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.
2007
Blue Sky Thinking - A Semblance of Madness - A Murder is Announced - Blithe Spirit
"Blue Sky Thinking" is based around a Team Building Weekend in which 4 fellow workers have been sent to bond as a team! For those of you fortunate enough never to have been sent on one of these weekends, this play gives us on insight into the types of events that participants are confronted with. We believe all in the audience will be able to identify with at least one of the characters, and probably have met the rest at work!
'Blue Sky Thinking'
by James Maxwell
February 2007
Synopsis
Greg (Paul Dyson); John (Gordon James); Graham (Kevin Kirwan); Nigel (Henry Wells); Voice (Gill Lewisohn)
Director: Kit Johnson
Cast
'Semblance of Madness'
by John H Newmeir
February 2007
Synopsis
Three women in a psychiatric hospital meet for a therapeutic drama lesson. Jones, an ex-professional actress, adopts the role of teacher. The ease, with which she slips between three other "characters", is both frightening and baffling. Are they, as she claims, just characters she has dramatically created, or in fact, as the doctors believe schizophrenic personalities? The other two women - Dawn, a neurotic day-dreamer, and Hannah, an apparently "normal" dispassionate person - portray her students. From the outset we learn that the lesson is carefully controlled to extract information regarding a gruesome murder. Each woman declares she is a trained psychiatrist and that the other two are inmates. The suspicion constantly transfers between the three as the tension builds. It is not until the very end that the truth is discovered.
Cast
Jones (Kit Johnson); Dawn (Lisa Stapleton); Hannah (Sarah Edwards)
Director: Paul Dyson & Kathleen Kirwan
These plays were entered in several of the local One Act drama festivals and came away with a number of awards and nominations including second place overall in Bristol and Best Actress for Lisa Stapleton for "Semblance of Madness" also at Bristol
"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.
Synopsis
'A Murder is Announced'
by Agatha Christie
June 2007
Cast
Miss Marple (Gill Lewisohn); Edmund Swettenham (Henry Wells); Sadie Swettenham (Alice Cleaveland); Phillipa Haymes (Gayle Cairns); Letitia Blacklock (Kit Johnson); Dora Bunner (Christine Cooke); Patrick Simmons (Andrew Muffett); Julia Simmons (Kathryn Walker); Mitzi Kosinski (Lisa Stapleton); Rudi Schertz (Gordon James); D.I. Dermot Craddock (John Mills); D.S. Fletcher (Paul Dyson)
Director: Gordon James
'Blithe Spirit'
by Noel Coward
November 2007
Synopsis
Charles Condomine, an author whose first wife Elvira has been dead for seven years, has been reasonably happy with his second wife Ruth. To collect material for his new book, he invites Madame Arcarti, a local medium, to conduct a séance at their home. Unfortunately, Elvira returns from death and promptly proceeds to make life exceedingly uncomfortable for Charles and Ruth.
One of Coward's best known and best loved plays.
Cast