One Night Stand, Haddenham Players' latest production, played to a full and appreciative audience in the Village Hall on Saturday night 22nd October 2016. The review was a most entertaining showcase of local talent produced by Hannah Austin. Hannah has a long association with the Players as an actor but this new departure into production was a great success.
Ably compered by Adrian Ripley, the variety show certainly lived up to its name, with something for everyone, young and slightly older! Adrian's amazing memory act started the show and he followed it later with a stunning rendition of Nessun Dorma.
Stalwarts of Haddenham drama and poetry scene, Mary Pritchard and Sarah Wood, delighted us with their amusing readings of funny and, in Mary's case, saucy poems! Sarah and Hannah also gave us some lovely acting snippets in 'Commercial Break' and 'Maggots'. In complete contrast, Dee Pizzo gave a heartbreaking speech from Nina Bawden's thoughts on losing her husband in the Potters Bar train crash in 2002.
Haddenham Handbells, and the duo Tim Armitt and Gus Orchard, led the way on the music front, the former playing a trio of well known songs and the duo reprising their much-loved Flanders and Swann songs. Village newcomer Cassy Childs sang with great confidence and her duet with Hannah Austin was a delight.
All in all, an evening of good old fashioned entertainment using local talent. Well done Haddenham Players and Hannah Austin!
Haddenham Players' next production is the pantomime 'Snow White and the 'Seven Little People', produced by Linda Axford (Tel 291645). Auditions are now taking place for the production in February 2017.
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Hannah Austin, who was responsible for producing the Haddenham Variety Show 2016, provides an insight into the way her germ of an idea was brought to fruition.
Last night, the Haddenham players presented: One Night Stand – a variety show, at the Haddenham village hall. The original idea was a small, one-night show with a variety of acts, potentially getting some of the other groups in the village involved too.
It was important to me that variety meant variety and so I was thrilled when various members of the players came forward with brilliant songs (Tim and Gus), hilarious poetry (Mary and Sarah), powerful drama (Dee) and the offer to compere (Adrian). I then went in search of some music and sketches.
Looking for a musical act meant that we were joined on the night by the fantastic Haddenham handbell ringers, who added some beautiful music to the evening.
For some sketches; my volunteers were great sports and let me throw some ideas at them and went with it. A big thanks to recent Haddenham-ite, Cassy, for letting me use her talent in about 5 acts!
I feel very lucky to have had such a brilliant group of people to work with.
I'm so grateful to everyone. The evening went better than I could have hoped for and that's down to the support of the Audience, the cast, my Tech support Jack and Connor, and rest of the Haddenham players, as box office, bar and FOH, so a big thank you to all involved!
Photographs
Some images capturing the spirit of the show can be seen in our Galleries section.
