Longueville Little Theatre Company
The BIG Little Theatre
The action begins when Sarah and Reg (Annie's older brother) arrive to give Annie the chance to escape for the weekend for a long-needed rest. Fireworks begin almost immediately when Annie tells Sarah she is going away with her sister's husband, Norman.
That pretty much sets the tone for the evening: an extended family whose members simultaneously despise each other and can't get enough of each other. The central figure is Norman, who needs desperately to be needed--by anyone. It's almost hard to blame him, too, once you meet his wife, Ruth, a career-obsessed woman with little apparent need for Norman. Rounding out the cast is Tom, the veterinarian neighbour whom everyone assumes is courting Annie (including, to some degree, Tom and Annie, even though the two haven't ever declared it or acted on it).
A Variety show that includes a fish(or chicken) & chips meal with a licensed bar available. We provided more of the same mix of songs and sketches and jokes old and new.... no it isn't "It aint arf hot mum" but it is a fun evening combining a one act play with a second half of hilarious comedy sketches and songs.
Everybody Loves Ernest... But Nobody's Quite Sure Who He Really Is
Oscar Wilde's unique humour and superb wit pokes fun at the established classes of 19th Century England in a story of love, manners and naughty aliases. Written in 1896, it pits Jack (also known as Ernest) against his lifelong friend Algernon (who poses as Ernest) as they pursue the hearts of the fair Gwendolin and Cecily, all under the auspicious eyes of Lady Bracknell.
Fred Baxter has a plan. He is convinced that hidden in the Hook House Hotel lies a small fortune in loot, stashed there by the notorious bank robber, Harold Spook, before he was arrested and sent down. Fred's accomplice, Charlie Mullins, has sprung Harold from prison and brought him to the hotel; the plan is for the three of them to stay the night, find the money and scarper in the morning.
The Discworld: a topsy-turvy world, spinning lazily through space on four huge elephants standing on the back of the star-turtle Great A'Tuin. A magical world: no more so than in Lancre, a tiny kingdom close to the very hub of the disc. But evil is afoot in Lancre: King Verence has been brutally murdered by Duke Felmet, who has assumed the throne; yet all is not lost - Verence's baby son has been carried off and given into the care of three witches. Can the Wyrd Sisters oust Duke Felmet and restore the true king to the throne? Or will Lady Felmet get away with her programme of hygienic urban clearance and environmental improvements?
When Stanley and Brenda manage to find a hotel room whilst motoring in France, they think themselves lucky, however the evening proves anything but restful as naked women are lowered from windows, monks and nuns rush in and out and almost everybody is found in the wrong bed!
In this comedy of manners, Charles Condomine is an author whose first wife has been dead for seven years and is now married to Ruth. To collect material for a new book he is writing and to provide a little after-dinner entertainment in their home he invites Madame Arcarti, an eccentric local medium, to conduct a séance little expecting that things would take an unexpected turn. Returning from the spirit world, Charles' first wife, Elvira causes hilarious and furious confusion because she wants her husband back - by fair means or foul...
The 'Warford Cricketeers' are preparing for a grudge match against their arch-rivals. Roger, the team Captain, is distracted by the pre-marital and post-marital affairs of his team members. Miriam, his ever-faithful wife, supports him through thick and thin - until she hears a rumour...
Outside Edge revolves around the farcical attempts of Roger to assemble his group of larger than life misfits into a 'fighting team' for a local cricket match.
This difficult task is further complicated by the arrival of an entourage of wives and girlfriends.
In a sinister an old library as one is likely to come across, presided over by the portrait of a grim-faced, mad-eyed old man, a dusty lawyer reads a Will (involving some millions of pounds) to an equally sinister family-one member of which has werewolf tendencies, another wanders around in a toga of Julius Caesar, a third is a gentle elderly lady who plants more than seeds in her flower-beds. By the third act there are more corpses than live members left in the cast: and what about the sympathetic nurse and the author of romantic novels-are they all, or more than, they seem to be?
All is revealed as the plot twists and turns to its surprising conclusion.
Ellen is a young girl confined to a wheelchair because of an accident in which her father died. But is everything as it seems?
Did she cause the accident that killed her father?
Is she really paralysed?
Who is the mysterious stranger climbing the steps to the house on the cliff?
Is she the victim of a wicked stepmother?
