Category: Productions

Set in 1960’s London, Eric and Iris Dobbins run a friendly neighbourhood pub (The Last Drop) with a regular ‘Free & Easy’ evening (an ‘Open Mic’ Night). Everybody knows everybody – it’s a real family pub, somewhere to feel safe and comfortable. This peaceful existence is threatened by a visit from Ron Stone, the brewery’s new consultant who presents them with a 5-year business plan and revised tenancy agreement. Seeing the ‘marketing potential’ of The Last Drop, Stone has persuaded the brewery to demand £25,000 for a new agreement. Failure to pay means eviction – and will allow the consultants to transform the pub into an ‘entertainment centre’ for pole-dancing and other salacious events. Eric, Iris and daughter Tracy are distraught, barmaids Vanessa and Sharon are devastated, and the regulars are disconcerted. How can this be stopped? Ah! You need to wait until October 2019.

Free & Easy will be performed by our Lamberhurst-based friends, ‘The Very Merry Roosters’, by special invitation from Wadhurst Dramatic Club.  With over fifteen songs from the 50s and 60s performed live on stage, there’s a guarantee you won’t be disappointed.  If you’d like to get involved on-stage or off-stage, there will be some room for Wadhurst actors/ singers & dancers too. 

Want to get involved? Contact the director Russ Kirton on tvmroosters@gmail.com. Get your 60’s gear ready and your dancing shoes warmed up – come and join us!

Directed by Russ Kirton, this was a very funny play by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman. And now we have achieved a glowing NODA (National Operatic and Dramatic Association) review.

Read NODA’s fantastic review of Bah Humbug!

It may not be a Panto, but it is just as much fun for all the family… and it’s a story not just for Christmas.  A reminder, perhaps, to be more forgiving and generous in the year of Brexit.

Once again brilliantly directed by Kay Sasada, it features toe-tapping songs from the pen of Bill Francoeur, who you may recall from “Flapper!” and the hilarious “Way out West in a Dress“.

Read the Noda (National Operatic and Dramatic Association) review of the recent and very hilarious show:  Allo Allo Review

If you missed the show, here is a YouTube summary.. Allo Allo the Slide show

“Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!”
The play, by Nobel prize-winning Dario Fo, is a combination of comedy and satire. A spontaneous demonstration by women against rising prices ends in a riot and mass theft. Crazy disasters pile on each other as Antonia and Margherita try to conceal from their husbands what they have stolen by pretending to be miraculously pregnant and try to convince a sceptical police inspector that all the local women are celebrating the feast of St. Eulalia, the patron saint of fertility. This leads to characters eating dog food, making soup from strange ingredients, hiding in coffins and a Maoist police sergeant following Giovanni and Luigi’s lead and looting goods from a jack-knifed lorry.
The comedy is fast and furious with an undertone of real pathos and contains some coarse language.

See the Full Programme and Review for the production that took place on Thursday 18th, Friday 19th and Saturday 20th May, starting at 7.45pm.

 

Wadhurst Dramatic Club
Arms and the Man
Wadhurst Memorial Hall
Saturday October 29th 2016
Director: Jamie Crawford 

The hall was nicely laid out in cabaret form.. Click Here to read the full review!

A huge “Well Done” to the Platinum Review performers and crew. It was a fabulous show, and so many of the audience said lovely things in praise.  Some even said it was the best thing they had seen at the commem. Hopefully we can post some photos and video soon.

Website Outage Apology – If you had recently tried to access this web site, you would have noticed that it showed a horrible error message.  As you can see, this has finally been resolved. Lets hope it does no happen again!

Arms and a Man – Auditions: Tuesday 7^th June at 8pm in the Orchard Room (that is the red door down the left side of the commem hall). Click here for more details

The very first show of Way out West.. in a dress (WOW for short) was not only hilarious, it tripped the power to the Commem!  It seems that a faulty strip light in the ladies loo was to blame.
Click the following link, where everything stops during the opening song..

Welcome to the Lucky Lady.. power fail!

And here is the Noda Review of the show..

Way Out West Review

Wadhurst Dramatic Club is 70 years old this year!  To celebrate we are looking for singers, dancers, actors, stand-up comics, magicians, instrumentalists, bands, entertainers, monologue performers story tellers and jugglers.  …If you have been waiting for the chance to bring your ventriloquism act to the stage – this could be it!! If you’d like to take part, either email Russ on russ.kirton@zestica.org.uk or pop into the Commemoration Hall on Sunday 7^th February 2pm till 5pm and let us know what you can bring to the party!  If you can give us a flavour of your act on the day, so much the better. Everyone is welcome so please share this open invitation to be part of the 70^th birthday party with a difference – platinum with attitude!

Read More…

Thanks to NODA (National Operatic and Drama Association) for a great review of our latest production, Volunteers by local author Hilary Mackelden.

Click the image below to open the full review in Adobe Acrobat.