Past Projects & Productions
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
19th - 21st October 2023
Neil Bartlett’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella takes a long, hard and very theatrical look at the world of class and male privilege in 1899.
My approach has been to foreground and underline that you are being told a story. There is no pretence that you are eavesdropping on the events. It is an open, empty space. I have added characters to Neil Bartlett’s cast in the form of two Scene Announcers who describe what is about to happen and act like circus ringmasters, telling the story and moving the action along. Sometimes the story demands an extra character and a member of the cast will pick up a piece of costume and just step into the action - another reminder that we are being told a story.
In addition to inventing a strong female character in Dr Stevenson, Neil Bartlett has created a Chorus of Gentlemen who are Jekyll’s friends and colleagues They show us their power over the women and children of Victorian England.
The 39 Steps
11th-13th May 2023
This hilarious comedy with laughter from start to finish from London to the Highlands as this frenetic farce careens from place to place and muddle to mess. The conclusion combines mishaps, mistaken identities, and tongue-in-cheek references to everything we like about murder mysteries and film noir detective movies!
The Pied Piper
12- 21st January 203
Our last pantomime was three years ago, in 2020, and we have really missed bringing that special blend of magic, mirth and mayhem to the Saltburn stage. So here it is – The Pied Piper – at long last community panto is re-born!
Our panto tells the well known story of the Pied Piper, who rids the town of Hamelin of its plague of rats, only to be double-crossed by the financially embarrassed Burgomeister. Add into the mix Sour-Kraut (the Witch) and Rat-Worst (the Chief Rat) who battle it out against Fairy Strudel and a host of comical characters, including Dame Helga Von Trump (the local sausage maker). And what happens to the young townsfolk, who are spirited away by the Piper in revenge for being tricked? Will there be a happy ending? Sit back and watch as the story unfolds….
The Hollow
19th - 22nd October 2022
The Hollow, a psychological murder mystery which has all the ingredients of a classic Christie – a country house setting and a weekend which brings together a group of people, all of whom have a motive and the opportunity for murder.
Ashes to Ashes
14th July-16th July 2022
In a battle of control for the narrative ensures as the academic Devlin reacts to the discovery that Rebecca has had a Fascistic lover. Trying to manipulate language he rigidly excavates her past. Rebecca "remembers" things that have not happened to her and ultimately defeats all Devlin's demands.
"...there are some things one remembers even though they never happened. There are things I remember which may never have happened, but as I recall them they take place."
- Anna in Pinter's Old Times
Mountain Language
14th July-16th July 2022
Woman from the mountains wait all day to see their imprisoned husbands. Soldiers deflect their legitimate questions with incomprehensible and menacing responses. they are told they may no longer speak their own language.
A play that echoes things that are happening in the world today and shows how easily things like this could happen to anyone anywhere.
Those where the days
1st & 2nd July 2022
Our very special jubilee performance. We have had a great time looking back over the past seven decades and reconnecting with the music and the fun – we certainly hope that you did too!
Some of us remember as far back as the 50s – but we’ve had to enlist the help of our youth members to bring us bang up to date. To celebrate through the years of the queens reign.
Escaped Alone
21st -23rd October 2021
Written by Carol Churchill and directed by David Jones, we produced Escaped Alone. During several sunny afternoons in Sally’s Garden, Three elderly Ladies lightheartedly discuss days gone by discussing family news, their various mental health conditions including OCD, agoraphobia, depression and more.
Joined by an outsider who may or may not have arrived from elsewhere.She certainly interrupts the conversation with an occasionally ludicrous and comic apocalyptic vision of a world which has imploded. She, only, it seems, has “escaped alone” to tell the sometimes outlandish story of a disintegrated world which references floods, wildfires, tsunamis, hunger, whirlwinds and mutating viruses.
In conversations which touch on contemporary issues, cancel culture, the ‘war on woke’ the play honours the often unheard voices and feelings of ageing women and reflects on the resilience needed to survive 70 years as a woman.
“Disaster is all around. Let’s have another cup of tea.”
Mr Loveday's Little Outing
Produced in May 2020, during lockdown
While the theatre is closed to us, we are still telling stories! All actors recorded their parts separately, in isolation, and then with the addition of some creative SFX, they were put together by our technical producer to create an audio play. Magic!
Recording is below.
A Fisher's Tale
Recorded in June 2020
Our second #SociallyDistancedDrama is a gentle comedy, set in Wales and featuring two reprobates known in the neighbourhood for poaching. Just as it looks as though they will be apprehended by the local gamekeeper, a chance encounter with a bishop saves their bacon!
Recording is below.
