• Patience
  • Silas Marner
  • The Government Inspector
  • The Merry Widow
  • Patience
  • Silas Marner
  • The Beggar's Opera
  • Murder on the Nile
  • Little Grimley presents Strictly Sex Factor (on Ice)
  • Thespis by Gilbert & Sullivan
  • The Matchgirls
  • The Government Inspector
  • The Mikado

All Time Music Hall

Performances: Betchworth Village Hall 12/13th November 2021

For the first show since 2019, BODS presented a selection of Music Hall  solo and company songs and monologues, together with some more contemporary music 

Musical Director and accompanist: Ian Stone
Director: Julie Bickerdike
Lighting: David Ames

Cast: Lynda Barrett-Mercer, Julie Bickerdike, John Bryant, Carolyn Burnley, David Eccles, Vicki Hodges, Jane Khan, Jane Johnson, Diane Mayall, Stephen Tickell, Sarah Weston

FOH: Alison Cooper, Angela Terribile, Jane Flanders, Roger & Kathy Wilman

 

 

The Merry Widow

Performances 13-16 November 2019

Director: Alison Cooper

Musical Director: Ian Stone

The Merry Widow is Franz Lehar's most popular and enchanting operetta. With dazzling melodies, wit and elegance the story unfolds as the fabulously wealthy widow, Anna, arrives in Paris. Pursued by numerous suitors, complications and misunderstandings abound when at an Embassy party, she rekindles her relationship with her old flame, Danilo. But, will he forsake the Grisettes, the famous dancing girls at Maxim’s, and declare his true feelings for Anna…?

An amateur production by arrangement with Glocken Verlag Ltd (music adapted and arranged by Ronald Hanmer)

Cast

Anna Sarah Esser Haswell
Danilo Peter Thomas
Baron Zeta Trevor Allen
Valencienne Jane Khan
Camille David Clark
Njegus David Longes
St Brioche Andy Davis
Cascada Mark Edwards
Kromov Roger Nelson
Bogdanovitsch David Eccles
Olga Jane Seymour
Sylvia Jane Johnson
Praskovia Gini King
Grisettes

Diane Mayall, Sue Nelson, Margaret Longes

Diana Barnsley, Kathy Wilman, Linda Slater

Parisian Guests Pam Patch, Vicki Hodges, Edward Marston

Lighting: David Ames

Photography Mick Mercer

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Betchworth

This policy was last updated 31st May 2018

Thespis

or "The Gods Grown Old", by W.S. Gilbert and A. Sullivan

Directed by Lynda Barrett-Mercer
Musical Director: Ian Stone

7-10th November Betchworth Memorial Hall

The 'lost' G&S opera

This is a unique production of the earliest G & S work, for which no musical score survives. First staged in 1871 as a Christmas entertainment, it ran for 63 performances, but Sullivan's score was then lost, and the work largely forgotten during the writers' lifetimes - although Sullivan certainly reused at least two of the tunes. The story concerns a group of actors in ancient Greece - the original Thespians - who take over the role of Gods on Mount Olympus so the decrepit deities can take a holiday on earth, with predictably chaotic consequences

Thespis has only occasionally been revived, from the 1950s onwards, sometimes with a score specially composed 'in the style of Sullivan'. Lynda and Ian however have painstakingly created their own score using familiar tunes in Sullivan's later repertoire, but incorporating 'Climbing over Rocky Mountains' (Pirates of Penzance) and 'Little maid of Arcadee' which are known to have been in the original. 

Cast

Jupiter Patrick Gallagher
Mars Matt Stainer
Apollo Colin Bousfield
Diana Pam Patch
Mercury Jane Khan
   
Thespis David Longes
Daphne Jane Johnson
Nicemis Margaret Longes
Sparkeion Carolyn Burnley
Tipseion Jane Seymour
Preposteros  Julian Warner-Edney
Prettiea Julie Bickerdike
Timidon Stephen Tickell

Production

Sound & Lighting     David Ames
Set Design Lynda Barrett-Mercer
Set Construction the Company
Costumes Lynda Barrett-Mercer
Video recording Jonathan Bickerdike

Front of House
and make-up

John Bryant, Sally Coleman, Alison Cooper, Kate Cottrell, Jane Flanders,
Fiona Garner, Selena Hegarty, Linda King, Jane Sillett, Ann Staddon,
Sheila Staples, Shirley Trower, Neil Williams

Rehearsal photos by Mick Mercer and Lynda Barrett-Mercer

 

Next event

Our next production will be The Enchanted April adapted by Bonnie Roberts from the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, and directed by Jane Hogg. More information and cast list here

Book now