Calendar Girls

This production wasn’t just about the play but also raising as much money as possible for Cancer Support Suffolk, a charity that Henley Players all felt very connected to.  Not only were all the profits going to the charity but they had  produced a 2026 calendar just like the ladies in the original film.   They had also all been involved in making craft items including sunflower badges, little bags of sunflower seeds etc and a big raffle with many local businesses all donating prizes. Together they had raised an incredible amount of over £5,000 for the charity.  Brilliant work from all their members.

There were strong and emotional performances from Hayley Gavin as Annie along with her onstage husband John (Al Rogers).  Together they faced the terrible news of John’s Cancer diagnosis, which was a challenging role for them both but handled with sensitivity and compassion.  The over enthusiastic Chris (Debby Knights) gets carried away by the glamour of the publicity and sometimes looses the reason behind the making of the calendar, a part she portrayed well. Although this wasn’t the musical version there is still quite a lot of singing and Bev Pilbrough as Cora leads many of the songs, all beautifully sung. The other three courageous ladies are Molly Barnett as Celia, Ali Jordan as Ruth and Sharon Hulm as Jessie.  Together these six ladies handle the raw emotion with sincerity and friendship, a sense of togetherness and injected good measures of comedy into their roles to get them through the pain. It was evident that this truly touched all of them.  

Lawrence, the photographer,  was portrayed by Chris Parkin, not an easy role due to the sensitivity of the ladies all striping off in front of him,  but he played the role with confidence  and tact.  Anita Pyke was  Marie the chairwoman of the Knapely WI group she was a rather straight laced sort of character and  Marina Griggs, looked lovely in the  cameo role of Lady Cravenshire.   They were ably assisted by the other supporting actors.

The set looked good and worked well. They had gone to long lengths to include the detailed  theme of Sunflowers which ran throughout the production. The all important props had been tastefully included to uphold the lady’s dignity and they all looked good in the photography scene.  A nice authentic touch which added to the scene was that they were able to look at their own calendar as a prop which they had produced themselves. Well done to everyone for all the work that entailed.

There had been a big collaboration of all those involved to bring this show to the stage for it’s 25th anniversary. Directors Vicky and Tony Stokes certainly inspired all the cast and team as they brought out  he poignancy and emotion with a good mix of humour into this production. An amazing effort from everyone. 

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