September 26th–October 3rd, 2009
Doors open 7pm, Show commences 7.30pm
Sponsored by the Tanner Business Centre
(No Monday performance)
The Winslow Boy by Terence Rattigan is based on an actual incident in the Edwardian era, which took place at the Royal Naval College, Osbourne.
Set against the strict codes of conduct and manners of the age, The Winslow Boy is based on a father's fight to clear his son's name after the boy is expelled from Osborne Naval College for stealing a postal order. To clear the boy's name was imperative for the family's honour; had they not done so, they would have been shunned by their peers and society. The boy's life would have been wrecked by the stain on his character.
The play was inspired by an actual event, which set a legal precedent: the case of Stonyhurst College alumnus George Archer-Shee, a cadet at Osborne in 1908, who was accused of stealing a postal order from a fellow cadet. His elder brother Major Martin Archer-Shee, was convinced of his innocence, and persuaded his father (also called Martin) to engage lawyers. The most respected barrister of the day, Sir Edward Carson was also persuaded of his innocence, and insisted on the case coming to court. On the fourth day of the trial, the Solicitor General accepted that Archer-Shee was innocent, and ultimately the family was paid compensation. George Archer-Shee died in the First World War and his name is inscribed on the war memorial in the village of Woodchester in Gloucestershire where his parents lived.
Booking for this play opens on September 8th for subscribers, and September 15th for non-subscribers. Tickets cost £7. Booking line 01457 874644, or e-mail bookings@saddleworthplayers.org.uk
November 21st–28th, 2009
Doors open 7pm, Show commences 7.30pm
Sponsored by Saddleworth Rotary
(Tickets for the Monday performance are available through Saddleworth Rotary)
The Killing of Sister George is a 1964 play by Frank Marcus that served as the basis for a 1968 film directed by Robert Aldrich.
Sister George is a beloved character in the popular radio series Applehurst, a nurse who ministers to the medical needs and personal problems of the local villagers. She is portrayed by June Buckridge, who in real life is gin-guzzling, cigar-chomping, and slightly sadistic, the antithesis of the sweet character she plays. June lives with Alice "Childie" McNaught, a considerably younger dim-witted woman she often verbally and sometimes physically abuses. When June discovers her character is scheduled to be killed, she becomes increasingly impossible to work and live with. Mercy Croft, an executive at the radio station, intercedes in her professional and personal lives supposedly to help, but she actually has an agenda of her own.
Booking for this play opens on November 3rd for subscribers, and November 10th for non-subscribers. Tickets cost £7. Booking line 01457 874644, or e-mail bookings@saddleworthplayers.org.uk
December 17th–19th, with Saturday matinee
When John Willy Entwistle (from Oswaldtwistle) decides to make a sideboard for his mother from a Do-It-Yourself Kit, he is surprised to find that he’s made a full sized working space ship! Recovering from the shock, he decides to make a journey into space (as you do). He eventually lands on an unknown planet in the middle of the gardens of the “glorious city state of Hex” and becomes embroiled in the adventure of a lifetime, involving, as it does, Love, Romance, Courage, Danger, Treachery, Goodies and Baddies, and a quest to rescue (against absolutely overwhelming odds) a beautiful princess who is being held against her will!
February 6th–13th, 2010
Doors open 7pm, Show commences 7.30pm
Sponsored by Fortress
(No Monday performance)
Shortly after the funeral of her mother, to whom she has sacrificed her life to nurse the bedridden old woman, Edith, severe, embittered and unmarried, now has her sister Renata staying with her. Renata is glamorous, well off, selfish and several times married.
When the contents of their mother’s will are made known, childhood rivalries re-emerge. Solicitor, Charles Mowbray is bewitched by Renata and pays her much attention but Edith finds support from the flamboyant antiques dealer Fabian Hill whom, unknown to her sister, has been engaged to ‘cast an eye’ over theit mother’s valuable pieces.
Booking for this play opens on January 19th for subscribers, and January 26th for non-subscribers. Tickets cost £7. Booking line 01457 874644, or e-mail bookings@saddleworthplayers.org.uk
April 10th–17th, 2010
Doors open 7pm, Show commences 7.30pm
Sponsored by North Ainley
(No Monday performance)
Raised in a manor house beside the sea, where the flowers struggle to grow, sixteen-year-old Laurel runs wild. As her eccentric grandmother tends to the garden, Laurel's need for love forces her into a world of fantasy. But things begin to change with the sudden appointment of a governess who brings a mysterious new presence to an already dysfunctional household.
Booking for this play opens on March 23rd for subscribers, and March 30th for non-subscribers. Tickets cost £7. Booking line 01457 874644, or e-mail bookings@saddleworthplayers.org.uk
June 5th–12th, 2010
Doors open 7pm, Show commences 7.30pm
Sponsored by Morris Gregory
(No Monday performance)
Chronologically speaking, ''Come Blow Your Horn'' is the fourth play in the Neil Simon semiautobiographical cycle that later carried him from Brighton Beach to Biloxi to Broadway. After ''Broadway Bound,'' the Neil Simon stand-in left home and moved to his worldly brother's bachelor apartment in Manhattan, where he received on-the-job training as a ladies' man.
The author's first Broadway play and, consequently, his first Broadway hit, was prescient. In the 1961 comedy, we can see the author's comic talent and, with knowledge from hindsight, we can spot hints of Simon plays and characters to come. Upstairs and unseen in this East Side apartment house is a man named Felix Ungar, later to migrate to Riverside Drive where he became the obsessively neat half of ''The Odd Couple.''
Booking for this play opens on May 18th for subscribers, and May 25th for non-subscribers. Tickets cost £7. Booking line 01457 874644, or e-mail bookings@saddleworthplayers.org.uk
