Next Production
Time of My Life - 16, 17 and 18 February 2012
Written by Alan Ayckbourn, directed by WDS member Julie Field.
A bitter-sweet comedy will be on the menu as Wheathampstead Dramatic Society serves up Alan Ayckbourn's "Time Of My Life" as our February 2012 production. Set in a restaurant whose cuisine can best be described as 'intriguing', we join Gerry Stratton and his sons Glyn and Adam at a small family dinner as they celebrate his wife Laura's birthday.
Glyn is with his long-suffering wife Stephanie, their once-shaky marriage now appearing to be on firmer ground. With Adam is his new girlfriend Maureen, an outrageous hairdresser, and both are eager to impress.
The occasion suggests a happy domestic scene, but gradually we discover there are skeletons in this family's past. Starting from the present, Glyn's story moves forward in time while Adam's moves backwards, leaving Gerry and Laura in the present to pick apart their marriage and share recollections of first love.
In this classic play, Ayckbourn - our most prolific playwright - presents a time-shifting drama which is both dark and engaging in its examination of the tensions which inevitably underlie family relationships. And as Ayckbourn himself said "When eating out, why is it that the next table's conversation is often so much more fascinating ...?".
a restaurant whose cuisine can best be described as 'intriguing'......
May 2012 Production ....
Losing Louis
Written by Simon Mendes da Costa. Directed by WDS member Joe Maher
Sometime in the 1950s, six-year old Tony inadvertently sees dad Louis’ hilarious canoodling with his mistress. The skeletons that subsequently get shoved into the bedroom cupboard only come to light fifty years later in the present day, as Tony and his younger brother Reggie come back to their childhood home, accompanied by their wives, for Louis’ funeral.
Secrets that refuse to remain buried erupt as the family is brought together. After years of separation, Louis’ funeral is the catalyst for the family members having to face things out in the bedroom - the place where all the confusion began. And the place where the truth about each of them will finally be discovered.
Simon Mendes da Costa's crowd-pleasing play, first performed in 2005, blends together events from the past and present in a touching and poignant comedy spanning two generations of a family tree …. a tree in need of much pruning. And a steady stream of laughter-lines burst forth based on the all too recognisable human traits of greed, snobbery and distress.
Reviewers have said…
“I laughed, I cried. What more could you ask for? “
“…littered with lines that had me in hysterics”
“utterly engaging”
“touching comedy”
“everything makes perfect sense, while not being wholly predictable.”
“a highly enjoyable evening”
“Humour interlaced with pathos”
Next Season -
October 2012 - presently free
February 2013 - Calendar Girls
May 2013 - presently free
October 2013 - Educating Rita