- July 2024
Nick Warburton, screenwriter and playwright, a writer for The Archers, and who has also adapted many classic works for Radio 4’s Classic Serial, now brings you a new staged adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Originally adapted by Nick for BBC Radio 4’s The Archers in 2018, six tales from that version have now been readapted for the stage.
A raggle-taggle band of pilgrims – common working folk, some kings and queens, and the odd shady priest – pauses on its way to Canterbury. The pilgrims stretch their legs, take a little refreshment and start to tell their stories.
Here are six of Chaucer’s most vibrant tales, presented by a talented cast of fourteen.
You’ll meet the Knight, the Miller, the Wife of Bath, the Pardoner, the Friar and the Franklin who’ll spin a whole range of stories for you in lively modern English. Some will be comic and bawdy, some tender and romantic, and some will include a touch of magic.
More than thirty characters are brought to life in this new modern adaptation of Chaucer’s colourful and timeless storytelling.
This production is recommended for ages 12 and over.
- April 2024
- December 2023
Set in 1997, over fifty years after the war that brought them together, three Special Operations Executive agents meet to record interviews for a television documentary investigating the murder of their colleague at the hands of the Gestapo.
As Leo, Vera and John wait to be interviewed in a beautiful English garden, drinking tea and doing the crossword, pleasantries give way to deeper darker subjects and a web of self-deception, lies and guilt begins to emerge.
Love, revenge and feelings of guilt are at the centre of this fascinating play and in an era when ‘alternative facts’ replace actual facts, we are reminded that the first victim of war is the truth.
- September 2023
- April 2023
- December 2022
- September–October 2022
- July 2022
Tom Jones is rich, ripe and rowdy. Tom, Squire Allworthy’s adopted son, falls victim to the charms of one rustic wench after another, until at last, the Squire grows tired of the trouble he causes and sends him off to cause it elsewhere.
Then Tom becomes entangled with three women at once: Jenny Waters, a lady of warm heart and generous virtue, Mrs Fitzpatrick, a society lady seeking diversion from her oafish husband, and Sophia Western, whom Tom truly loves.
- April 2022
'What on earth’s the matter with these people? He took absolutely no notice of me. Like I didn’t even exist... You can see me. Can’t you? You two? You can see me? Can’t you?'
Melanie believes she has foreseen the future. But has she really? Or is it all in her mind? True or false, she has seen events which threaten the life of one she secretly loves and she feels they are in terrible danger. What can she possibly do or say to prevent things happening and who will even believe her?
This amateur production of Consuming Passions is presented by an arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd.
- January 2022
Every Wednesday, married couple Simon and Claire invite their friend Roger to dinner. He is always punctual, arriving at precisely 6.30 every week, without fail. They so look forward to Roger’s visits that Claire suggests he visits twice a week. Simon isn’t so sure and he starts meeting Roger on his own, at the squash court. Claire begins having Roger round for coffee during the day and their relationship soon develops into something more. But Roger doesn’t exist. Robert Shearman’s quirky comedy explores how fantasies designed to spice up a marriage quickly spiral out of control, becoming something altogether weirder.
- September 2021
It’s time to laugh… Present Laughter is the most autobiographical of Noël Coward’s plays and deals with the ‘price’ of fame as theatrical impresario Garry Essendine entertains both male and female stalkers in his studio: a long suffering wife, a longer suffering personal assistant and a close circle of friends, all ‘a charming constellation of gossipy little planets circling round the great glorious sun’. This riotous but revealing farce is being brought energetically to life, as Coward intended, by Bawds (directed by David Sear). In an era of #MeToo and celebrity culture, its relevance to 2021 is clear.
- December 2019
- July 2019
A private hotel in 1954 Bournemouth where shock and social disgrace are cleverly interwoven with the decay, furtiveness and fraying of established manners.
- April 2019
A dramatic reconstruction of the assassination of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, by henchmen of King Henry II in 1170.
- January 2019
Agatha Christie meets The 12 Days of Christmas. At a party in a mysterious house on a remote island, the guests are bumped off in suspiciously Christmassy ways. Murder, mayhem and laugh-out-loud comedy!
- July 2018
Inspired by and including Orson Welles’ infamous 1938 radio broadcast based on the novel by H. G. Wells
An alien invasion throws humanity into chaos in the classic sc-fi novel The War of the Worlds, but all it took to cause real-life panic in the streets was Orson Welles' 1938 radio adaptation, which listeners took for news. In the days following the broadcast, widespread outrage was expressed in the media. The programme's news-bulletin format was described as deceptive. Now, ten years later, the WBFR radio ensemble recreates the events surrounding the infamous evening, including the full original broadcast. Complete with commercials and sound effects, this radio-play-within-a-radio-play is an homage to the form's golden age and a timely reminder of what fear can do to a society.
- March 2018
The committee of an amateur drama group is meeting to discuss a new play. We notice that, strangely,
the presentation of the meeting to us is reflecting the ideas put forward by the committee,
making the play a demonstration as well as a discussion of those ideas.