The House on the Cliff overlooks one of the Great Lakes. Years ago, an excursion boat sank in a storm and it's said the lake is haunted. The house's occupants include a young, lovely heiress, Ellen Clayton, currently confined to a wheelchair; her coolly beautiful stepmother; and a strict housekeeper. Then Nurse Pepper arrives, a cheerful, curious person eager to put things in order. And there's the substitute doctor who believes Ellen can walk again - and soon. It all begins with a sudden violent murder and ends with a chilling, surprising climax.
It is a bleak night in November 1925 and the party of travellers have missed their connection with no prospect of a train till morning. There's no hotel nearby, no taxi, no choice but to stay in the waiting room.
They soon begin to regret this decision when the mysterious appearance of a glamorous lady and her sister, is quickly followed by ghostly and not so ghostly apparitions. Then the true reasons behind the night's events are suddenly revealed.
Written in seven days in 1925 Arnold Ridley's (better known as Private Godfrey in Dads Army) "The Ghost Train" still retains its old fashioned fascination for today's audiences. It has all the ingredients that were uppermost in the public's mind just after the first world war with spies still the number one worry. Mix these with a remote railway station late at night and all sorts of things can be imagined.
LLTC have traditionally performed a variety show every August. This year however we chose to do things a bit different.
The evening commenced with a One Act farce called "Wife Required". This was follwed by a hot buffet and wine. The second half of the evening was a mix of comedy sketches and songs.
In a peaceful rural clinic, Benjamin Cooper provides comfort and satisfaction to his wealthy patients, by improving their good looks with the aid of surgery.
One of his patients Angie Dell, a model at the peak of her powers, recovering from having a minor blemish removed from her backside.
Her charms do not escape Benjamin, nor his old friends and former mentor, the infamous surgeon Hravic Zyergefoovc, who is on a private visit at the clinic. With two such high-profile visitors, the media cannot be kept at bay: out of the bushes pops Derek, the paparazzo, while a radio journalist, the overweight Jo, tries to interview Hravic with some pointed questions about ethics.
Tempers rise, but the real drama begins when Angie's estranged husband, the ageing rocker Mal, arrives in a borrowed helicopter to win Angie back with a gift.
There is an awful accident; but never fear, Hravic knows exactly how to save them.....
Tom Hammond lunged for Esmeralda, gripping her in a passionate embrace...
No, this is not an extract from the latest Mills and Boon novel, but a scene from 'Dead on Nine', the latest production from LLTC. And the excitement doesn't end there! As well as blossoming romance, Jack Popplewell's acclaimed play includes a dark agenda of deception, mistrust and murder.
This drama is a brilliant fly-on-the-wall insight of a husband and wife embarking on a tit-for-tat campaign of murder plots against each other, spurred on by their hate for one another and extra-marital liaisons.
Robert is a man trapped by his wife, Esmeralda, in an unhappy marriage, and driven to thoughts of murder after she refuses to divorce him. Esmeralda Leigh is the rich wife, holding the purse strings and, in turn, her husband. Her haughty, clever persona deviously devises a macabre end for the husband that tried to have her murdered.
Marion Dale is the faithful secretary, talked into agreeing to pull the trigger. Esmeralda's lover and accomplice, Tom Hammond is an Canadian farmer settling back into England while Detective Richard Farrow's character continuallly gnaws away at the evidence.
Hilarity abounds in this portrait of three couples successively occupying a suite at The Plaza.
The first guests are a suburban couple staying while their house is being painted. The room turns out to be the same one in which they honeymooned 23 (or was it 24?) years earlier.
The second visitor is a successful Hollywood producer who calls a childhood sweetheart, now a suburban housewife, for a little rendezvous, but gets much more than he bargained for.
The final guests are the parents of a reluctant bride whom they frantically try to get out of the bathroom and down to the ballroom where her wedding awaits her.
An award winning performance!
Despite their TV success as TV Thriller writers, Harold Kent (Andrew Scholefield) has become dissatisfied with Paul Riggs (Paul Wheeler), his writing partner, and wants to dissolve their association. Riggs, however, knows that he would not survive as a writer without Harold and threatens to blackmail him if the partnership is ended. In order to escape this impasse, Harold conspires with his wife, Emma (Sara Wheeler) to kill Riggs, using a plot from a projected script, Murder by Misadventure, as his (inspiration. The plan goes smoothly or does it?
Complications ensue, not least when the Kents are visited by a persistent and perceptive Inspector Egan (Don Beamish), and the plotters are in for a nasty surprise.