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.
An Evening at St Sepulchres – or The Art of Course Acting:
When Michael Green’s The Art of Coarse Acting was first published in 1964 by Hutchinson in their ‘Coarse’ series, he gave it the subtitle ‘Or how to wreck a amateur dramatic society.’ If that was director, Larry Girling’s intention when he persuaded Red Spider Company to put on two of Green’s plays as the bread in the Spider’s fish and chip sandwich, then all I can say is – he failed gloriously. Streuth and Collier’s Tuesday Tea never were intended to be serious dramatic productions so much as a way of allowing a bunch of amateur actors to laugh at their own pretensions. Fortunately for us they were written – and produced – in such a way that the audience had no difficulty in sharing the joke. Particularly so when they were drawn into a fund-raising spoof by the St Sepulchre’s volunteers who served a splendid fish and chip supper under the bumbling direction of the vicar – though some rude person was heard to mutter something about the art of coarse waiting! On stage the appalling storylines were nicely matched by the hammiest acting I have ever seen, while everything that conceivable could go wrong, did. It would be easy to dismiss this as just a bunch of Thespians larking about but the reality is that these productions necessitated much hard work, split second timing, and careful team effort. Behind the scenes, those responsible for design of scenery, sound effects and lighting exercised much ingenuity. There were numerous memorable moments. Geoff could have graced Notre Dame; Keith’s hands chopped the air beautifully – through quite why is anybody’s guess; everyone was fingered by Richard – including the corpse; the other Richard displayed just enough shirttail to cause a titter; Cheryl’s diction was imumumum-aculate; Jack’s inane laugh was out of this world; as for Rosa’s eyebrows – I was so envious! Then there was the table. Did you ever see an item of furniture so completely dominate the action? It gave a whole new meaning to ‘being legless!’
Congratulations, Larry on a perfectly constructed evening’s entertainment and for leading the Spiders to yet another first – although a first ‘what’ I am not entirely sure. Sad you never really got to actually talk to Michael Green. He must have been an extraordinary barrel of fun to know.
Ron Wawman
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
Red Spider Company Club Nights
If you have an item you would like to share with us at a Club Night- such as a poem, or a one act play or a piece of prose that you may have read read or possibly written yourself - please let Mike Ingham know on 01566 784824 or at . This will help him to plan the programme for the club night making sure that there is plenty of time for socialising.
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.
R
If you have an item you would like to share with us at a Club Night- such as a poem, or a one act play or a piece of prose that you may have read read or possibly written yourself - please let Mike Ingham know on 01566 784824 or at . This will help him to plan the programme for the club night making sure that there is plenty of time for socialising.
