This small, friendly group meets twice a month to enjoy reading aloud a variety of plays. We do not have the pressure of learning lines or putting on a spectacular performance but we simply have fun being part of the situations created by a number of talented authors. There is a small charge of £2 per person for room hire and we normally buy a drink.

Our twice-monthly meetings enable us to escape our everyday lives and briefly inhabit a completely different space. What we read varies from the intrigues of authors such as Agatha Christie and J.B. Priestly to the classic comedy of Noel Coward or Alan Aykbourn. The plays of less commonly performed authors like Derek Benfield and Arthur Lovegrove give us just as much pleasure.

We don’t wear costumes, there is no rapturous applause, but we all enjoy exploring different genres and giving our best ‘performance’ without the pressure of learning lines.

If you enjoy theatre and would like to give our group a try you would be made very welcome at our meeting on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday afternoon at Fort Stamford.

February 2026
Our latest read was ‘Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime’ which is a 1952 comedy thriller based on a preposterous short story by Oscar Wilde. The author Constance Cox has created characters who are typically Wildean, including a faithful butler and Arthur’s aunt Lady Windermere. Being very much in love with Sybil, his fiancée, Arthur agrees to her mother’s insistence that he should have his palm read to ensure that he is a suitable match. The news that he is going to commit a murder horrifies him because of the potential shame this could bring on his beautiful bride and he decides that it is his duty to get the murder out of the way before his wedding. He is aided in making his plans by the calm, composed Baines, his butler, and Herr Winkelkopf, an enthusiastic purveyor of products which he claims are most effective in ending life. He makes several botched attempts to kill his chosen victims giving rise to scenes of farce and black comedy.

Two of our most recent plays have been something of a contrast. Agatha Christie’s novel ‘Murder at the Vicarage’ was adapted into a play in 1949 and this was the first time that Miss Marple had appeared outside the pages of the original books. The plot had us all guessing until the last scene since the dead colonel, whose body was found in the vicar’s study, was disliked by the whole village. Almost all the characters had a motive for killing the quarrelsome Protheroe – even Miss Marple herself – and two of them actually admited to the crime but, of course, Miss Marple unravels the complex web of relationships and motives and the murder is solved.

Noel Coward’s play ‘Blithe Spirit’ was first produced in 1941. Madame Arcati, an eccentric medium (originally played by Margaret Rutherford) is invited to the house of a novelist who wishes to use her to obtain material for a book. His scheme backfires when Madame Arcati’s séance causes him to be haunted by his dead wife Elvira who tries to disrupt his marriage to his second wife. This clever comedy gives the actors plenty of scope for a high-spirited performance!

Other plays we have read recently include ‘Good Night Mrs. Puffin’, a light and fanciful work by Arthur Lovegrove which caused great amusement. A complete stranger arrives at the house of an upper crust family claiming to have had a dream which shows that the wedding between their daughter and the heir to another fortune will not take place. The comedy comes with her predictions that a number of domestic incidents will happen and, when they duly occur, the family gradually come to realise that this is not just an eccentric psychic. This lower-class old woman’s visions must be taken seriously!

Of course ‘Pygmalion’ or at least it’s musical adaptation, ‘My Fair Lady’ is well-known but we all enjoyed bringing to life ‘Enry ‘Iggins and his pupil Eliza Doolittle.