2025 April\May A Bunch of Amateurs

A Bunch of Amateurs by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman
From an original story by John Ross and Jonathan Gershfield                                                                                                                      

Director  Pat Brinicombe

Keen to boost his flagging career, fading Hollywood action hero Jefferson Steele arrives in England to play King Lear in Stratford – only to find that this is not the birthplace of the Bard, but a sleepy Suffolk village. And instead of Kenneth Branagh and Dame Judi Dench, the cast are a bunch of amateurs trying to save their theatre from developers. Jefferson’s monstrous ego, vanity and insecurity are tested to the limit by the enthusiastic am-dram thespians. As acting worlds collide and Jefferson’s career implodes, he discovers some truths about himself – along with his inner Lear

“Deliciously stuffed with Shakespeare…a laugh-a-minute” **** – Mail on Sunday

Nick Newman is an award-winning cartoonist and writer. He has worked for Private Eye since 1981 and has been pocket cartoonist for The Sunday Times since 1989. His cartoons have appeared in many other publications including The Guardian, Punch and The Spectator. He was The Cartoon Art Trust’s Pocket/Gag Cartoonist of the Year in 1997, 1998, 2005 and 2016. He won the Sports Journalists’ Association’s Cartoonist of the Year award in 2005, 2007 and 2009. In 2013 he edited the humour bestseller Private Eye: A Cartoon History.

Ian Hislop is a writer and broadcaster and has been editor of Private Eye since 1986. He has been a columnist for The Listener and The Sunday Telegraph, and TV critic for The Spectator. As a scriptwriter with Nick Newman, his work includes five years on Spitting Image, Harry Enfield and Chums, and My Dad’s the Prime Minister, as well as the film and play A Bunch of Amateurs. He has written and presented many documentaries for TV and radio including: Radio 4’s The Real Patron Saints, A Brief History of Tax, Are We Being As Offensive As We Might Be, Lord Kitchener’s Image

Please Note the New Dates

Date: Tuesday 29th April – Saturday 2nd May 2025
Start Time: 7.30pm

Doors open:  30 minutes before performance times.

Tickets: £15
Tickets can be bought online or in person at the theatre each night of the show.

The Cast of A Bunch of Amateurs

Mike Hoggarth
plays Jefferson Steele

Marc Baille
plays Nigel Dewbury

Keri Farish
plays Dorothy Nettle

Jane Douglas
plays Denise Dobbins

Sammi Middleton
plays Mary Plunkett

Anne Bowmer
plays Lauren Bell

Emily Brown
plays Jessica Steele