Page 66 - South Issue 12

Thame Players Have Much Ado This Summer!
The Players Theatre will remain closed to the public
from until Tuesday 9th September, when it re-opens
for the autumn season.
During the summer months, local building company
R B Dymott will move in and get started on the major
work involved in enlarging the stage and moving it
further back, improving the lighting, adding a new
row of seats, and reconfiguring the balcony. All these
improvements will mean that more people can be
accommodated to see more shows; audiences will
get a better view from anywhere in the theatre; and,
because of the larger stage area, more ambitious
productions can be put on, so audiences can
enjoy a greater variety of theatrical and cinema
entertainment, as well as visiting musical and
celebrity acts.
While the theatre is closed, Thame Players Theatre
Company, whose 70th anniversary falls this year, will
not be idle: they are staging an open-air production
of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing in the
gardens of The Elms in Thame from 8th – 12th
July. Rectory Homes, as principal sponsor of this
production, have kindly given permission for Thame
Players to use The Elms, which is owned by them
and dates back to the Edwardian era. To complement
the Edwardian setting, Thame Players’ production
of Much Ado About Nothing - one of the Bard’s best
comedies - will be set in the ‘roaring twenties’, a time
of swing, jazz, and the Charleston - complete with
flappers.
Besides Rectory Homes, Thame Players are
grateful for the generous sponsorship of other local
businesses: Reaston Brown, the property agents,
Wills & Trusts Chartered Financial Planners, Pearsons
Insurance Services, Abbotts Office Solutions, XT
Brewing and others yet to be confirmed.
Thame Players are also extremely grateful for grants
and donations from South Oxfordshire District
Council, Thame Town Council, The Garfield Weston
Foundation, The Foyle Foundation, The Oxfordshire
Community Foundation, The Doris Field Trust, The
Pye Charitable Settlement, The Mayor of Thame’s
Charitable Fund, The Rotary of Thame, other
community organisations, local businesses and
private donors, all of whom have been generous with
their support of the Building A Better Theatre project.
The next Thame Players’ production, when The
Players Theatre re-opens on 9th September, will be
Quartet by Ronald Harwood between 9th and 13th
September.