Performance Dates: 16th to 19th May. Evenings at 7.30pm, Saturday matinee at 2.30pm

Hello, Dolly! is a musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder‘s 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955.
From the time Hello, Dolly! was first produced on Broadway by David Merrick in 1964, the show has become one of the most enduring musical theatre hits, enjoying three Broadway revivals and international film and stage success.
Dolly Gallagher Levi an indefatigable, meddling matchmaker has been hired to arrange a marriage for the widowed half-millionaire Horace Vandergelder. Dolly, however, has other plans. She has herself been recently widowed and come to the conclusion that Horace and his fortune will make her the perfect mate. So when she arrives in Yonkers, she immediately begins to plant seeds of doubt in Vandergelder‘s mind about Irene Molloy, the pretty young widow she has picked out for him.
Along the way Dolly also succeeds in matching up the young and beautiful widow Irene with Vandergelder‘s clerk Cornelious Hackl and his assistant Barnaby Tucker with Mrs Molloy‘s assistant Minnie Fay and the struggling artist Ambrose Kemper with Vandergelder‘s weeping niece Ermengarde!

So come and meet the irrepressible Dolly and her hapless but happy customers and be taken on a rollercoaster ride of intrigue, fun and frolic via a string of show stopping numbers like Hello Dolly, It takes a Woman and Before the Parade passes by.

2012 (Click heading to see more detail)

Hello Dolly by Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart in association with Bookham Light Operatic Society directed by Jackie Shearer

Wed 16-Sat 19 May at 7.30 pm, Sat matinee at 2.30 pm

Meet the irrepressible widow Dolly Levi a professional matchmaker who “puts her hand” into the affairs of wealthy bachelor Horace Vandergelder and three other couples.  Enjoy intrigue and fun with Jerry Herman’s delightful music with hits such as ‘Hello Dolly’ and ‘Put on your Sunday Clothes’.

Tickets: adults £14, (£12 for matinee), children 12 yrs and under and students £10

Working the Musical presented by Showdown Theatre Arts as their annual international show

directed by Carli Jones, Becky Mossing and Donald Hicken

Sun 27 May at 4 pm and 8 pm

The hopes, dreams, joys and concerns of the average working person are the focus of this unique, extraordinary musical.

tickets: £8, children and students £6

Flipside Dance School End of Year Showcase directed by Deborah Rich

Sat 16 June at 2 pm and 7 pm

Flipside Dance School present their annual end of year show for all family and friends.  This year’s production is a showcase of the students hard work throughout the year incorporating all styles of dance.

Tickets:  adults £12.50, children under 12 yrs £7.50

Nomes Summer Show

Peter Pan directed by Nina Holmes and Kate Raye

Friday 29 June-Sunday 1st July

Play in a Week directed by Brandon McGuire

Monday 23  to Sunday  July 29

Performances on Saturday at 7.30 and Sunday at 3.30

Tickets: £10

Play in a Week is an integrated theatre production rehearsed, staged and performed in one week.

Rent by Jonathon Larson directed by Stephen Whittock

22-25 August, 29 Aug-1 Sept at 7.30 pm

An exuberant East Village rock version of La Boheme.  Artists, addicts and impoverished young people find the salvation of love within each other and prove there can be a better world where art thrives and everything good is free.

Tickets:  adults £14, children and students £10, £9 for all on Wed 22 and Wed 29

Fawlty Towers by John Cleese and Connie Booth directed by John Norris

16-20 October at 8pm

Three episodes from the series.  Communication Problems, Basil the Rat and The Psychiatrist.

Tickets: adults £12, children and students £10, £9 for all on Tuesday 16 Oct

Stepping Out by Richard Harris directed by Laurence and Wendy Armitage

20-24 November at 8pm

This hilarious play follows the progress of eight people at a tap dancing class.  From treating the class as a social occasion they develop the skills and cohesion that lead to a spectacular finale.

