Walberton Players return with first big production in three years

They have done a radio style play with script in hand since the pandemic but Cheshire Cats is their first big show since just before the very first lockdown. The piece comes from Gail Young who was asked to join a group of women walking the London Moonwalk in May 2003 as one of their number had dropped out of the team. It proved an unforgettable experience for all of them. On the train home to Chester, Gail casually said: “Someone should write a play about this weekend.”

Cheshire Cats was the outcome. She performed the play as a fundraiser with her local amateur dramatic group and then took a shortened version of the play to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2006 to support the very first Edinburgh Moonwalk that year.

Cheshire Cats follows a group of girls and their emotional journey as they aim to speedwalk their way to fund-raising success in the London Moonwalk whilst also enjoying a girly weekend away in the capital. Trainers and wildly decorated bras are in, high heels and designer labels out – but a last minute substitute to the team doesn’t meet the physical criteria…

The Walberton Players are delighted to be offering the show for half-term. Proceeds from the raffle, and any money raised each night from donations, will be given to the Walk the Walk Charity, further details of which can be found at https://walkthewalk.org

Spokeswoman Lizzie Gibson said: “We did some plays during lockdown on Zoom. Emily Dadson and I would look to find things that were suitable and this was one of them that we managed to do together. We did like a lockdown version on Zoom and read it together, all of us in our respective homes which was certainly better than nothing in all the circumstances! We just did things like that in order to keep going as a company. We didn't want to fold like some others have sadly done. And then we did the radio play and then we did something in the summer but this is the first proper show back. With the radio play we had scripts with us as if we were standing in a radio studio. It was a time when people still had to be bit careful and people were not venturing out. It was a very safe production.”

And it was shows like that that helped the Walberton Players continue: “I think we're in a reasonable position now. We've had a few new members that have come into the village in the last couple of years or so. I think it's just a question of us building things back up again and not doing stuff that would bankrupt us. We have just got to cut our cloth accordingly, just making sure that we're sensible so we don’t get ourselves in a position that would be untenable for what is still after all just a little village drama society.”

Tickets from https://walbertonplayers.org/