HERE ARE THE THEATER PRODUCTIONS COMING IN SEPTEMBER – Island Echo

Maureen Sullivan regularly contributes to Echo of the Island arts coverage on the Isle of Wight. Maureen has been actively involved in the Island amateur drama scene for several years, appearing in many different roles and appearances with several theater companies. In her spare time, Maureen also writes and comments on iwtheatre.org.

Catch Maureen’s column each month for the latest theatrical and artistic happenings…

Welcome to the September theater line-up!

Phew! What a beautiful, long, hot summer – the Island’s amateur comedians enjoyed their vacation, but like the school children, they are now starting to get back to work. This means September shows are fairly light on the ground – but plenty of preparations are underway for a great fall season.

Speaking of schools, The Bay secondary site is gearing up for its production of ‘Cindy’. The bad news was that the show had to be postponed from the original summer date, but the good news is that we can still look forward to it! ‘Cindy’ is a modern take on the well-known pantomime, but it’s not all princesses, pretty dresses and a girl becomes a boy – it’s a fresh take on an old story, encompassing themes of feminism and LGBTQ as well as rock and rap music.

Come to The Bay on September 8 and 9 to see what these young talents have been working so hard on: more information and tickets can be obtained at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeg85i1S0OIWMjVekHyp7Jf2t-1YrnomAhWunwMC7yZs-sBzQ/viewform

Later in September – from the 23rd to be precise – the Pirates are coming! Bembridge Village Hall resonates with the sound of arguably Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular comic operetta, ‘The Pirates of Penzance’. Under the expert direction of Andrew Wilson-Jenner, the talented and experienced cast already look and sound incredible, and the show promises not only to feature much-loved songs, accompanied by a small live orchestra, but be incredibly funny. Poor Fredric was mistakenly apprenticed as a pirate by his hearing-impaired nanny Ruth, but his apprenticeship ends as he reaches his 21st birthday – or is it? The Pirate King is determined to keep Fredric on board – literally – and force all of the Major General’s daughters to marry his band of pirates against their will. Horror! – as the girls rightly say.

So whether you’re the very model of a modern major general, or you think the fate of a policeman is not happy – or you just want to see if the love of Fredric and Mabel will triumph over conspiracies of the Pirate King and his evil gang (or if you have they just wandered off), come to Bembridge and have fun. ‘Pirates of Penzance’ runs on September 23 and 24 at 7.30pm and September 25 at 2.30pm and tickets are available at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/Bembridge-Little-Theatre-Club/e-byvdjd or call the ticket office on 07841 950261.

And that’s all for this month! See you in October for a real festival of shows!