Oundle School
Performances - Forthcoming Events
For Michaelmas and Christmas 2008, download and print out
Ticket Order form (.pdf file)
Welcome to the new season at The Stahl and to an array of productions that we hope will appeal to anyone with a love of good stories and good theatre.
Telling stories pre-dates all other cultural activities and tales, myths and narratives of all kinds make up a significant part of this season's work. We are delighted to welcome back Blackeyed Theatre with their world première of Steven Berkoff's OEDIPUS; those of you who saw their Arturo Ui will want to see this exceptional company tackle one of the great Classical myths as seen through the eyes of one of Britain's most forceful playwrights. Oundle School's musical production of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods will show familiar fairy-tale characters inter-acting in surprising ways as they try to make sense of the stories in which they feature - great music, bristling comedy and a beanstalk await you! We look forward to some Classic Tales in June as many first-time actors and technicians take to the stage to bring stories from the ancient world, Chaucer and later centuries to dramatic life.
Our season begins with a community production of The Merry Wives of Windsor staged by The Open Stage Company and The Stahl Theatre. A mixed professional and amateur company drawn from the locality and from Oundle School kick off the New Year with the hilarious story of Sir John Falstaff's amorous adventures amongst the worthies of a close-knit provincial town. With this production, we are pleased to be launching our new Friends of The Stahl Theatre scheme that we hope will give our audience a sense of belonging and opportunities to become more deeply involved in the vibrant life of the theatre. Membership details are found later in these pages.
Shifting Sands, Abingdon Touring Theatre and Third Party are companies with excellent reputations who come to The Stahl for the first time with very different shows. The Deadline introduces us to clowning with a dark twist, The Rivals remains one of the best-loved comedies of manners in the repertoire, performed for us by a young company of aspiring professionals, and Dr Faustus is one of the Renaissance's greatest tales, here given deliciously dark and dangerous dramatic treatment.
As ever, Oundle Cinema will have a season of fine films here - do drop in for a leaflet.
We look forward to seeing you this season at The Stahl as we travel from Once upon a time ... to ...happily ever after ...or NOT!
January
The Open Stage Company & The Stahl Theatre present The Merry Wives of Windsor
by William Shakespeare
Thursday 10, Friday 11, Saturday 12 January at 19:45, tickets £9.00
Oundle School presents Much Ado About Clubbing
by Andrew Fusek Peters and Polly Peters
Andrew Martens directs a lively cast chosen from the Fourth and Fifth Forms
Thursday 24, Friday 25, Saturday 26 January at 19:45, tickets £5.00
February
Oundle School presents Into the Woods
by Music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by James Lapine
The fairy tales of Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood are woven together in Into the Woods with the story of the Baker and his Wife whose desire for a child of their own is thwarted by the wicked Witch who lives next door. As the characters set about achieving their narrative destinies, complications arise - not least, in the shape of an angry Giant - and they are presented with difficult choices and hard paths to follow. Sondheim's music and Lapine's text blend perfectly in a multi-award-winning show that is more about the unexpected than the familiar.
'Into the woods, who knows what may be lurking on the journey?'
Oundle School pupils under the direction of Alastair Boag and the musical direction of Andrew Forbes present a new production of this life-affirming work with designs by Ali Dean.
This amateur production is presented by arrangement with JOSEF WEINBERGER LTD. on behalf of MUSIC THEATRE INTERNATIONAL of NEW YORK.
Friday 22, Saturday 23, Monday 25 February at 19:45, Sunday 24 February at 15:00, tickets £9.00
Shifting Sands presents The Deadline
Clown Noir? Be prepared for a dynamic celebration of Film Noir, thrillers, detective films, femme fatales and hard-boiled characters. Think 'Raymond Chandler meets Laurel and Hardy'.
A postman delivers a parcel and discovers a dead body. From the cellar, he hears frenzied nocking and calls for help. He finds a woman, beautiful and beguiling. He is a clown, wide eyed and stupid. Seduced by her lies, he becomes lost in a maze-like plot only to emerge the prime suspect.
Irreverent, moving, comic and heart breaking, THE DEADLINE is clown theatre with an edge, conjuring a world that is both funny and deadly serious - where nothing is what it seems.
"One of the most enjoyable and hilarious productions I have seen - inspiring."
Total Theatre on Shifting Sands' Romeo & Juliet
Friday 29 February at 19:45, tickets £9.00
March
Oundle School presents A2 Theatre Studies Practical Exam Pieces
Energy, commitment and, of course, nerves make this an immediate and lively theatrical event that combines the academic life of the theatre with young people's love of the stage.
Come to support and come to be inspired!
