Monday 20 January 2014

Hard at work


We began rehearsing on 9th January, and our magnificent cast are already having huge fun recreating these larger-than-life characters.

Publicity is going out soon; these are the details. Please share wherever you can!

DOWN AMONG THE WINES AND SPIRITS
The golden age of the real music hall
Directed by Cassie & Selwyn Tillett
Performance dates: 6th - 8th March 2014

For these four shows only, we’re bringing to life characters who entertained the UK from around 1880 until World War 1, the era that became known as The Golden Age of Music Hall. Many might still be familiar names, even to a 21st century audience (Marie Lloyd, Vesta Tilley, George Robey) and were at the top of the bill; many others you’ll never have heard of, but they were able to earn a modest living ‘down among the wines and spirits’ – at the foot of the bill, next to the list of refreshments.

Our cast will between them re-create the stage performances of no fewer than 26 stars and lesser lights of the halls. In between their appearances onstage in the course of the evening, we see them relaxing, reminiscing, criticising and bickering in the Green Room of an unspecified theatre across a period of years (loosely based around the Norwich Hippodrome where Marie Lloyd appeared in March 1913 – 101 years, to the week, before our show). As they interact we learn something about their own personalities and experiences, and what life was like for those at the bottom of the bill.

As the playbills used to say: we count ourselves extraordinarily fortunate to have secured the services of several fine artistes, many of whom are already well-known to Sewell Barn audiences:

MR STEVE ASKEW
MISS JUDI DAYKIN
MISS RACHEL DUFFIELD
MISS JUNE GENTLE
MR JOHN GRIFFIN
MR JOHN HARE
MISS ANGELA ROWE
MR DAVID SHAW
MISS GILLIAN TICHBORNE
MR SELWYN TILLETT

“Crowded audiences are certain to prevail this week” – EDP, March 1913

Be among them – be enthusiastically entertained – be wild in your applause!

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