Season 65 Play 3 – The Happiest Days of Your Life by John Dighton
Directed by
Cast
Rainbow – Stuart Farrell
Rupert Billings – Tim Gatti
Godfrey Pond – David Helliwell
Miss Evelyn Whitchurch – Sandra Chewins
Miss Gossage – Yvonne Templeton
Hopcroft Minor – Jude Connelly
Barbara Cahoun – Alice Roberts
Joyce Harper – Tanya Gillow
The Rev. Edward Peck – Jim Brooks
Mrs Peck – Alison Main
Edgar Sowter – Frank Etchells
Mrs Sowter – Pam Nellist
Matron – Heather Jagger
Synopsis
Set in 1949, confusion reigns when St Swithin’s Girls School is accidentally billeted at Hilary Hall School for Boys in Hampshire. The two heads – Godfrey Pond and Miss Evelyn Whitchurch try to cope with the ensuing chaos as the children and staff attempt to live in the newly cramped conditions (it being impossible). They seek to prevent the children taking advantage of their new opportunities.
Add to this hopelessly inept staff and unruly children and you have a winner. This is a marvellous comic watch – farcical and funny – a real entertainer.
Directors Notes
When Mark expressed interest in directing this delightful play, he was understandably a little nervous as it would be his “Main House Debut”. He had previously, very successfully, directed the very funny “Cruise Missile” in our Studio Upstairs, but even so, it is daunting to move on to a large cast play in our main auditorium. Therefore he requested that he have a co-director as back-up and the committee felt that this was a good idea. I was delighted to step in as I also loved this play but knew that I had quite a number of other commitments and therefore could not have undertaken to direct it alone – it therefore worked out really well for us both.
We have been fortunate to end up with a great cast (notwithstanding the usual problems with people having to withdraw for work or other reasons) and we have had a happy and often hilarious time during rehearsals.
We are delighted to have some of BLT’s favourites in our cast and we are also pleased to welcome some new faces to our stage, especially Tim Gatti who literally leapt to our rescue after the start of rehearsals and has fitted in beautifully. We are pleased to have two pupils from our own Kaleidoscope in this production – it is always good to be able to put “home-grown” talent on the stage.
We are also glad to have Gordon Lakin as our Stage Manager and know that the play will be in safe hands once it is out of ours, and must make special mention of Heather Jagger and her Props team who are sourcing huge quantities of unusual objects for the play.
We hope very much that you will enjoy this hilarious, well-known play – so just sit back, relax and ease into the Festive Season with a bit of a giggle.
