CURTAIN CALL

FOUR local drama societies launch their new seasons this coming month – after a near two-year break due to the covid crisis.

They all had productions ready to go onstage at the start of the pandemic and have had several false starts since then when it seemed lockdown would be eased, only to find us all locked up again.

First is Stoke Rep Players with a collection of four small plays called Duets by Peter Quilter. Directed by Rosemary Gresty the very funny plays show four couples at crucial moments in their relationships. One couple is on a blind date, one shows a secretary trying to seduce her boss, in the third, a couple considering divorce go on holiday to Spain and the last couple are considering marriage of one of them – for the umpteenth time.

The first musical of the new season is the ever popular Fiddler on the Roof, at Stoke Rep Theatre by Newcastle Operatic Society. The story of the Jewish milkman Tevye and his five daughters, set in 19th century Russia is funny and heartwarming in turns. The director is James Freeman, who directed Titanic for the company two years ago.

A large company drawn from many local societies will present the famous songs that include Tradition, If I Were a Rich Man and Sunrise Sunset.

Made in Dagenham, the musical about the strike by female Ford workers for equal pay keeps appearing all over the country. It is being presented by Musical Theatre Stafford in the town’s Gatehouse Theatre – their third attempt to present the show.

One of the women working in the stitching room suddenly finds herself at the centre of a bitter fight with the company, when it is discovered she and her colleagues are being downgraded to ‘unskilled’. Finding a strength she didn’t know she possessed, she leads her friends against Ford, and the union that is supposed to be protecting them, using a strong script and some super songs.

Leek Centre Stage has chosen an unusual play for its first post-covid production. The Shell Seekers, based on a book by Rosamunde

Pilcher, tells the story of Penelope Keeling, a sixty-something widow with three children who, after a stay in hospital is very aware of her own mortality. She looks back over her life and makes plans for the future of her family, a future she knows she will not share.