Does the devil exist? Are children innocent? Do you just go to the theatre to be entertained?
Frome Drama Club will not answer these questions in their production of two plays by Dennis Potter – but they will make you think.
“The first play is Blue Remembered Hills, and concerns a group of seven-year-olds playing in the Forest of Dean one summer afternoon in 1943,” says the group. “They are played by adult actors. We cannot tell you too much about the end – you will need to come and see it.”
Alan Burgess who is a well-known member of Frome Drama Club (one of the Alan Bennetts in The Lady in the Van) plays Donald Duck in Blue Remembered Hills and says “Huge thanks to FDC for recasting me as the deeply disturbed Donald some years on from the Blue House Garden production of 2008. The play is set outdoors so a major challenge facing our director has been devising a country environment on the Merlin stage.
“No trees to climb indoors but at least this time we should avoid being rained off! This wonderful play allows us all to dig deeply into our inner child and to discover more about ourselves. We are having a ball! This is proving to be one of my best FDC experiences working within a really creative and energetic team.”
The other play is Brimstone & Treacle which features a middle-aged middle-class couple living in a north London suburb whose life has been catastrophically affected by a hit-and-run accident which has left their beautiful undergraduate daughter totally dependent upon them, but their lives are dramatically changed by the arrival of a mysterious young stranger.
Julian Thomas is a new-comer to Frome and this is his first experience of FDC. “Having only joined the Frome Drama club at the end of last year, I now find myself surrounded by a talented group of actors involved in a double bill of Dennis Potter at the Merlin Theatre!” he says. “Rehearsals for ‘Brimstone & Treacle’ are going well and being part of a small cast bringing to life Potter’s favourite play is very exciting for me. Although a few contentious issues are covered within the story, there are also some moments of dark humour and, with atmospheric lighting and sound effects, set within a mid-1970s household, I am sure the audience will be entertained!”
Get your tickets from the Merlin Theatre Box Office 01373 465949
The Dennis Potter Double Bill is at Merlin from 4th to 6th April
Top: Cast of BRH. Alan, who writes about Blue Remembered Hills is far right
Above: B&T Mr & Mrs B and Martin. Julian who writes in the piece is in the middle.
