Double bill of shockers coming to Newbury theatre
‘Behind the Masque’ of New Era Players
In June, New Era Players will be presenting a double bill of one-act plays, jointly entitled ‘Behind the Masque,’ writes SALLY HALL.
Each play is directed by a different person, with Mike Huxtable in charge of Liars’ Teeth, by Emily Goode, and Suzanne Pearson overseeing Aria de Capo by Edna St Vincent Millay. Both are plays which explore the darker aspects of humankind, perhaps hidden behind an acceptable social façade. Whilst Liars’ Teeth is set in a dystopian future, Aria de Capo is in the form of two types of traditional theatre, with both a Pastoral and a Harlequinade. Both plays have a humorous twist, but both are also quite shocking in their own way.
New Era Players are no strangers to the presentation of more unusual fare for the amateur stage. The group was founded in 1978, when one of the guiding principles was to put on plays that were a challenge to both the actors and the audiences, and New Era has certainly lived up to this challenge in the intervening 45 years. As well as a number of one-act plays in a double bill, often with very few actors, they have staged shows with a large cast, such as the recent Great Expectations and Under Milk Wood, which seem to defy the space available both on and off stage. On occasion, New Era have packed up and headed off to Shaw House for outdoor productions, such as Daisy Pulls it Off and Pride and Prejudice, when the cast battle not only with their lines, exits and entrances, but also with the good old British weather.
Perhaps the challenge that is most enthusiastically embraced is achieving a balanced variety of subject matter, ensuring their audiences will never tire of the community theatre offering. In the past decade, for example, New Era has staged Shakespeare, Dickens, Jane Austen, Tennessee Williams, Harold Pinter, Arthur Miller, Oscar Wilde and Agatha Christie, often ambitious plays and stage adaptations to produce, but also dramas by lesser-known playwrights, such as David Tristram, john Dighton, Yasmina Reza and Dawn King.
Usually, New Era puts on four productions a year, so why not come and see what it is all about at the forthcoming production? Even better, please consider coming to join in as a member, especially if you happen to fancy helping out backstage, where the company are always on the lookout for new talent.
New Era Players present Behind the Masque on June 22-24 and June 27 - July 1 at the New Era Theatre, Andover Road, Wash Common, Newbury, RG14 6NU. Tickets are £12 each and are available online at ticketsource.co.uk/new-era-players. For other enquiries, email the Box Office at boxoffice@neweraplayers.org or call 07919 916009. Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start.
