Playreaders

Play reading is a popular activity and our group has a steady membership of approximately fifteen.  With careful direction, everyone has a chance to read and enjoy flexing their voices in a range of parts.

For the past two years we have met approximately every two months at a member’s house and have enjoyed reading plays from a specific country, continent or period.  For example, we spent some sessions exploring British drama from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century including You Never Can Tell by George Bernard Shaw, Absurd Person Singular by Alan Ayckbourne and Plenty by David Hare.

In 2015 following some works from European drama including The Good Woman of Szechuan by Brecht, Antigone by Anouilh and Six Characters in Search of an Author by Pirandello, we embarked on Chekhov’s oeuvre and will then move on to Ibsen.

Dates for Playreaders sessions are published regularly on the website although in principle they generally held on the second Thursday in the month and approximately bi-monthly.  For details of the next meeting please contact either Julia Ball on 01892 655505 or Christine Roberts on 01892 853159.

We charge a small subscription of £10 for five meetings to cover hire of books and the cost of refreshments.

​For current events please visit our events page.

Our current series of play-reading sessions continues on 8th March when we will be looking at 'Dancing at Lughnasa’ by Brian Friel.

This is our final visit to some of the Irish playwrights.  Here’s a bit of the background of the play from Wikipedia:
 
'This play is loosely based on the lives of Friel's mother and aunts who lived in Glenties, on the west coast of Donegal. Set in the summer of 1936, the play depicts the late summer days when love briefly seems possible for three of the Mundy sisters (Chris, Rose, and Kate) and the family welcomes  home the frail elder brother, who has returned from a life as a missionary in Africa. However, as the summer ends, the family foresees the sadness and economic privations under which they will suffer as all hopes fade. The play takes place in early August, around the festival of Lughnasadh, the Celtic harvest festival. The play describes a bitter harvest for the Mundy sisters, a time of reaping what has been sown.’

If you are interested in joining our friendly group of Armchair Thespians, please contact either Julia Ball on 01892 655505 or Christine Roberts on 01892 for details of the venue and we will be happy to welcome you.