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production photography by Miles Davies www.milesdaviessite.com

SOUTHWICK

PLAYERS

COMMUNITY THEATRE SINCE 1935

Upcoming Productions - Our next shows and booking info

Click here for all online bookings, or call the box office on 01273 597094

BEN HUR (on a budget) by Patrick Barlow 5-8 June 2019 TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE ! Jon Terry as Daniel Veil - Louise Yeo as Crystal Singer Giles Newlyn-Bowmer as Omar Lord - ‘H’ Reeves as Edgar T. Chesterfield Tim Ingram, Sharon Churchill and Amy Bowyer will play at least 15 characters between them This will be fast, frenetic and VERY FUNNY. Our ‘Ben Hur’ will be on a budget very much reduced from the original cinematic epic but rest assured that 
the company will do their very best to ensure that each performance contains all the scenes for which 
the film became famous – the birth of Christ, Ben Hur’s rivalry with Messala, the sea battle with pirates, the 
unforgettable and incredibly exciting and dangerous chariot race, exotic dancers – all of these and much more as the story takes us though Rome, Syria, Jerusalem, the Mediterranean, Egypt and then back to Rome for the thrilling finale. This is a play within a play wherein the much-vaunted and immensely talented (in his own mind, at least) Daniel Veil will, with other members of the Daniel Veil Collective, bring to life this incredible story; with a script written by Mr Veil himself and a budget even smaller than ours. Patrick Barlow was also responsible for writing the famous adaptation of ’The 39 Steps’ which enjoyed a long run in the West End and which was performed at the Barn only a couple of years ago.
DINNER
by Moira Buffini - 11-14 September 2019 The Southwick Players’ entry into the Brighton and Hove Arts Council’s Full Length Drama Festival. Dinner is a black comedy about the dinner party from hell, in which the situation becomes more toxic by the minute. Paige is throwing a dinner party in honour of her husband Lars who is celebrating the fact that his pop psychology book ‘Beyond Belief ‘is now a best seller. Paige anxiously checks with the waiter, whom she has employed for the occasion, that everything is prepared for the imminent arrival of her guests. It is only when she hands over his payment of £25,000 in cash that one suspects the meal may contain some rather nasty surprises. The guests are: - Wynne - a post-feminist dippy-hippy artist who specialises in so-called erotica. Hal - a microbiologist who knows a great deal about deadly microbes. Sian (Hal’s girlfriend) - a journalist and news reader who resents the way Hal keeps referring to her as a ‘news babe”. Mike - an uninvited guest who, having crashed his van in the fog, calls at the house to use the telephone and ends up staying for dinner. The Waiter - silent, ubiquitous and deadly. Directed by Harry Atkinson THE MATCHMAKER by Thornton Wilder - 
11-14 December 2019 Audition Details soon! The Matchmaker is a wonderful American farce in which tin cans explode, people hide in wardrobes and behind screens, identities are mistaken, and there are no fewer than four romances. Written by Thornton Wilder, it has a plot borrowed from a Viennese comedy of 1842, and was first staged in Edinburgh in 1954. By the time it got to Broadway in 1955 it was already an international success and was turned into the musical Hello Dolly in 1964. It tells the story of wealthy Yonkers merchant, Horace Vandergelder, who employs the services of a matchmaker, Dolly Levi, to find him a wife. Dolly, a feisty and resourceful widow, has designs on Horace herself. Irascible and tight fisted, despite his fortune, Vandergelder has two overworked clerks, Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker. He also has a niece, Ermengarde, who wants to marry Ambrose Kemper, a penniless artist, of whom he strongly disapproves. Vandergelder is planning a trip to New York to court a widowed milliner, Mrs Irene Malloy. Cornelius and Barnaby, encouraged by Dolly, take advantage of the fact that their employer will be absent from the store to go on their own adventure – which takes them to exactly the same place. She has also advised Ermengarde to go to New York to elope with Ambrose, thus setting the scene for some classic farce in Mrs Malloy’s hat shop and the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant. The final act introduces the wonderfully bonkers Miss Van Huysen when all the characters meet in her apartment: all the complications are resolved and Horace reveals he has a heart after all. The play has a large cast of 16+, ranging from walk-on waiters to the towering roles of Dolly and Horace. It will be great fun to rehearse and provide a wonderful pre-Christmas treat for our audiences. Kate Armes, Director

SHOW MEETING:-

Thursday 30th May 7.30 p.m

Garden Room (at Southwick Community Centre)

AUDITIONS:-

Thursday 20th June 7.30 p.m

Deall Room (at Southwick Community Centre)

For a showpack for this dark comedy, email Show.pack@southwickplayers.org.uk

2020 SEASON

              The Southwick Players: Reg. Charity No. 227937                   Website sponsored by Harcourt Accountancy

Resident Company at The Barn Theatre, Southwick                   Member of Brighton & Hove Arts Council                   Design by www.id-Brighton.co.uk