Players will be “buzzing” again when happier times return

Hurst Players are promising the Players Theatre in Hurstpierpoint will be ready and bursting with life once the coronavirus crisis is over. The Players, like companies around the world, have been forced to put their 2020 season on hold. They have cancelled the first two productions of the season, Neil Simon’s The Gingerbread Lady due on stage in April/ May and Ade Morris’s comedy The Boadicea of Britannia Street originally intended to be staged in July. For the moment, they are still hoping their Hurst Festival production of Outside Edge in September might be possible, though they admit it is unlikely. But whatever happens, the Players will emerge with their enthusiasm for live theatre all the stronger. As chairman Annette Squire says: “We’ll all be ready for a laugh or two again by then.” However, the closure is doubly tough for the Players, coming so soon after the reopening of their venue after refurbishment. “This is all very tricky for theatre, of course. We have had to shut up shop for the foreseeable future. Obviously, we don’t know when we can re-open. “We have our own venue which is great, and we have just had an enormous refurbishment, and it looks absolutely stunning. We were hoping that we could start getting in some outside bookings from other people wanting to put on shows, that we could hire it out. But we have now got this lovely place sitting empty.” The expense of that isn’t an issue, she says: “But we have still got to maintain it and keep it decent. “But all theatres have their ups and downs… just not normally as dramatic as this! “People are a bit sad. We put off the play that was coming up, The Gingerbread Lady. That went, and we were hoping to be able to put on the next one in July, but clearly that is not going to happen.

“Whether we can do September, I just don’t know. We were hoping to put on Outside Edge, but it is not just a matter of saying ‘Right, everything is OK. We are putting on a play.’ You have got the auditions and the rehearsals and all the lead-up to it. We usually have eight weeks of rehearsals. “And obviously, we are not going to open until we are absolutely sure that it is safe… on top of that long lead-up to a production. “But we are a pretty hardy lot and we are going to bounce back as soon as we can. I am sending out messages. “We had a committee meeting last week and we were all saying ‘Let’s have another committee meeting next month.’ That isn’t going to happen. “But I am going to try to keep sending out messages of positivity. “Everyone understands the situation, but they are disappointed not to have the chance to get on the stage, which is what it is all about. But everyone understands and can’t wait to come back.

“We have got a children’s theatre as well, a youth group, and they were going to be doing a show. They had been working up to it and they were absolutely buzzing, but we had to cancel that. It was fairly last-minute that we had to tell them that they could not do it. It was very hard on them, but at least they have got the material prepared. “They have a great time on a Saturday morning, and the atmosphere is always absolutely buzzing, but there really isn’t anything we could do.” But Annette is sure the tough times will strengthen the spirit of everyone: “We have the good fortune to live in a village and people have pulled together amazingly. We have got so many people who are ready to help other people. I rang a couple of elderly people to check and they said they had already been contacted. “If we can make it clear that the theatre is still the centre of the village, we can be buzzing again. We are so lucky to have the theatre, and we will be back.”