Local Theatre in May is like those London Buses (What's On)

You wait for hours, or weeks, and then a lot come trolling along at once. Or that is what it seems with local theatre. April was about as bare as a bum in a nudist colony. Probably a good job as I was doing a small cough and snooty sniff in a Wilde play for Harpenden High Street Players. An Ideal Husband if anyone is interested. No blogging there. Even this shameless oik draws the line at reviewing himself. But, that amusing diversion aside, I have been gagging for a blog of something. And now they come, like Shakespeare’s troubles, not single spies but in battalions.

Dunstable Rep kick a busy period off with Lillian Hellman’s Children’s Hour. That’s the one they made the film out of. The Loudest Whisper. Two teachers accused by a nasty girl of having an equally nasty relationship. The shock echoes destroy. Should be interesting. Strong cast with Kim Albone, Anna Carter-Brown, Anne Blow, and Rona Cracknell amongst them. And Lucy O’Hare directs and she’s no mug. Required seeing.

Wheathampstead Players come next with Richard Everett’s Entertaining Angels. It’s about a widow and more than that I do not know. But I like this society and they were on top form with their Calendar Girls so hope to take it in on my travels.

Into the following week and BBC1’s Masterchef, next to horseracing my favourite TV programme, may not get a look in. DAOS have fun, I hope, with Forbidden Broadway. A spoof on all your favourite musicals. So the blurb says.

They guest at the Rep in the same week a revered Rep director guests with St Andrew’s Players in Luton. They don’t half get around, these theatricals. Alistair Brown puts his own distinctive spin on Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods and, on the basis that Mr Brown never wheels anything out that invokes the word dull, should be worth a ticket. Her who shares my wallet and my bed has a major part in it so any review will have every comma and dot ruthlessly scrutinised. Makes no difference to me. Love you or loathe you, when you are on the stage only your performance matters. Blogging, graffiti with punctuation someone cleverly called it, is pointless if not truly felt.

Just to further complicate the mix Harpenden Hall are staging a professional touring production of Frank Wedekind’s infamous Spring Awakening.

In a translation by Edward Bond this struts its stuff for one night only. Tuesday 21^st May. Teenage sex, nudity, famous banned play, iconic translator. Hardly worth seeing. As the last touring play the hall put on got pulled for lack of interest I am crossing my bits in the hope this sells. Harpenden doesn’t get much serious theatre. We locals had sell outs for Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband. Let’s hope some of ‘em transfer bodies and cash to the professionals.

 

All the details below.

 

Dunstable Rep  The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman

The Little Theatre, High St. 7.45pm Tkts £13.00 £11.00 £9.00

 10^th May to 18^th May       Box Office 07940 105864

 

Wheathampstead Players Entertaining Angels by Richard Everett

Community Hall, Marford Road 8.00pm Tkts £8.00

16^th May to 18^th May        Box Office 01582 621357

 

DAOS Forbidden Broadway Created by Gerard Alessandrini

The Little Theatre, High St. 7.45pm Tkts £12.00 £6.00

21^st May to 25^th May         Box Office 07940 105864

 

St Andrew’s Players Into The Woods by Stephen Sondheim

St Andrew’s Church, Luton. 7.30pm Tkts £10.00

22^nd May to 25^th May        Box Office 07778 241457
 

 and
 

Icarus Theatre Collective

Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind (Translator Edward Bond)

Harpenden Hall, Southdown Road  7.30pm  - Tickets £12.00 £10.00 £8.00

Tuesday 21st May              Box Office 01582 767525

Warning: Contains nudity and scenes of an adult nature.