PART TWO 1986 - 2000

"Battling On"

By

ERIC STEVENS

1986: HOLLYWOOD to BEXHILL

Diary

January: 12th Night Party, Dickensian theme; Mini-panto: "Mother Goose-pimple".

February: AGM.

March: Jumble sale: +£91.

April: "She Stoops To Conquer".

May: Presentation to the President; "The Evil Eye Of Condor" – JAMBATS; "A Murder Is Announced".

June: Barbecue; Bexhill Theatre Supporters Club Summer Fair.

August: "The Tempest"; Visit to "Cats", New London Theatre.

September: Walk: The Ascent of Pook's Hill; "Waters of the Moon"; Visit to "A Funny Thing Happened On My Way To The Forum", Chichester; Barn Dance.

November: "A Christmas Carol".

December: "The Creature Creeps''- JAMBATS; Visit to "David Copperfield", Stables Theatre.

1986 saw changes to the Officers of the Society. Sheila Harper narrowly defeated Alan Livermore for the position of Chairman, and Marion Clarke replaced Don Mitchell who wished to retire from being Honorary Treasurer. Alan had been at the helm for many years and had built the Society up from a low ebb in the 1960s. In recognition of his 24 years of service, the Society invited him to become Honorary Life President, which he accepted to everyone's delight. A special presentation of a silver salver was made to him in May.

Five productions were mounted as usual: "She Stoops To Conquer", "A Murder is announced", "The Tempest", "Waters of the Moon" and "A Christmas Carol". "She Stoops" was directed by Gordon Green in a lively production with colourful costumes which were hired and so added to the costs. £100 was lost, although 776 people saw the show. Val Major, who played Kate Hardcastle, certainly conquered the Eastbourne and Bexhill newspaper critics, and Gordon's decision to invite the gentlemen of the Sussex Weavers, a local group of folk-dancers, to perform a sword dance in the Inn scene paid off: "The spirited contribution.... was the flourish which captured the atmosphere for a production rejoicing in its rusticality" said the Bexhill Observer.

Agatha Christie's "A Murder Has Been Announced", directed by Gordon Leonard, reversed the financial fortunes with £490 in the black. The Bexhill Observer thought the play "an arcane contrivance of extreme complexity and improbability", but praised the production, as did the Eastbourne Gazette. Both critics thought that Dorothy Osborne was perfectly cast as Miss Marple "from the brim of her rather dated hat down to the sensible lace-up shoes."

Hard work went into Eric Stevens' production of "The Tempest" in the Manor Gardens, but we sustained a slight loss nevertheless. The main cause of this was the hire of costumes from the Royal Shakespeare Company's wardrobe in Stratford, so this was the last time we used them, preferring to make our own. Fortunately, the weather belied the play's title. An honoured guest on the Saturday night was the celebrated American actor Sam Wanamaker, who travelled down from London especially to see the first half of the play - he had to catch the last train back. The visit came about because, through the efforts of Denis Brooke, we had become the first amateur group to be affiliated to the Globe Theatre Project. This ambitious plan to build a replica of the original Elizabethan playhouse was just beginning to take shape on the south bank of the Thames opposite St Paul's cathedral, and had been Sam's brain-child. Unfortunately he died before the project was completed in 1996. His comment on our production to the Bexhill Observer reporter was "I was very, very impressed with the setting and the quality of playing was excellent. I enjoyed this production almost better than any professional production I have seen. The text communicated itself perhaps more clearly without the obstructions of the great, wonderful productions on the professional stage".

Eric Stevens had devised an ingenious set for the play which for the first time used different levels by means of scaffolding and platforms. Prospero, played by Gordon Green, at one point descended onto the stage over the top of the scenery which caused some anxiety as Gordon's vision was rather limited when he was not wearing his glasses. However, all went well. A competition was held for the design on the front of the programme, and the winner was David Porter, a member whose activities were soon to be sadly curtailed and eventually brought to an end by ill health.

A similar story, though without fatal consequences, befell Sheila Hawkins whose appearance as Mrs Lancaster in "Waters of the Moon" was to be her last on the stage. This was a grievous loss to the Society as Sheila was one of our finest actors in a very wide range of parts. Alas, Alan Livermore's production as a whole was panned by the press: the play was long, the plot was baffling, the pace too slow, the lines weren't mastered, but "Gordon Green excelled himself in the outdoor scene of wintry Dartmoor" (as scene designer) - and the show made a profit!

The year's offerings concluded triumphantly with "A Christmas Carol", adapted and directed by Gordon Leonard, who also found himself playing the role of Scrooge. This production was a first for the Society - never before had we presented a full-length play at the De La Warr Pavilion which was entirely in-house. Doreen Carter composed the incidental music and acted as Musical Director, the dance at Mr Fezziwig's was choreographed by Eric Stevens, and the costumes designed and made by Julia Dance. ".. this production must rate as one of the best the BATS have ever done" said the Bexhill Observer, so we ended the year on a high.

