Codsall Dramatic Society Presents The Memory of Water By Shelagh Stephenson

Codsall Dramatic Society

Presents

The Memory of Water

By Shelagh Stephenson

A strange title but an amazing and funny play, winner of the 2000 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy.  Three sisters are brought together after the death of their Mother to sort through her possessions, prepare for her funeral and to share their childhood memories, but their memories aren’t exactly the same or as happy as their mother might have thought.

Join Codsall Dramatic Society (NODA Award winners for Best Production 2012) for a provocative yet comical evening as we return to the work of Shelagh Stephenson, whose play Experiment with an Air Pump we performed in 2009.  Once again Stephenson captures a moment of high drama and injects it with a dose of comedy and wild abandonment. As the daughters get intoxicated with drugs and booze so the bickering grows and middle daughter Mary can’t stop dreaming of her mother Vi at her age, a vision in green Taffeta.  How will they all cope with the hangover the next morning and the secrets unearthed the night before?

Weds 25th – Fri 27th September 7:30pm tickets £7.50, Sat 28th September 2:30pm (Matinee only) tickets £6.50 at Codsall Village Hall.  

Not suitable for those under the age of 16 years.

Tickets available from Knit & Stitch, Codsall and Ian Rigby Jewellers, Birches Bridge, call our Box Office 07792784908, or reserve online at www.codsalldramaticsociety.co.uk.

For more information check out our website at www.codsalldramaticsociety.co.uk or find our Facebook page and click on ‘Like’ to be kept up-to-date with the latest news at CDS

Putting On A Show - Amateur Dramatics Can Be Stressful...

Amateur Dramatics is a stressful business. There can be no denying that. Anyone who has even come within a sniff of acting in/directing/producing/helping/selling tickets/making the tea in any amateur dramatics production will tell you that it is not easy.

So much can (and invariably does) go wrong. I'm not going to mention any specifics (but I'm sure you can all tell your own amateur dramatic horror stories!), but there seems to be something about it that causes all sorts of problems.

These can come at any time during an amateur dramatics production. A member of the cast might break a leg, the Director might lose their mind, the backstage manager might drink all the "pretend" gin for that pivotal scene. A piece of vital electrical equipment might short at the last minute, a passing ant might sneeze and knock the set over, or someone might lose that glass eye that was so vital to that parlor scene at the end of act one, necessitating a marble to be found at the last second.

And even if your amateur dramatics production makes it to opening night with all its parts still intact, that does not mean the Gods have smiled kindly on you this day. How do you know what the audience will think, how much whiskey has the dsm been drinking, and where are those que cards you spent days making, that you can't do without, you start to wonder why you even bothered..........

And then it's curtain up....

The lights are upon you.....

That first line, the joke upon which it all hangs.....

.....and the audience roars with laughter. You feel your spirit soar, Noel Coward himself couldn't do it better than you, Dench would be your understudy, Branagh is back stage making the half time drinks!

And you remember. You remember why you go through it. That feeling of achievement, that joy at the completion of the task. No matter what you've done, how you did it, you did it. And that's the joy of amateur dramatics. That sense of winning, against impossible odds. No one can ever take that away from you.

Want to get involved in amateur dramatics in Wolverhampton and Codsall. Visit Codsall Dramatic Society or like us on Facebook. Come see our next amateur dramatics production in Wolverhampton and Codsall, The Memory of Water, by Shelagh Stephenson, 25th-28th September at Codsall Village Hall. 

Codsall Dramatic Society – Amateur Dramatics in Wolverhampton & Codsall

Codsall Dramatic Society is an award winning drama society, with a broad repertoire of plays in our history. From Ayckbourn to Shakespeare, Wilde to Lansley, to our annual children’s play, Codsall Dramatic Society can provide for any theatre goer.

Amateur dramatics in Wolverhampton has a long and proud tradition, and Codsall Dramatic Society has been a part of this tradition since our formation in 1949. We may be an amateur dramatics group, but Codsall Dramatic Society has always strived to provide a professional standard of plays, from acting on stage, to sound and lighting, and the set’s that have earned the society much acclaim; including a boat for Alan Ayckbourn’s Way Up Stream, to a full on(ish) steam engine in Philip Goulding’s The Titfield Thunderbolt.

The society meets on Wednesdays at Codsall Village Hall, so if you want to get involved in amateur dramatics in Wolverhampton, or want something new and exciting to do, come on down. We’re always on the lookout for new members, not just on stage, but off it too. So come and join us, you may discover a talent that you never knew you had…

At Codsall Dramatic Society, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to those people and groups who have supported us, not just as members, but as Patrons. Patrons support our society both financially, and by turning up to our productions. They get a ticket for every production, as well as free entry for our vastly popular patrons evening (supported this year by Codsall Singers). If you’re interested in becoming a Patron, please contact us via email (codsalldramaticsociety@gmail.com).