Ferring Amateur Dramatic Society delighted to be back on the stage

Ferring Amateur Dramatic Society returns from all the Covid restrictions this November.
FADS Yasmin Nixon LEFT Alex Medwell RIGHTFADS Yasmin Nixon LEFT Alex Medwell RIGHT
FADS Yasmin Nixon LEFT Alex Medwell RIGHT

Alan Ayckbourn’s Absurd Person Singular will be staged from Wednesday, November 24-Saturday, November 27 at 7.30pm with a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm. Tickets £10 from www.ticketsource.co.uk/fad.

Alex Medwell, from the company, said: “Absurd Person Singular was due to go up in March 2020, two days after the start of lockdown. Resuming rehearsals in September 2021 was just long enough for actors to forget all their lines and start afresh!

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“There are many new members joining FADS too – finding a new outgoing hobby after so much time locked in the house or reviving old pastimes. The pandemic has been such a real reset, in terms of realising what’s important and finding a good work/home/life balance.”

Veronica Cringle, who is directing, said: “I have loved every minute of working with these amazingly talented people who turn their hands to all aspects of theatre including acting, painting, set building, lighting, costume design and procurement, in fact anything that needs doing. One play you can have a starring role on the stage, the next you are behind the scenes and learning all the time. What more can one ask of a hobby?

“Meet three couples in their three kitchens on the Christmas Eves of three successive years. The lower class but very much up and coming Hopcrofts are in their bright new, gadget filled kitchen anxiously giving a little party for their bank manager and his wife and an architect neighbour. Next there are the architect and his wife in their neglected, untidy flat. Then the bank manager and his wife are in their large, old kitchen.

“Running like a dark thread through the wild comedy of behind the scenes disasters at Christmas parties is the story of the advance of the Hopcrofts to material prosperity and independence and the decline of the others. In the final stages the little man is well and truly on top, with the others, literally and unnervingly, dancing to his tune.”

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“When I first read Absurd Person Singular it immediately took me back to the 1970s, a time when relationships between both the sexes and classes were in flux. Alan Ayckbourn is a master wordsmith who took this change and reflected it back with both pathos and comedy although on the face of it we would never act the way his characters do. Or would we? No, of course not, but we all know of people who did or even do.

“Rehearsals for Absurd Person Singular have been fun and at the same time challenging. For those of us who grew up in the 50s-60s, the characters brought back memories. For the younger members of the cast it was difficult to accept that class distinction was so marked.

Director Veronica added: “After enjoying a night out watching Absurd Person Singular, if you start itching to get involved with amdram in any capacity – acting, lighting, sound, prompting, stage managing, costume, props, front of house, set building or painting – then come along to FADS’ audition night for the next production on Thursday, December 2 at 7.30pm in the Ferring Village Hall Club Room. All new members are welcome.”

Cast: Yasmin Nixon, Alex Medwell, Mike Smith, Liz Toon, Lyndsey Kite, Simon Weston. Crew: Veronica Cringle (director), Roy Stevens (stage manager), Hazel Collins (continuity), Alan Fryar (set design and sound), Peter Lewis (set construction manager), Martin Holland (lighting), Annie Burton (props), Greg Allen (prop making), Beverly Allen (prop making), Yasmin Nixon (prop sourcing), Graham Batchelor (stage hand), Alex Medwell (programme design and marketing), Pat Attree (front of house manager), Susan U’Ren (box office).

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