Maskers Emsworth Road Studio
on26th to 28th January 1995
Welcome to The Maskers Theatre Workshop and to an experimental evening to mark the First Anniversary of our arrival in our new home. Since signing our final contract on Friday 28th January 1994, renovation and alteration of the near derelict building has been (and, indeed, still is) in progress. You might like to contribute a little of your time, energy, expertise and, who knows, some finance to ensure a speedy completion for the project?
The Maskers Theatre Company wish to thank our two new occupants of the director’s chair, Fran Fleming and Tony Bull, whose first-time efforts and experiments with the craft of directing are on view this evening!
| Cast | |
| Alice Ponder | Marion Westbury |
| George Ponder | David Pike |
| Mr. Romero | John Lanasis |
| Gloria | Sarah Walker |
A Director’s note:
As a newcomer to the U.K. via the USA and the Netherlands, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to The Maskers for this unique opportunity to see this play come to life. As it is a play which I have only read but thoroughly enjoyed, I would like you, the audience to know, it has been adapted from a radio play broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
| Cast | |
| Lady Maureen Gilpin (Piggie) | Sarah Humphrey |
| Commander Peter Gilpin R.N. | Ben O'Donohoe |
| The Hon. Clare Wedderburn | Angela Stansbridge |
| Lieutenant Commander Alistair Corbett R.N. | Michael Antram |
| Major Gosling (Bogey) | Ken Spencer |
| Mr. Wadhurst | David Jupp |
| Mrs. Wadhurst | Jan Shrouder |
| Mr. Burnham | Mark Ponsford |
| Walters | Luecy Jukes |
A note or two:
Noel Coward wrote the play as a vehicle for Gertrude Lawrence and himself, the inspiration apparently coming from cocktail parties which Lord and Lady Mountbatten used to give. Noel Coward writes: ‘people used to arrive that nobody had ever heard of and sit about and go away again; somebody Dickie had met somewhere or somebody Edwina had met and nobody knew who they were. We talked among ourselves and it really was a very good basis for a light comedy’.
Lord Louis recalls that they were sent six free tickets to the opening night at The Phoenix Theatre: ‘It wasn’t until we got to the second play that we knew why we’d been sent the tickets. It was a bare-faced parody of our lives, with Gertrude Lawrence playing Lady Maureen Gilpin and Noel Coward playing me. Absolutely outrageous and certainly not worth six free tickets!’
With such celebrated local connections what better choice of play to celebrate our first anniversary in our own Theatre Workshop.
| For the Maskers | |
| Technical Director | Ron Tillyer |
| Set Design | Ken Spencer |
| Set Construction | Roger Lockett |
| Set Dressing | Hazel Burrows |
| Lighting | Clive Weeks, Nathan Weeks, Edward Randall |
| Sound | Lawrie Gee, Bryan Langford |
| Wardrobe | Christine Baker |
| Properties | Ella Lockett |
| Front-of-House | Sheana Carrington |
| Refreshment | Belinda Drew, Michael Patterson |
| Continuity | Anne Frost |
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