The Junior Acting Members of BATS (JAMBATS for short) continued to flourish, and mounted two plays at St Peter's Community Centre in productions by two youthful members, Mark Feakins and Dominic Campbell. The first, in May, was "The Evil Eye Of Condor" and the second in December the even more horrific "The Creature Creeps". Unfortunately, neither drew the audiences it deserved, and members were duly admonished for not supporting our Juniors. They also proved to be shy and reticent when appeals were made for help with Barn maintenance an observation oft repeated over the years. The JAMBATS also found time to perform a comedy sketch in a concert at the De La Warr Pavilion in aid of Action Research For The Crippled Child.

A happy note was struck when two members received awards from the Eastbourne Gazette and Herald for contributions to local amateur theatre. Sally Clifford was voted best actress of 1985 for her performance in "Barefoot In The Park" (with the EODS, not our production) and also in "The Taming Of The Shrew" for which presentation Alan Livermore won the cup for Best Producer. Val Major and Eric Stevens were nominated for the 1986 awards, but, alas, were not chosen.

Talk-ins were held after each of the main productions, led by some knowledgeable person from outside the Society. These were a feature of the BATS calendar for many years, and were generally felt to be helpful and to generate useful discussion on the merits and defects of each production. Lack of time eventually led to them being discontinued.

Among the pleasant social occasions were three theatre visits. In August a coach load went to see "CATS" and toured the Globe Theatre site. September found us at the Chichester Festival Theatre for "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" in which one of our founder members, Patrick Cargill, was taking part. In December we supported fellow member Chris Lacey's production of "David Copperfield" for the Stables Theatre in Hastings. So the year came full circle, as we had begun 1986 with a Dickensian theme to our Twelfth Night party.

1987: ROUND WE GO

Diary

January: 12th Night Party, Panto theme; Mini Panto: "Puss In Woollies".

February: In-the- round: "Confusions".

March: AGM.

April: "A Night On The Hill", tour of local churches; "A Little Hotel On The Side"; Spring Fair.

June: "Find The Lady"; National Theatre visit: "The Magistrate".

July: 'Virginia Woolf' walk.

August: "Tom Jones"; Bexhill Theatre Supporters Club Garden Party.

September: Barn Dance; "Joking Apart"; Chichester visit: "A Man For All Seasons".

October: The Great Storm.

1987 was quite a year for the Bats, full of innovations, disappointments, near disasters and confusions. There was no change, however, in the Officers of the Society.

The year began with an innovation - Theatre in the Round. This was the brain child of Val Major who suggested that in order to broaden its range, the Society should once a year put on a play in this format. The chosen play should be one which we would not normally mount on the De La Warr Pavilion stage, should involve no scenery, few elaborate costumes or props, and little furniture. The Elizabeth Room of the De La Warr was booked and the experiment began with a series of playlets by Alan Ayckbourn under the title of "Confusions". Val herself was the director and the enterprise was very successful, people had to be turned away on the last two nights. The General Committee decided to use the format again in 1988, from which a tradition was established which continued for the rest of the century. "Ghosts" (Ibsen), "The Glass Menagerie" (Tennessee Williams), "The Real Thing" (Harold Pinter) and "The Master Builder" (Ibsen) being some of the choices. An audience has been built up, although Theatre in the Round is not to everyone's taste. Some of the offerings have been way-out as far as BATs are concerned, and seriousness has been a recurring feature. After our 1988 production of "The Real Inspector Hound" there were not many laughs until Alan Bennett's "Talking Heads" of 1999. The reason for this imbalance is that comedies and farces are much more dependent on scenery, props and lighting. Some outstanding performances have been achieved, notably by Tamsyn Webb, Mark Pelham, Gordon Leonard and Janet Ticehurst, and it has been fascinating to watch actors coping with performing to an audience within touching distance. The innovation has certainly achieved all it set out to do, and more, in spite of the inadequacy of the venue - low ceiling leading to lighting difficulties.

Inevitably there has been a down side. The 'Round' production raised our full-length presentation to six, which meant that there was hardly a week in the year when rehearsals were not in full swing at the Granary. With so much going on, the opportunities for the Society to meet as a group were limited. If a member did not appear in a production or two, he or she was likely to feel out of touch. In the old days, there had been a weekly Club Night every Friday, and so members maintained a feeling of belonging. In an endeavour to keep the Society together a regular monthly Club Night was established at which a variety of activities was arranged: play readings, talks, poetry evenings, socials, etc. These did not appear on our calendar until later. Meanwhile, in 1987, a barbecue, a barn dance, a walk in Virginia Woolf country (the Ouse valley near Rodmell), visits to "The Magistrate" at the National Theatre and to "A Man For All Seasons" at Chichester, and a Spring Fair organised by Rita Pike comprised our non-acting activities. Another of Eric Stevens' mini-pantomimes, "Puss In Woollies" and a Lent play "A Night On The Hill" directed by Dorothy Osborne were our 'minor' productions, taking the Theatre to our audiences as part of our charitable aspirations.

