The Encore

What a wonderful idea for a young person, inspired since a very young age by her local community theatre group, to write a story as a celebration of her memories of that group, by bringing together performers from both past and present to recreate their roles around a story, by piecing together a selection of their shows over the years. Blakeney Players always write their own original scripts, and we had on display some glimpses of some of those shows, going back to 2001. The programme itself was a mine of information, packed full of the history of Blakeney Players, with photos and contributors filling 36 pages. Chatting to Director Izzy Duncan afterwards, I sensed a real pride in her local community theatre group and what she had achieved. With the fine sounding band of Siobhan Wiese, Andy Standing, Jerry Cox and Terry Bunting, it was a lovely nostalgic evening.

With a scene setting opening of the whole company singing “Pure Imagination”, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the story was set around a Grandpa Jerrold (Peter Franklin), Grandma Edna (Merle Hooke), and their 3 Grandchildren, Harry (Harriet Duncan), Ronny (Finlay Newton), and Hermione (Izzy Duncan). What better person than long time writer of numerous Blakeney scripts, Peter Franklin, to set the scene, opening the storybook to sit and read to the Grandchildren only to find that the stories were missing some of their characters. The family were then magically transported off in search of the lost characters, flying off as a cardboard cut-out across the top of the stage.

The first of the shows introduced was “Opportunity Knox” from 2011, where we had a funny scene involving Thunderbird characters Scott (Dave Buckey), Brains (Dave Long), Virgil (Iain Mawson), and Lady Penelope (Sam Duncan). Here we had a Thunderbird 2 launch, typifying the clever use of props over the years by the Players. With chauffeur Parker missing, it was onto Beyond the Spotlight, where we find Parker (Will Osborne) with the other lost toys, with Graham Columbé as Jack out of the box and Jennie Blowers as Captain Daffodil reprising their roles from The Lost Island and Toys. Graham Columbé popped up again in the next scene from “Look Norfolk” 2007, in a hilarious reprisal of his role and broad Norfolk dialect as the Queen’s Gardener.

Onto “Stand and Deliver”, a NODA award winning show postponed after lockdown, where we meet the Highway Blunderbusses (Jennie Blowers, Michelle Cobbett, Jess Daynes, Letitia Knight, Amy Howes and Katie Oliver), who, with Vic and Gwen (Barbara Franklin and Erica Roch), performed the Adam and the Ants’ number of the same name. Then quickly followed excerpts from “The Lost Island”, “Treasure Island” and “Toys.” Particularly touching was that of Rick Newton returning in a cameo to the role of Ben Gunn from The Lost Island, in a role he played in 2001, with a duet with his son. Other cameos included Marj Davies shining as the sparkly star, and various long standing/returning players singing the opening solos on different nights, Dave Long on this occasion, and Steve Benson and Jo Lincoln on the others.

Izzy Duncan gave it her all in a rousing solo to convince all the characters to “join the quest”. and her sister, Harriet led the way in the finale. In a very touching moment, a recording of “The Grandfather of Blakeney Players”, the late Mike Curtis, playing on the piano the Players theme tune “Sky Blue Shirt”, was included in the playout.

This was a lovely evening of nostalgia and a fitting showcase of this wonderful community theatre group. My congratulations to Izzy Duncan and everyone else involved.

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