Thursday 6 March at 19:45, tickets £3.00
Blackeyed Theatre, in association with South Hill Park, present the world première of Oedipus
by Steven Berkoff
Directed by Bart Lee
Music by Ron McAllister
Design by Victoria Spearing
Lighting by Charlotte McClelland
Arguably the greatest Greek tragedy of them all, Oedipus - even today - is universal and ground-breaking. As the legend that breaks the ultimate taboo, it's an epic journey of emotion, from the pinnacles of love to the depths of despair, exploring the very basis of who we are.
Now, for the very first time, Steven Berkoff's thundering adaptation of the Oedipus legend is brought to the stage by acclaimed company, Blackeyed Theatre. Faithful to the original and told with the same power of classical Greek theatre, Berkoff's incredible play offers a modern edge, with an Oedipus incapable of seeing the inevitable truth and condemned not only by fate but by his own arrogance. Unknowingly and unstoppably, he seals his own downfall as events build to a gripping, unforgettable climax.
High octane drama, stunning design and fantastic live music make this an evening of theatre to stir the soul!
Saturday 15 March at 19:45, tickets £9.00
April
Bramston House presents Cultured Rebels
by Stephen Hirst
Performed and directed by boys from Bramston House, this topical comedy lifts the lid on school life and pops the bubble of academic complacency - as well as revealing exactly what teachers do during exam invigilation ...
Wednesday 16, Thursday 17 April at 19:45, tickets £5.00 (free to Oundle School pupils and parents of Bramston House.)
May
Third Party presents The Tragicall History of Dr Faustus - a damned fine play
Third Party's innovative production has played to sell-out audiences and unfolds at a breathless pace. Expect surprises, live music and dance - even a touch of ventriloquism thrown in for good measure. See Dr Faustus mocked by his own image while a blues-singing Lucifer riffs on the soul of a man!
Deliciously dangerous theatre
TIME OUT
Thursday 1 May at 19:45, tickets £9.00
Oundle School presents Peter Pan
by J M Barrie
Peter Pan, a "betwixt and between", not boy, not fairy is curious to know more about what it means to be a child. He befriends Wendy and persuades her to go and be his mother in Never Land, taking her brothers along to join the Lost Boys. Games and adventures with Mermaids, Red Indians and Pirates are all far more real in Never Land, but Wendy soon realises that for her and her brothers, the fantasy cannot last forever...
J.M. Barrie's Pan was first introduced to his public in the story The Little White Bird in 1902, but it was two years later in the play Peter Pan, that the myth of the boy who would not grow up really began. This classic story of childhood and the bitter-sweetness of growing up is performed by pupils from Oundle School's Junior Years and directed by Matt Burlington.
I am youth, I am joy. I am a little bird that has broken out of the egg.
Sunday 18 May at 15:00, Monday 19 May, Tuesday 20 May at 19:45, tickets £6.00
June
Oundle School presents Classic Tales
Monday 9, Tuesday 10 June at 19:45, (Admission Free - Booking Essential)
Two Friends Productions presents Pretty Witty Nell
by Caroline Harding
With the King on his deathbed and creditors knocking on her door, Nell recalls her radiant life. Born in the gutters of Covent Garden, by sheer force of wit and charm she became the most glittering actress and best-loved character of her day. Surviving the plague and The Great Fire - if not quite the pox - she was adored by Pepys and Dryden wrote plays for her. The people were entranced by her. Her life with King Charles lasted for eighteen turbulent years and his last words were of her.
Award-winning Two Friends Productions bring their latest show to The Stahl for a night of historical comedy in the style that has won them rave reviews and sell-out tours.
Friday 13 June at 19:45, tickets £9.00
Oundle School presents The Oundle Lecture
by Anthony Holden
Best known for his studies of Tchaikovsky, the Prince of Wales and Laurence Olivier, Anthony Holden has also written a history of the Hollywood Oscars and Big Deal, an account of a year as professional poker-player, praised by enthusiasts from Walter Matthau and David Mamet to Salman Rushdie. He has published poetry, music and drama criticism, and polemical pamphlets advocating constitutional reform.
Anthony Holden has presented numerous TV documentaries, and continues to write regularly for a wide range of newspapers and periodicals on both sides of the Atlantic. He is the music critic for The Observer.
To reserve tickets for the lecture, which cost £37.50 including dinner, please contact Richard McKim
(Postal address: Dr R.McKim, The Common Room, Milton Road, OUNDLE, Peterborough PE8 4AB email rjm@oundleschool.org.uk).
Profits to charity.
Thursday 19 June at 18:00, tickets £37.50 (Tickets for this event are not available through The Stahl Theatre Box Office)
Booking
To book, please contact:
The Box Office, The Stahl Theatre, West Street,
Oundle, Peterborough, PE8 4EJ
Tel/Fax: 01832 273930
The Box Office in the Theatre foyer is open from 1030 to 1230, Tuesday to Saturday, and for an hour before performances. It is closed during the holidays, but postal bookings will be dealt with in this period.
Print out Ticket Order form here (100 KB .pdf
file)