The Feydeau-Desaillères farce, "A Little Hotel On The Side" translated by John Mortimer, opened our season at the De La Warr. It involved a cast of 22 and a complicated second act set showing two hotel bedrooms, a staircase and an entrance hall. Denis Brooke's set managed to squeeze all this onto the De La Warr stage, and it survived all the numerous comings and goings in and out of rooms and up and down the stairs. One of the problems of staging a farce at the De La Warr is that there is such a wide space between the actors and the audience, and we can no longer attract audiences to fill the theatre, or even half fill it, so that infectious laughter is hard to arouse. No matter how technically accomplished the cast and crew may be, much of their efforts comes to nothing. However, on this occasion, something was achieved. "They arrived panting and steaming at the final curtain to deserved applause from an undeservedly meagre scattering of first-nighters" reported the Bexhill Observer. Eric Stevens directed.

Quieter conditions prevailed for Sheila Harper's production of the thriller "Find The Lady" by Michael Pertwee. This made a healthy profit of £418, the result of less expenses and better audiences and possibly the new-style handbills and posters designed by Denis Brooke. A differently coloured paper was used for each subsequent production and a drawing was incorporated - in this case a scared cat leaping out of an open chest.

Disappointment attended the open air presentation in August. After 15 years of Shakespeare, it was felt that a change would be a good thing and an adaptation of Henry Fielding's rumbustious novel "Tom Jones" was chosen with Gordon Leonard directing. Unfortunately the audiences didn't come in spite of being urged by the Bexhill Observer: go and see it even if it rains. In the event it didn't rain, but the weather was uncertain and the play unknown, and these factors were considered in the heart-searching afterwards, to be the main factors for a £250 loss. We went back to the Bard in 1988 and remained with him, doing all his comedies and one history until 1999 when Chaucer took over for a season, with much better results. "Tom Jones" was, however, like many financial flops, an artistic success, as the Bexhill and Eastbourne newspaper critics justly pointed out.

In September, "Joking Apart", Alan Ayckbourn's bonfire night dissection of a dysfunctional family, fared much better. Chris Lacey was no stranger to directing Ayckbourn who, as is well known, writes his plays for performance in the round in Scarborough. Perhaps inspired by the success of "Confusions", Chris decided that "Joking Apart" should be performed on the floor of the theatre with the audience sitting on three sides, and the stage being used merely as a background. Over 1000 people came and the comments received testified to the very high standard achieved: "extremely good", "above average quality and perception", "superb", "one of the finest productions seen in 20 years of play-going at Bexhill". The Eastbourne Gazette reviewer thought it the best-yet performance of this play. On the debit side there were problems of viewing from some seats and unfortunately the microphones had not been adjusted so that the induction-loop system did not function for the hard of hearing. However, lessons were learned, and when in 1995 another Ayckbourn play "Relatively Speaking" was performed under similar conditions, things were better.

So, in October, Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard", directed by Alan Livermore, went into production full of high hopes. Alas, in the early hours of Friday October 16th the Great Gale blew over Bexhill leaving the Granary Barn without electricity and the De La Warr Pavilion with a damaged roof. There was nothing for it but to postpone the play, and new dates were obtained for the beginning of January. Only one part had to be recast and all went well ... until the week of the production when Barbara Brock, who was playing Mrs Ranevsky, had to withdraw as her husband was seriously ill. No, Alan Livermore did not give up. He found a replacement in Pat Ramsden who had just three rehearsals before the opening, and did a splendid job in making the book seemingly invisible in her hands. Virtue had to bring its own reward, as inclement weather discouraged attendance, and another heavy loss was incurred.

On a cheerful financial note, a bequest of £200 was received during the summer which did something to lighten the fiscal gloom, and in the end, the year showed a surplus of £813.

For the JAMBATS, 1987 marked the end of an era. Tom Wade and Mark Feakins had to relinquish their responsibilities at the beginning of the year and Gillie Cornford took over, assisted by Dominic Campbell. They set about preparing a production of "Merlin's Tale Of Arthur's Magic Sword", directed by Dominic. Sad to say, things did not work out, and the General Committee was forced to cancel the event as it was unlikely to reach an acceptable standard of performance. Nevertheless, Gillie looked into the possibility of putting on a JAMBATS/BATS production, and eventually "Charlie And The Chocolate Factory" was chosen, and indeed presented, at the Shepherd's Theatre, Little Common, in January 1988. The lack of electricity at the Barn caused havoc with rehearsals and there were several cast changes due to illness and unavailability, but the show went on. Poor Dominic, directed, stage-managed, and acted, at the same time rehearsing roles in both 'Round' plays and appearing in the delayed Chekhov! Is this a record? He and Gillie retired from the JAMBATS after "Charlie" and the group folded as there was no one to take over. These things happen, and the amazing thing was that the junior group had continued for so long. Two revivals and one closure on, the JAMBATS were still in operation at the turn of the century.

Find The Lady, 1987: Iris Kay, Michael Turnbull, Dominic Campbell, Josephine Justice, Mark Feakins, Jean Barnett