BRIDGE THEATRE returned for a third season at the Auden, the company’s fifteenth summer in Norfolk, to share a Festival of plays, concerts and musical theatre.
Always eager to develop new links with the community, the company's first production was an opportunity for up-and-coming talented young people who are considering the performing arts as a career. Love Child, commissioned for students, teems with lively and romantic song and dance, from the outbreak of the first world war to the bright young things of the Charleston era. The ensemble company welcomed workshop participants into the cast of Androcles And The Lion, and worked with the Bridge Span writers' group building on the huge success of the previous year's "Talking Heads" event with more performances of new writing.
Audiences were delighted by The School For Scandal, and there was another effort by the Farndale Avenue ladies, this time producing a French farce in which more than their accents were dropped!
The main repertory season opened with one of our most popular productions ever, Charley’s Aunt, which John Goodrum vows he has played for the very last time! Following our performances here of Salad Days in 2003, there had been even more requests for a revival of the same team’s joyous Free As Air, which we first staged in 1998. Add to this the endearing tour de force represented by Old Herbaceous, the theatrical brilliance and musicality of I Do! I Do! and a series of guest concerts on Sundays, all before the autumn term began. Everyone enjoyed this successful festival in the charming hospitality of the Auden Theatre, and have more summer memories to cherish.
Below are a list of the shows that were performed in the summer of 2005. At the bottom of the page and in the "Filing Cabinet" section of the website you can find details and some pictures of previous years productions.
A Bridge Theatre Community Production
LOVE CHILD
by Freda Kelsall and Christopher Irvin
August 1914: at the raunchy Music Hall after a temperance outing, factory boys of Bradley hear that their country needs them. The war affects not only their love-lives, but also the attitudes and values of home and family. Desperation and generosity result from the trauma, and set the 20th century on course for several quiet revolutions, as young performers sing their hearts out and dance the night away. Be among the first to see this new "show to delight audiences for years to come!"
"from picnics and parasols, through bombardment and bloodshed, to a land fit for heroes"...
Elated by the rapturous applause at their frequent sorry attempts to do "Murder At Checkmate Manor", the Farndale amateurs have developed a taste for amusing their audiences, and this time are having a go at French farce. Actors have to get on and off stage without being seen through gaps where the set fell down. Not all the cast can make it on the day. The wardrobe mistress helps out... disastrously. The show deteriorates from the first moment, when something extra-marital is detected in the lighting-box, and Mrs. Reece has her hands full as usual, but of what, this time? Keys to the mislaid and mangled plot will be supplied, but it will probably be blown away by gales of laughter.
THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL
by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
Behind a decorative screen of avid gossip, the fate of two brothers is being manipulated. With Charles Surface, what you see is what you get: he's a charming reprobate.
His priggish brother Joseph stands tall in public opinion, having the spin-doctor's gift of saying what influential people want to hear, without meaning a word of it, except when joined with allies in ripping reputations to shreds. Witty and entertaining it undoubtedly is, but for how much longer will their guardian Sir Peter Teazle be fooled? Already regretting his own folly in having married a much younger bride with an aptitude for incandescent quarrelling, Sir Peter longs for the return of Sir Oliver Surface on whom their fortunes depend. But Sir Oliver has a few tricks up his sleeve, and Maria, an innocent heroine, is rewarded with the man of her heart. A sparkling comedy, not to be missed.
OLD HERBACEOUS
by Reginald Arkell
Dramatised by Alfred Shaughnessy
As a boy at a village show, Herbert Pinnegar won first prize in the Wild Flower competition for school children.
It was presented by Mrs. Charteris, a handsome young woman all in white with a big hat, and this spell-binding play reveals the very special relationship which was to develop between them as the boy grew up in knowledge and dignity, to become her head gardener. The first production in 1979, with Roger Hume as Bert, transferred from Salisbury Playhouse to the Mayfair Theatre, and was performed privately at Windsor Castle on Boxing Day for the Royal Family. With their "gentle philosophy" (The Guardian), and "good-natured, simple and wise fun" (What’s On In London), Bert's recollections of a lifetime of service make a heart-warming experience.
We are delighted to welcome Christopher Robbie, from the Theatre Royal Bury St. Edmunds co-production with Dragonfly Productions, as Bert Pinnegar.
ANDROCLES AND THE LION
by Bernard Shaw
This most fabulous of fantasies has a gutsy comedy at its heart, since one of our greatest playwrights turned his ironic attention to ideas of love and sacrifice. Henpecked Androcles, a despised Greek tailor, loves all creatures, even his appalling wife.Once, overcoming stark terror, he eased the pain of a lion by removing a thorn from its foot, or so the legend goes. At the time, Romans were rounding up those who refused to sacrifice to Roman gods, to be victims in their gory public spectaculars.
As an odd assortment waits to face gladiators or to be fed to lions in the arena, human destinies are challenged by passion, cowardice and pent-up aggression. What, after all, is real courage? Shaw's robust humour, not exactly pantomime, still earns a laurel crown for family entertainment.
I DO! I DO!
A Musical About Marriage
Music by HARVEY SCHMIDT
Book and Lyrics by TOM JONES
Based on ‘The Fourposter’ by Jan de Hartog
Originally Produced on Broadway by DAVID MERRICK
Originally Directed by GOWER CHAMPION
Presented by arrangement with JOSEF WEINBERGER LIMITED on behalf of MUSIC THEATRE INTERNATIONAL of New York
This charming musical tells in a succession of dynamic scenes and wonderful songs the compelling story of a marriage. Only ostriches would fail to recognise the human hopes, failings, ecstasies and dilemmas of this ordinary couple, from when the bride is carried over the threshold, to when their children are going out into a different world, and parents are left to reflect on past achievements. Facing a future of relative quiet, they can see how the marriage has evolved, and where it may yet have to go. Funny, wry, poignant and brave, it celebrates strength and compassion in human relationships, and is richly enjoyable .
FREE AS AIR
by Dorothy Reynolds and Julian Slade
"Nothing but sea and sky"
heiress Geraldine sings in joyous relief. Escaping the paparazzi, she finds a tiny Channel Island locked in a time warp, where there’s a shy feudal lord, and a bevy of girls who "all want a man from the mainland". Racing-driver Jack Amersham and journalist Ivy Crush threaten to wreck this paradise by making it a "happy holiday island", but succumb to its charms, and see Geraldine crowned queen for a day and (almost) everyone paired off satisfactorily. By the creators of Salad Days, this brilliant musical is a delightful, happy finale to the season.
SUNDAY EVENING SPECIAL EVENTS
SUNDAY 14 AUGUST
The newly-formed BRIDGE SPAN WRITERS build on last year’s successful sell-out performance of new plays
SUNDAY 21 AUGUST
A guest concert of "NOT ONLY G & S" brings well-loved music, performed by former D’Oyly Carte and Carl Rosa singers