Tickets: adults £12, children and students £10, £9 for all on Tuesday 20 Nov

2013

Fiddler on the Roof by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joseph Stein directed by Stephen Whittock

January 24 to 3 February  evenings at 7.30, Sun and Sat matinees at 2.30 (no performances Mon or Sun evening)

Tevye, a poor dairyman, tries to instill in his five daughters the traditions of this tight-knit Jewish community in the face of changing social mores and the growing anti-semitism of Czarist Russia.

Tickets:  adults £14, children and students £10

Two performances only – on Sunday 27 May at 4pm and 8pm.  Tickets cost £8 with concessions costing £6.

Well done, Nathan, and everyone concerned.

Nomes Youth theatre has limited spaces available in their Saturday drama classes. Please note that the Thursday production group is full at present.

Class times as follows:

7yrs to 9yrs 9:30am till 11am
9yrs to 11yrs 1:30pm till 3pm
11yrs to 13yrs 11:15am to 12:45pm

For further information and to book a free trial please contact nomesatnomads@hotmail.co.uk

“The great thing about Alan Ayckbourn is that he has never lost his ability to spring a surprise. The pace is relentless, the jokes excellent, the twists and turns of the plot beautifully crafted. Best of all, this is a comedy thriller that really thrills.  Communicating Doors may lack the depth of Ayckbourn’s greatest plays, but he has rarely written anything that offers more pure fun than this. And in the closing moments he comes up with a beautifully haunting scene of recognition and redemption that brings unexpected tears to the eyes.

Charles Spencer – Daily Telegraph, 4 February 1994

It is 2014, with civil war raging in London; in a hotel bedroom, a rich old man invites a call-girl in to witness his death-bed confession to the murder of his two wives. Unfortunately, his partner, who actually committed the murders, realises what is happening. He will stop at nothing to conceal his secret, even to pursuing the girl 20 years back in time. How can she escape him? What will happen when she encounters the other two women who died all those years before?

Alan Ayckbourn¹s 46th play (out of 76, and still counting) is a remarkable departure, encapsulating time travel and murder, interwoven with extremely funny lines.

The Freewheelers theatre company  present their highly imaginative and surprising workshop production of Shakespeare‘s Tragedy about the doomed love affair of the world‘s most famous lovers.
Drama, Film and dance, are combined to give a performance that will make you laugh and cry in equal measure. Don‘t Miss it!
The Freewheelers Theatre Company is a multi-media company which brings disabled and non-disabled artists together .We challenge perceptions and surprise people.

One performance only: Thursday 26th April at 7.30pm

Tickets: £10, concessions £5 – carers free

UPDATE: Due to demand and illness a further date for auditions is being added: Sunday  11 March. Book your slot now to avoid dissapointment

All enquiries to rent2012@hotmail.co.uk

Production dates are 22 -25 Aug and 29 Aug – 1 Sept.

In Alan Bennett‘s play, staffroom rivalry and the anarchy of adolescence provoke insistent questions about history and how you teach it; about education and its purpose.

The action of the play takes place in Cutlers‘ Grammar School, Sheffield, a fictional boys‘ grammar school in the north of England. Set in the early 1980s, the play follows a group of history pupils preparing for the Oxbridge entrance examinations under the guidance of three teachers (Hector, Irwin and Lintott) with contrasting styles.

Hector, an eccentric teacher, delights in knowledge for its own sake, but the headmaster ambitiously wants the school to move up the academic league table; Irwin, a supply teacher, is hired to introduce a rather more cynical and ruthless style of teaching.

CAST

Irwin                                      Francis Pindar

Hector                                          Ian Creese

Headmaster                     Richard Peachey

Mrs Lintott                               Lisa Arnold

Posner                                     Oliver Bying

Dakin                                    Johnny Craze

Scripps                  Richie Halsey-Watson

Timm                                                    TBA

Rudge                             Laurence Easton

Lockwood                          Ashley Gillard

Akthar                                  Dan Shepard

Crowther                      Stewart Tomkins

The Review – by ‘Polly’

Fun, fizz, sparkle and energy are all words which go some way towards describing the opening night of the Nomads presentation of Babes in the Wood. The director, back stage and cast had clearly worked their socks off in rehearsal because this was a slick and polished performance.

