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.
'The Game's Afoot'
by Ken Ludwig
28th - 30th November 2019
Synopsis
It is December 1936, and Broadway star William Gillette, admired the world over for his leading role in the play Sherlock Holmes, has invited his fellow cast members to his Connecticut castle for a weekend of revelry. But when one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house of tricks and mirrors quickly turn dangerous.
It is then up to Gillette himself, as he assumes the persona of his beloved Holmes, to track down the killer before the next victim appears. The danger and hilarity are non-stop in this glittering whodunit set during the Christmas holidays.
Cast
William Gillette {Sherlock Holmes} (Matthew Deering); Felix Geisel {Moriarty} (Stephen Coles); Madge Geisel {Marian} (Natalie Brown); Aggie Wheeler {Alice} (Rachel Belton); Simon Bright {Count Zerlinsky} (Simon Crutchley); Martha Gillette (Gill Lewisohn); Daria Chase (Vikie Meachin); Inspector Goring (Kit Muffett)
Director: Hannah Johnson
The adjudication for this show, as well as those for many others, is available in the members’ section of the site
As well as the adjudication, the show was entered for the Rose Bowl Awards, and after the 'break' for the pandemic, nominations were announced in October, with the awards evening and presentations being held virtually on 14th November.
I'm delighted to announce that as well as receiving nominations for Stephen Coles - Best Actor and Hannah Johnson - Best Play, Vikie Meachin was awarded Best Supporting Actress.
This show was also our first performance with our new staging. Those of you who have been supporting us for a while will have seen the old staging, and some of you may even have helped with set building and know what a job it was!
Our new staging is a great improvement on the old blocks, having been specially designed for us by Stackastage, a wonderful local company from Weston, to fit the oddities of the Oldland hall. They make standard blocks that fit together and pack into storage racks, but they also designed bespoke blocks for us to cope with the corner platform.
Not only did they come out to look at the venue and build the large bridging staging, when they then came out to deliver, they showed us how to assemble it all. Here you can see how it all goes together, in about half the time of the old one. What a change!