- December 2017
- September 2017
One-act play exploring relationship between two people.
- July 2017
This is one of the funniest and most inventive plays by Britain's grand master of comedy.
A hilarious satire of television and a touching romantic comedy, it begins in a television studio where a hospital soap opera is being taped. One actor starts speaking gibberish; he is an "actoid" a robot and his programming is off kilter. Adam, the nephew of the producer and an aspiring writer who worships the director (once a great movie director and now a broken down has been), is on the set.
Adam starts chatting with Jacie Tripplethree, the actoid playing the nurse and finds, to his surprise, that not only can she carry on a conversation but, due to what she calls a fault in her programming, she has a creative imagination. Adam wants to build a new television series around her but the studio will not hear of it. He also finds he is falling in love with the charming robot!
Will Adam get the green light on his series? Will love prevail?
- April 2017
This fast-moving and exciting new stage adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' famous adventure story
effectively captures the novel’s universal themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy, and forgiveness.
Edmond Dantes is a young man who has what appears to be the perfect life. About to become the captain
of a ship, he’s engaged to a beautiful and kind young woman, Mercedes, and he’s well liked by almost everyone who knows him. However, this perfect life stirs up dangerous jealousy among some of his so-called friends. Danglars, treasurer of Dantes’ ship, envies Edmond’s early career success; Fernand Mondego is in love with Dantes’ fiancée and so covets his amorous success, while Edmond’s neighbour, Caderousse is simply envious that Dantes is so much luckier in life than him. Together the three men draft a letter falsely
accusing the young man of treason. Arrested on his wedding day, Dantes is brought before the public prosecutor, Villefort who discovers that Dantes’ innocent actions may endanger his own political ambitions. He decides to send Edmond to the notorious Chateau d’If prison, for life.
Many years later Dantes escapes, acquires a fortune and a new identity as The Count of Monte Cristo.
He then sets about taking revenge on those responsible for his false imprisonment ..... with devastating consequences.
- December 2016
- July 2016
Fired from his skiffle band, Francis Henshall becomes minder to Roscoe Crabbe, a small time East End hood, now in Brighton to collect £6,000 from the dad of his fiancee. But Roscoe is really his sister Rachel posing as her own dead brother, who has been killed by her boyfriend Stanley Stubbers.
Holed up at The Cricketers Arms, the permanently ravenous Francis spots the chance of an extra meal ticket
and takes a second job with one Stanley Stubbers, who is hiding from the police and waiting to be reunited with Rachel. To prevent discovery, Francis must keep his two guvnors apart. Simple.
Based on the classic Italian comedy The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni, in this new English version by prizewinning playwright Richard Bean, sex, food and money are high on the agenda. One Man, Two Guvnors opened at the National Theatre 17th May 2011 to critical acclaim, before transferring to the West End and embarking on a successful UK tour. It also won the 2011 Evening Standard Theatre Best New Play and the Best Night Out Awards.
- April 2016
Coventry, November 1940. Katie Stanley is a head-strong young woman training to be a teacher.
While awaiting the All Clear signal from an air raid warning, she encounters the stranded Michael, an Oxford tutor of Romantic Literature, at a railway station. It could be the beginning of a straightforward love story, but nothing is straightforward in wartime. Unknown to Katie, Michael has been forced to turn his linguistic skills to deciphering German codes at Bletchley Park. Katie lives with her family in Coventry, a city living under the threat of war. The Stanleys have no idea how terrible that threat is ... but Michael does.
Following the story of one family's harrowing experience of the Coventry Blitz, One Night in November examines the idea that Winston Churchill had advance warning of the attack.
Was Coventry sacrificed for the greater good? Or to provoke and hasten America's entry into the war?
- December 2015
- April 2015
- April 2014
Corrie and Paul are newly-weds who have just moved into their cold eyrie apartment in New York. Corrie is starry-eyed, Paul less so after staggering up five flights. Their house seems to be populated by unusual people, the most bohemian being Victor whom Corrie finds entertaining. Corrie tries matchmaking between Victor and her lonely mother but after a disastrous dinner party she learns that walking barefoot in the park may not necessarily denote joie de vivre - in February it is simply silly!
Further information: sallymarsh@bawds.org
- December 2013
Nick Warburton's brand new adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel, directed by Colin Lawrence.
- July 2013
- April 2013
Something silly this way comes... Wyrd Sisters is an adaptation of one of the best and most theatrical in the Discworld series of comic fantasies by Sir Terry Pratchett. It is a surreal mash-up of pantomime, Monty Python, fairy tale and Shakespeare, with particular reference to a lunatic version of 'Macbeth', seen from the skewed perspective of the three witches or 'Wyrd Sisters'. It is a fast-moving production, suitable for all ages from 10, but expect mild and frankly theatrical peril including explosions, a demon and explicit Steam Punk.
