Summerbridge Players will perform the comedy Give Us A Sign by award-winning playwright Tony Domaille next week.
The play, which features a Russian spy, spooky happenings, a drunk CIA man, MI5 and the ghost of a dead professor, makes for a hilarious comedy of errors.
The players’ preview, says:
“When unemployed Ken Lockwood sets himself up as a clairvoyant he bites off more than he and his wife Rachel can chew and things soon get out of hand.”
Performances will be staged at Dacre and Hartwith Village Hall in Dacre Banks on May 18, 19 and 20, starting at 7.30pm and tickets costing £6, are available from Todds stores, Summerbridge or can be reserved by e-mailing Jackie Kerr – jackiekerr812@btinternet.com
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Pateley Bridge drama group puts on play about wartime bombing of Majestic Hotel
Pateley Bridge Dramatic Society returns next week with a play set in 1940 questioning the cause of the Second World War bombing of the Majestic Hotel.
‘The Stray’, a play written by Nidderdale playwright and member of the society Keith Burton, explores what might have happened in Harrogate during the week before the hotel was bombed on September 12, 1940.
The play begins on Sunday, September 8 when Buckingham Palace was bombed. This triggered The Coats Mission – a top secret plan for the evacuation of the royal family from London.
One of the proposed temporary homes was Newby Hall, Ripon, with Winston Churchill staying at Grove House across from Harrogate Fire Station.
On Thursday, September 12 the Majestic hotel was bombed by a ‘stray’ plane as part of a larger raid. This was the only bomb to fall on Harrogate during the war and questions have surrounded its motive ever since.
The play centres around one possible scenario with the added drama of love, betrayal, heroism and espionage during the Second World War.
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Writer and director Keith Burton said:
“The Stray was originally commissioned as part of North Yorkshire’s calendar of events to mark the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe. These celebrations were massively disrupted by covid but it does mean that the second ever production of this play about the secrets of the Second World War in Harrogate will be by my local dramatic society – which thrills me enormously.”
During rehearsals
The play was previously performed by Harrogate Dramatic Society in November.
The play is being performed at Pateley Bridge Memorial Hall whilst renovations continue at the playhouse between Tuesday, June 14 and Saturday, June 18. Tickets can be booked here.
Ripon Cathedral to hold memorial service for famous TV dramatistA memorial service will be held at Ripon Cathedral at 3pm on Tuesday for playwright and TV dramatist Ian Curteis, whose play about the 1982 Falklands conflict was at the centre of a BBC controversy.
Mr Curteis, who in 2001 married Lady Deirdre Hare, widow of the 7th Baron Grantley of Markenfield Hall, spent the latter years of his life focused on the conservation and restoration of the medieval building, which has been the Grantley family seat since the 13th Century. He died in November.
In 2008, he and Lady Deirdre, who described the moated hall as ‘the loveliest place you’ve never heard of’ won the first annual restoration award sponsored by Sotheby’s and the Historic Houses Association.
Better known to people who followed Mr Curteis’ writing rather than restoration activities, was his work on the BBC blockbuster drama series, The Onedin Line, for which he was commissioned to write a number of episodes.
Markenfield Hall.
His innovative approach saw him pioneer a new drama-documentary format for his play on the 1956 Suez crisis, broadcast by the BBC in 1979.
Mr Curteis used the same drama-documentary approach for a play about the Falklands War commissioned by the then BBC director-general Alasdair Milne in April 1983 — just a year after the conflict had started.
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However, The Falklands Play, which was for many years at the centre of a controversy involving claims of political bias and attempted censorship, was finally broadcast on BBC Four after a number of re-writes in April 2002.
In a less controversial arena, Mr Curteis wrote an adaptation of JB Priestley’s last novel Lost Empires for ITV and also adapted for broadcast by the BBC The Choir , a novel written by Joanna Trollope.
