One afternoon thirty five years ago my sister was visiting my mum in the village of Blackham in East Sussex. My mum was complaining that since the village school had closed and the attendance at the local church had reduced considerably there was no longer a 'heart' to the village. My sister, being an organised and innovative soul, suggested that what the village needed was a Drama Group. I was duly contacted and roped in and as a result the Blackham Country Players was born.
At first the members were an odd assortment of characters from the village or connected to the village in some way. These included people aged from 8 to 80. My great Aunt was the aforementioned Octogenarian who had considerable trouble remembering her lines. So ingeniously we gave her a fox fur collar to wear with her lines written on the inside so that every time she forgot her lines she could adjust it about her shoulders and read the forgotten words. My sister was the Producer/Director, my dad the Stage Manager, my mum and I acted and my brother helped back stage. When we did a pantomime, and we did many over the years, my sons and my nieces and nephews played the parts of an assortment of villagers, fairies, elves, goslings etc. etc. I played Magicians, Dames, Principle Boys and many many comic parts over time. My mother had perfect comedy timing and often stole the show.
When the group started it was all about fun and bringing the village together but as the years went by the standard of acting improved so, as well as a yearly panto, we would put on plays. These were mostly comedies but occasionally we would tackle something of a serious nature.We entered a couple of times for a local drama festival and did extremely well winning Best Set, second in Best Drama and also second in Best Comedy.
We started on a shoe string sewing together old bed sheets and dying them for the backdrops and the stage was absolutely minute. Many hilarious incidents occurred off stage and on over the years. Collapsing scenery, rubber noses dropping off mid sentence, a beanstalk that refused to grow, there was a sixty year old Tinkerbell in Peter Pan played by one of the village eccentrics who later played the part of a wicked witch. She had a bit of a problem with personal hygiene and brought the house down by waving her wand and proclaiming loudly
"...and now my nasty smell has broken"
Sadly my sister went to live in Belgium after about 8 years and my dad died in 1984 but I stayed with the group until my mum died back in 1997.
However I am delighted to say that the group is still going strong and on Saturday evening I went back to watch them perform and they did what they do best, they made people laugh. I am so glad that even after all this time Blackham Country Players is still all about the village and having fun.
And yes, my sister did bring the 'heart' back to the village by starting up this Drama Group. Village communities are dying everywhere but this is one that is very much still alive and kicking.
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2 comments:
You forgot to mention the fact that, at the end of the performance you recently attended, someone in the audience was pointed out as being 'A very special person'.
Wasn't you, was it?
Yes, I was very touched but also rather embarassed.
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