Roundabout Theatre Company Presents Bear Brand & Boogie Woogie, Hanslope Village Hall, Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th November 2016.
Roundabout Theatre Company are a musical theatre company who take small cast, good quality productions into village halls in Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire and this is their third visit to Sherington Village Hall. They are also performing the show in Hanslope Village Hall on Wednesday 9th & Thursday 10th November. Their 2014 production of So, Not a Lovely War! was a sell out at Sherington and whilst tickets will be available on the door (subject to availability) it is advisable to purchase tickets in advance via the online box office.
The story is set in Birmingham sometime during the present and sometime during World War 2. It tells how the girls of Cadbury’s B Block Packing Line alleviate their boredom by writing and smuggling letters inside tins of chocolates destined as emergency rations for shipwrecked troops. Their supervisor, Miss Oakley, seems unaware of what they are doing, as does Dame Elizabeth Cadbury, matriarch of all things chocolate. When gifts of perfume, chewing gum and Bear Brand stockings appear in the packing room Miss Oakley is terrified that news of the girls’ antics will get back to “Her Majesty” (Dame Elizabeth Cadbury) so she blackmails her charges into taking part in a concert Dame Elizabeth is hosting for injured troops. Is she punishing the girls or protecting them ……. ?
The show opens as The Daughter arrives at the family home faced with the unenviable task of clearing out her parents’ belongings in preparation for selling the house. As she goes through her mothers’ personal effects, The Daughter discovers a hitherto unseen box of old letters, stockings, perfume and, most bizarrely, something that looks like a solid lump of chewing gum. She allows herself to become sidetracked by the letters and in doing so, becomes aware of her mother’s presence in the room but it is not the presence of her frail and elderly Mother. It is the presence of the young, beautiful and vibrant Margaret, once more full of mischief and life. Suddenly, Margaret’s chums also appear and the women tell The Daughter all about the time they worked for Cadbury’s, packing chocolate rations for shipwrecked troops…….
When Margaret Smith – nee Cox – died in 2014, her daughter Ali chanced upon a collection of soldiers’ letters dating from the Second World War whilst sorting through Margaret’s personal effects. Bear Brand & Boogie Woogie is based on Margaret’s diaries and the letters from the soldiers; it was far too good a story not to be told !
WARNING – This production contains flashing stocking tops and Boogie Woogie Music !
All performances start at 7.30 pm. Tickets are £11.00 and are available from the online Box Office at Roundabout Theatre Company (Milton Keynes) event tickets from TicketSource | The Online Ticketing System
Or contact Roundabout Theatre Company (Milton Keynes) via their facebook page
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