or to help back stage).
Reading dates are announced in the preceding play's programme and where possible on this website's Home Page.
