1947- 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Welcome to the website of Endon Dramatic Society

 

WE ARE BACK

 

We are pleased to announce that our Autumn 2025 production will be

Absent Friends by Alan Ayckbourn

Wed 19th -Sat 22nd November 2025

 

 ​​Colin must be comforted in his grief over the death of his fiancee so his friends, who never met the girl, arrange a tea party for him. Understandably they are on edge wondering what to say, but there is more to their unease: Diane and Paul, John and Evelyn, and Marge and her husband is perpetually out of circulation with trivial illnesses are all kept together by a mixture of business and cross marital emotional ties. By the time Colin arrives for tea, their tenseness contrasts dramatically with his air of cheerful relaxation. He is the only happy one among them and his happiness and insensitive analyses of their troubles causes each of them to break down.

 

Ticket details to follow so please keep visiting the sight

 

 

 

The cast of Natural Causes by Eric Chappell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 cast of Murder in Play by Simon Brett

 

 

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The cast of Lucky Sods by John Godber

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Sheila's Island photographs

 

 

 

 

 

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REVIEW  SHEILA'S ISLAND BY TIM FIRTH May 2023

 

Endon Village Hall

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SHEILA'S Island - written by Tim Firth ( Calendar Girls, Kinky Boots )  - was designed to feature an all - female cast.

It is a very witty dialogue -led comedy,  here presented by Endon Dramatic Society, exploring deep heartfelt tensions that work colleagues experience when out of their comfort zones. 

The Pennine Mineral Water Ltd's Annual Outward Bound  Team-building Weekend's Team C, consisting of Sheila, Denise, Julie and Fay, seem to be ahead of the game when disaster strikes.

A misdirected course change dumps them all in the shallows surrounding a small island in the Lake District.

We first meet Team C's captain Sheila (Catherine Leese), voted into position due to her renowned cryptic crossword prowess.

She is closely followed by a highly disgruntled Denise, acerbically played by Nick Jones, who is minus her rucksack. You know, the one with the emergency rations.

Their remaining team-mates emerge, Julie (Barbara Gould) and Fay, 'the Christian in a cagoule' (Jenny Otter).  

The initial fast-paced nuanced jibes and funny one liners fall mainly to Denise. One of my favourites was her boast of having

earned her 'Girl Guide peeing outside badge'.

The script showed a fabulous grasp of the English language, the intense interaction between work colleagues, not necessarily workmates per se, was also captured vert well. Fay's really beautiful soliloquy to God's creation of birds was deeply poetic and delivered with a lovely reverence.

Julie's well equipped, seemingly bottomless rucksack - I was expecting a kitchen sink at one point - gave many a visual comedic moment throughout the play. 

Well directed by Anthony Simcock and Philip Howard, the script seemed a tad long to me. It lost a little of the slick initial pace in parts.

All the cast brought a very well observed persona to this mentally delicate situation, which became more and more fraught as the 

scenes progressed, culminating in complete moral breakdown and led to an almost law of the jungle mentality.

During the course of the second act, the volcano of tensions, as Denise increasingly bullies each of her team-mates is palpable. 

A brilliant observational comedy.       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The cast of Relatively Speaking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REVIEW RELATIVELY SPEAKING BY ALAN AYCKBOURN  November 2022

Endon Village Hall

 

This comedy by Alan Ayckbourn, performed by Endon Dramatic Society, is set in the promiscuous mid 1960s and opens with the Monkees song Daydream Believer, putting you right into this most iconic decade.

Greg and Ginny are living together, but Greg is becoming increasingly suspicious that he is not the only man in her life. Growing increasingly concerned about Ginny’s motive for a planned weekend to visit her parents, he decides to follow her.

In reality, Ginny is really going to see Philip, a considerably older ex-lover, in order to break up with him once and for all, and to put a stop to the relentless barrage of flowers and chocolates she’s having to find ever more implausible cover stories for.

Greg arrives first, mistakes the ex-lover Philip and his wife Sheila for Ginny’s parent’s, as per her arranged visit. He proceeds to court favour with them individually to try to ask for Ginny’s hand in marriage. Ginny’s arrival further compounds an already hilarious situation.

Greg (Anthony Simcock) and Ginny (Barbara Gould) had a good rapport as the fractious but loving couple, tiptoeing around one another. The wistful look as Ginny asked Greg “Do you remember when we first met?  ” Yes it was only a month ago” was hilarious.

Philip Howard played the, at times extremely animated Philip, with Catherine Leese as Sheila. There was great interplay between all the characters.

The excellent garden set was straight out of Percy Thrower’s Gardeners World Pot Plant Special. Very effective. Warmly lit, giving the sense of an English summer’s day. Costumes were also appropriate to the era and looked really authentic.

Director Graham Bond ably assisted by Nicky Jones, used there resources well in crafting a little piece of period hilarity. Great fun.

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