60th Anniversary Celebration 2024

This year Deben Players celebrated their 60th anniversary which included a party for it’s members in June and this production was a celebration of their past shows since 1964.  They had produced a souvenir programme along with display boards in the theatre foyer with photos and archived literature listing all their productions over the years.  

The show started with an introduction to their first  shows in 1964 and was followed by a brief extract of their play ‘Billy Liar’ from that year.  Different members of the cast came forward to narrate each year’s productions some of which were about to be performed.  These included songs from their Pantos and short clips of plays. It was very interesting hearing all about  all these productions from their past and  soon became noticeable that this  group were producing high quality productions  as many of the plays were entered into Drama Festivals, both locally and  in Wales. Once they joined NODA they were also picking up NODA nominations and awards.  It was also evident that latterly  some of their members were talented at writing both plays  and Pantomime scripts together with accompanying songs.

There was a cast of 33 adults, some being past members who came back to reprieve their original roles. There were also 13 Junior members who performed song and dance routines from some of their Pantos.   There were  in total  29 clips from different  productions with each being directed and choreographed by different members; far too many for me to introduce individually. There was a diverse range of excerpts, with  memorable and gripping performances from  ’A Man For All Seasons’ and ‘An Inspector Calls’ to comic performances including ‘It Runs In The Family’.  The Panto excerpts were performed mainly by the Junior members along with some of the adults leading the songs.  These young performers, with a wide age range,  all did very well in remembering  the dance sequences in the  16  numbers they performed. 

Mention must be made of the excellent projected  images onto the backdrops for each  individual  show that was performed.  This was very effective in capturing the ambience with minimal props being necessary.  Sound was good and costumes were mainly just  ‘blacks’ with a few additional pieces of accessories and of course the inevitable Daisy the Cow costume from ’Jack And The Beanstalk’.

There had been an incredible amount of research and work put in by Samantha Harvey  to make this one night’s  performance  a success. The whole cast, including the very numerous directors and production teams should be congratulated on  giving us a wonderful evenings entertainment and a very informative insight with memories from the past.

Catherine Dixey. NODA East Representative District E12

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