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For the first time, in its thirty-year history of entering the local Argyll one-act play festivals, Lochgilphead Drama Club is putting forward three plays to take part in the festivals in Campbeltown, Oban and Ardrishaig.
After beginning the drama season in November with their successful pantomime, Robinson Crusoe and the Pirates, the club’s next targets will be the festivals. Sixteen club members expressed a wish to act in a play and, for the first time, three experienced directors stepped forward to take charge.
‘After I’m Gone’, by Frank Vickery, a comedy set in Wales, was chosen by Mike Rimmer and starring Joan James, Ian James, Jeanna Sandilands and Liz Fraser. The play is based round the character of 75 year old Mam who does not want her daughter to marry the local undertaker. When she does, she not only brings into Mam’s house her new husband but his very deaf and ageing father. The laughter continues right to the surprising end.
Chosen by Gordon Hutton was the play, ‘Nudes In Waning Light’. This rollicking comedy by George Brockhill is set in an ordinary middle-class home, and explores the middle class prejudices of Molly, a no-nonsense lady. Walter, her hen-pecked husband, is challenged by an old friend, Harry, to paint two nudes. Comic chaos occurs when Molly arrives home unexpectedly and meets up with the naughty band including Molly’s young domestic girl and a professional model. The play stars Dorothy Hogbin, Betty Hutton, Ros Way, Lucille Kelly, Patrick Mackie and Duncan Berndt and Joan Garrett.
The final play, ‘Not Bobby’, by N J Warburton and chosen by Jim Morrison, is a quirky, well-observed satire featuring Barrie Innes, Ishbel MacArthur, Ruth Morrison, Meg Jamieson and Jenifer Phillimore. Set in a living room in the present, the play begins when Frank, anxious to complete yesterday’s newspaper crossword, finds the missing page in the rabbit’s hutch. To his and his mother’s astonishment, it has been completed. Could the rabbit be responsible? This satire makes serious points while at the same time leaving its audiences helpless with laughter.
The Drama Club’s first target is the Scottish Community Drama Association Kintyre District Festival in the Campbeltown Grammer School on Friday and Saturday, February 22 and 23, followed by the Lorne Drama Festival in the Corran Halls in Oban during the week March 31 to April 4. The final festival of the season is Argyll Drama Festival, which this year has its 60th anniversary, from April 22-25 in Ardrishaig Public Hall.
Jim Morrison, Chairman of Lochgilphead Drama Club, said: ‘This historic festival, which has made such a glorious contribution to the world of community drama in Argyll, will bring the curtain down on, what we believe will be, one of our most satisfying and enjoyable years. We can’t wait to get on a stage and we hope to see you all in the audience!’