The opening night audience was very sparse, but we all gave our all to the participation bits and the cast made us work hard in the rendition of the action song.  We had hilarious problems with our coordination and I must say the screen was a little difficult to read, but who cares, it was great fun.

Klaire Atkinson as the fairy/narrator looked pretty and graceful despite the pink fluffy sock slippers.  She told the tale with great clarity. Her dippy, feather brained failure to remember which panto she was playing, was delightful.

Maid Marion (Helen Dixon) and Robin Hood (Melanie Kemp) fulfilled all our expectations of the roles.  Robin’s thigh slapping and Marion’s sweet and gentle nature came together in a really effective duet  “Why do I Love You?”

No panto would be complete without a “baddie” and a “Dame”.  In this case, the baddie, the Sheriff of Nottingham played by Paul Asher inspired booing and hissing at every entry and we were suitably revolted at the thought that he might get his hands on the lovely Marion.  The only fault, if fault there be, was that he a looked rather too good looking for the awful a character he played.  A little more make-up perhaps?

The Dame (Andrew Hamel-Cook) as Nurse Molly, was a delight.  Articulation was terrific and “her” Two Ronnies style jokes came across clearly and kept the laughter coming.  Pity she was up for marrying the Sheriff, but then she might have become a reforming influence in his life!

The two Babes, Pip and Penny, played by Alice Baron and Julia Mackay were as at home in their parts as though to the manner born.  Their performance of “Hushabye Mountain” was poignant and lovely.  It seems the Nomads’ future is safe.

Robin’s band of merry men was well represented by Colin Barnard (Will Scarlet), Richard Halsey-Watson (Little John), Alana Dale (Elaine Burns) and with David West as Friar Tuck.  I could understand why they cut a romantic reputation in the community……. a bit like a Parish Council really!

Causing all the confusion and creating a sense of comic interlude were Doc and Doris played by off-stage husband and wife, Jeffrey and Rae Ann Wightwick. Doc’s shambling, good-natured stupidity was kept in shape by the quick thinking and scheming Doris.  Both characters were delightfully drawn and Doris in particular showed great attention to detail and skilful comic timing.

Adding to the awfulness of the sheriff were his inept guards, Alan Wiseman and Oliver Forsyth.  Alan in particular, seemed to relish the role and created a palpable sense of evil.

Holding the sections together was the confident, robust and really endearing performance of “Dangerous Dave” by Iain Watson. It was such a relief when he finally became one of the Merry Men since he had gone through a whole series of permutations of his name, from Dimwit Dan to Dozey Dan.

The chorus is much to be praised for its chameleon like changes of character and costume. Their song  “Sherwood Taverna” with Dangerous Dave set the scene and tone of the panto.  We knew we were in for a good evening and that was confirmed by such moments as the schoolroom scene.  They really did seem like St. Trinian’s pupils.

The Dancers and Young Chorus gave of their all and the dance where they covered the babes with leaves was especially effective.

As always, a good show relies on its back stage personnel. The programme demonstrates the importance of such people since the Production Team Credits occupies a whole page.  The Director  (Jeffrey Wightwick) did a great job of coordinating such a large a team of cast and actors and producing work of this quality.

It seems unkind to pick out particular production elements for mention, but it would be an unforgivable oversight not to make comment on the costume (Jill Asher).  This was tremendous and the quick changes especially of the chorus were breathtaking.  The sets (David Martin et al) and backdrops especially were stunning and the fun in the lighting box (Charles Hope) didn’t go unnoticed nor did the sound effects! (Tim Williams)  The spot light was impressive too, no shakes…… spot on!  But whose was the hand that led it?  (Ed’s note: it was Clive Vinall that night)

The choreography by Christine Harris made a difficult job of finding space on a small stage for lots of people seem like a piece of cake and the dancing always seemed to “belong” which isn’t always the case in pantomime

It all came together, of course, in the finale which was sparkling both literally and figuratively.  The Musical Director, James Marr with Myer Rosen and David May on their multitude of instruments underpinned the whole performance with great gusto and enthusiasm.  This was opening night! It can only become even better before the end of the run. What a treat lies in store for those who have yet to see the show.

You can see photgraphs of the show here