First night brilliance at the One-Act Drama Festival

You missed a real treat if you missed the opening night on Friday at the Princess Theatre - but the festival continues today and Sunday!

Three very different one-act plays, all limited to fifty minutes (including stage preparation and clearing) following a superb introduction by Festival Director Stephen P. E. Hayter, assisted by ‘Mr le Strange’, set the standard for a great weekend of amateur theatre.

Stephen explained that after each session the adjudicators. Ian Gooda, Verity Mitchell and Jill Catmull would present a short adjudication of each performance to the casts and audience, and this would be followed by a detailed adjudication after the festival weekend.

First on was Streatham Players’ performance of ‘Three Women and Shakespeare’s Will’ by Joan Greening which had pace, tricky dialogue, humour, period costumes and the most elaborate set of the evening. This was followed by The Angles Theatre’s performance of ‘Baggage (His and Hers)’ by Nicholas Ridley. Set in a Greek Hotel, the chemistry between the three actors made this a delight to see. Closing the evening Holbeach Amateur Theatre Society performed ‘Right on Time’ by Michael Slack with a mix of adult and young actors and there was a twist at the end that brought a tear to the eye.

Three of us from Town and Around attended the first night and we all really enjoyed it – each of us had our favourite performance, and we all picked out characters that had impressed us. When it came to the adjudication, we learned a lot; Ian, Verity and Jill clearly know their subject well and their analysis drew an enthusiastic burst of applause from the audience.

With five more one-act plays on Saturday and four on Sunday, it is not too late to see some great theatre.

View the programme here:
> Click here to view the One Act Drama Festival Programme

It all reaches a crescendo at 7.30pm on Sunday with the Gala Awards Ceremony. Tickets are £7.30 per session (£2.50 for the awards evening) or £20 for a Festival Season Ticket which will get you into absolutely everything!

The Princess Theatre box office is 01485 532 252 or for information on who’s on when it’s www.oneactdramafestival.com