Another varied and diverse season, offering very contrasting styles of theatre to begin with. Mamet's play is sharp, funny and in places painful, a cast of 4 being quite sufficient for the points he wishes to make. To tell the Dickens story in true Victorian style required a cast of 30 including several children, with anything up to 100 costumes and a magnificent set. The production will live long in the Bench memory, and that of our audiences.
Haround and the Sea of Stories is also a very visual show, and one to appeal to a diverse audience including families. Damon chose to tell the stories using the bodies of his actors to form incredible shapes and visual effects in another show not easily forgotten.
The Vagina Monologues is a show outside our usual season of 5 plays, and one which would not have happened without the support of Havant Arts Centre or the team at PARCS (Portsmouth Area Rape Crisis Service). As well as raising money for a very deserving cause this show gave many actresses, both new and experienced, the chance to try something different again with new artistic challenges.
David Hare in May will take us back to slightly less inventive staging (although with a full working kitchen required nothing less demanding, just more conventional!) and the quality of Judy's cast combined with Hare‘s writing promises to be just as attention grabbing as the shows that have preceeded it
To finish we have another Irish play which will see the welcome (and some would say overdue) return of Jacquie Penrose to the director‘s chair. The Cripple is Inishmaan is a touching story with wonderful humourous characters and something to look forward to as our season completes for another year and we start to look forward to Supernova 3