Red Spider Company is an amateur music and drama group which draws its membership from the communities in and around the Devon villages of Lewdown, Lifton and Bratton Clovelly. We enjoy working alongside professionals but also have the satisfaction of successfully producing a number of dramatic events written by our own members.
If you would like to join Red Spider Company click here to open an application form you can download.
The company takes a particular interest in promoting the life and work of Sabine Baring -Gould.

 The Autumn Production: This will consist of  two one act plays – The Dangerous Afternoon – a dark comedy set in a residential home, and The Relaxation Class – a light comedy written by our own Mike Ingham and all about an exercise class for pregnant women and their partners .
The performances will be on the Thursday 19, Friday 20 and Saturday 21 November.

Keeping the website up to date: Remember, a website is only as good as the information it carries. It is up to  members to keep Ron Wawman, the editor,  informed normally by e-mail: . However, recent items of news, such as cancellation of a rehearsal, should reach Ron by phone: 01566 783459

 Loads of Luxury at the Victory Hall..

Please click here to view images from the 'Loves A Luxury' production..

Fifty years ago a farce called Love's A Luxury, by Paxton and Hoile, was staged in the newly built Lewdown Victory Hall. The last week of March this year saw a brand new production of this same hilarious play performed as the grand finale to the Hall’s Golden anniversary celebrations. And, Boy, didn’t Red Spider Company do the Hall proud! This was a first for the Company in more ways than one. Their first production under the direction of veteran Spider, Bill Stuart, their first three act play and, most significantly, their first farce. Farce is a very demanding genre, requiring split second timing and meticulous rehearsal and that is just what the Spiders gave it. From the moment the curtain went up on an impressive set we were treated to a finely polished performance.

Surprisingly the play did not show its age. That was partly due to the fact that it was all about the absurd behaviour of ‘celebrities,’ something with which we are all too familiar these days. But mostly it was down to the superb characterisation displayed by every single member of the cast and the great way they worked together. How did newcomer to the Spiders, Geoffrey Harris, learn and deliver all those lines? Was this really the same Rosa Watkinson who just few months ago played Toad? Richard Ayre – suave one minute, gloriously high camp the next. Francis Girling has hidden her talents ‘back stage’ far too long – not any more after this! Mandy Kenyon, suitably star-struck and lovely as ever. Richard Weare, the longest serving Spider on stage, delightfully lovelorn and hopelessly loyal. Gill Squires – thoroughly bewildered but shrewdly obliging. Finally, no stranger to farce, Keith Rattray’s portrayal of abject terror had us all in tears – of helpless laughter.

For me, laughter, bellyfuls of it, will be a lasting memory. Well done Bill and well done the Red Spiders – but wasn’t it a delicious irony that the virtual villain of a sub-plot was known as The Scarlet Spider!

Please click here to view images from the 'Loves A Luxury' production..

Ron Wawman

Red Spider Company Club Nights

Red Spider Company Club Nights are held on the 2nd Tuesday in every month, when not in production, and August and December excepted. We spend the evening reading one-act plays or excerpts from longer plays, being updated on RSC plans, listening to the occasional poem and—gossiping; we cannot stay serious for long and generally end up falling about in helpless laughter. Then we take a break for a glass of whatever or a cup of tea and a cake or two before starting all over again

Bashful about reading out loud? No-one is compelled to read and we are quite happy if you just want to sit, listen and laugh.

The next play reading is being hosted by Gill at Ebsleigh Farm, Bridestowe, on Tuesday 14 July at 7.30pm.
Please contact on 01837 861225, as soon as possible if you would like to attend as we will be doing the read through and starting the casting  process for the two plays in the autumn production. .

'Florry'
Over the summer months, Toni is looking for helpers to collate the large collection of costumes that Red Spider now stores in 'Florry' the lorry body .
If anyone can help please contact Toni on 01837 871355 so that a suitable date can be arranged.

Drama for Children
An exciting development is the formation of a subcommittee to promote drama for local children. The importance of this development cannot be overstated. We know from past experience that the enthusiasm instilled at Primary School will bear dividends in future productions - particularly community plays and will often be carried over into secondary schooling. Apart from that children bring in parents and other relatives both to swell the membership and the audience.
 
Lifton School Drama Group: This has been running since the beginning of the Summer term and is going well.
Keith Rattray, Rosa Watkinson and Amanda Greenhalgh are working with a group of sixteen children to create a play based on the poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning.
There will be a performance during the Leaver’s Day assembly in the afternoon of Wednesday 22 July.

Like A Buoy DVD now available: At the Victory Hall, Lewdown on Monday 1st October, the Company and friends of the March production of ‘Like A Buoy' were privileged to be given a private viewing of a working copy of the DVD created by Dom Carnell and students of Okehampton College. Many of us had arrived in some trepidation at the thought of seeing ourselves on the big silver scene but we need not have worried. Despite this being a recording made at one live performance with no chance to go back for a second shot, the overall result was wonderful. The audience was so enthralled throughout the viewing that you could have heard a pin drop. We swayed and sang along with the very lively pub singers, laughed at the right moments, shed a tear or two at others, gasped at some stunning close ups and were gobsmacked by the quality of the beautiful solo songs. Congratulations, Dom.

Since the private viewing, the DVD has been re-mastered and is now awaiting the design and printing of a simple cover but this can be forwarded later to all who wish to purchase the DVD now as a Christmas stocking filler. It is a double disk package and is priced at £7.50 per set. Please contact Caroline Stuart on 01822 870111 should you wish to purchase a copy.