THE OLDLAND PLAYERS
Founded in 1967 the Oldland Players are a group in the Bristol area, who've been creating quality community theatre for over 50 years.
1993
A Murder is Announced - Born in the Gardens - The Mask of Hiroshima
'A Murder is announced'
by Agatha Christie
April 1993
Synopsis
"A Murder is announced tonight at 8 o'clock at the home of Letitia Blacklock" reports the Chipping Cleghorn Gazette. This mysterious newspaper advert sparks the curiosity of the residents of Chipping Cleghorn, a village full of secrets. As all the residents gather in Miss Blacklock's drawing room, the clock strikes and the guests are plunged into darkness. A murder takes place. With good fortune Miss Marple is as always on hand to dig deep into the village's secrets and the residents' pasts.
Cast
Julia Simmons (Jill Gregory); Letitia Blacklock (Kim Wentworth); Dora Bunner (Mary Mason); Patrick Simmons (Steve Mead); Mitzi (Sarah Williams); Miss Marple (Kathy Dowson); Phillipa Haymes (Jill Lawford); Mrs Swettenham (Joy Davies); Edmund Swettenham (Mark Jenkins) ; Rudi Scherz (Mark Gregory); Inspector Craddock (David Walford); Sergeant Mellors (John Mills)
Director: Jim McLaughlin
'Born in the Gardens'
Peter Nichols
November 1993
Synopsis
In a mock Tudor manor gone to seed lives 70 year old Maud and her younger son, forty five year old Mo. She speaks more to the soundless television than to him and he plays New Orleans jazz on his drums. An attempt to destroy this happy way of life is made on the occasion of the father's funeral by Hedley, the older son, and by Queenie, Mo's twin sister from California. But the cloistered pair prefer to remain in what is, in effect, a shed in the garden of Heartbreak House.
Cast
Maud (Jill Lawford); Mo (David Walford); Hedley (Jim McLaughlin; Queenie (Kit Johnson)
Director: Kay Trenchard
Synopsis
Set seven years after the bombing, the play has to do with a couple who are expecting a baby. Shinji and Hisa Ishikawa both still wear the mask that the atomic bomb molded to body and soul. The effects of radiation threaten Hisa's life, and her father urges an abortion. Why risk losing her, he asks his son-in-law, for a child who may not live? In a dreamlike climax, Hisa loses her life, but the child lives.
'The Mask of Hiroshima'
by Ernest Ferlita
February 1993
One Act Festival Entry
Cast
Shinji Ishikawa (Mark Jenkins); Hisa Ishikawa (Jill Lawford); Okuma (David Walford); A Woman (Sarah Williams); A Doctor (John Mills); Chorus (John Mills), (Kevin Kirwan) & (Sarah Williams)
Director: Kit Johnson
Synopsis
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