Written By
Francis Durbridge
Where and When
10th – 12th November 1977 @ The Allendale Community Centre, Wimborne
The Plot
Stacey Harrison is a charming, intelligent, successful career woman who unfortunately gets involved in divorce, but several murders as well.
Cast
- Brad Morris – Arthur Brooks
- Madge Harrison – Muriel Brooks
- Alan Kyle – Michael Waring
- Stacey Harrison – Raymonde Grenville
- Philip Harrison – David Green
- Charles Venner – Roger Grenville
- Lennox – Simon Jackson
- Gerald Waddington – Eric Wright
Creative Team
- Director – Thelma Dryden
- Stage Management – John Anthony and Roy Bruin
- Lighting – David Sherwill
- Sound Effects – Jane Sherwill
- Properties – Wendy Bruin
- Prompt – Jean Lewis
- Production Assistant and Continuity – Caroline Hickmott
Previews
Wimborne club choose suspense
Wimborne Drama Club are presenting The Gentle Hook by Francis Durbridge at the town’s Allendale Centre next week. The club has chosen this particular play for three major reasons.
It has not so far been staged by an amateur company in this area and Francis Durbridge is one of the leading crime writers whose books have been staged and serialised on television. The third reason says club chairman Mr David Green is that “we are lucky in having about the same number of men as women. Normally amateur companies have a surfeit of women in the group but we are lucky. This play has a cast of about eight of which six are men. This gives us an oppurtunity of introducing at least two new men to Wimborne audiences”.
Making their first appearance on stage with the club will be Roy Bruin and Simon Jackson. Other embers of the cast are Arthur and Muriel Brooks, Michael Waring , Ray Grenville, David Green and Eric Wright.
The play, set in the present time, deals with the involvement of Stacey Harrison (Ray Grenville) in complicated and mysterious circumstances. She is seeking a divorce from her husband, is attacked by a strange man and in the ensuing struggle, kills him. What follows leads to a build-up of suspense until the exciting climax when the mysteries are resolved. It has all the staple detective story ingredients of killings, attempted murder and other criminal activities.
The Gentle Hook is being staged at the Allendale Centre Wimborne on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, November 10, 11 and 12 curtain up at 7:45 pm. Wimborne Drama Club meets on the second and last Thursday of every month at 8 pm at the centre when plays are read, discussions held and visitors invited from all branches of the theatre,
A new venture for the club is a Victorian Evening which they will present at the Langton Arms, Tarrant Monkton on Friday, December 2 at 8 pm. Anyone interested in joining thhe club either to act or assist backstage will be welcome.
Drama Club picks a winner
Wimborne Drama Club picked a winner this year when it chose the bang-up-todate Francis Durbridge thriller ‘The Gentle Hook’ and put it on at the Allendale Centre the last three days of last week. It was only three years ago that this play was showing in the West End and Wimborne is the first amateur company to put it on in this area.
The play is set in the present and the somewhat complex plot includes murder, blackmail and art forgery. To portray it successfully a good quick pace must be maintained and Wimborne’s competent players tackled it with no major problems and provided just the right amount of excitement and suspense to keep the audience guessing.
As is usual, the Wimborne plays are produced by Thelma Dryden, and once again her deft handling showed she knew what was important and how to get the best from her cast.
Old hands
Among the players there were the old hands who seem to be on stage for every performance at Wimborne, but this year the casting was better than ever with the result that the players appeared to be
actually enjoying the roles they were tackling.
The club did however, have trouble casting a person in the smallest role in the play, a literally walk-on-and-die bit, and in the end Roger Grenville got the role of Venner, who came on to be stabbed to death without uttering a word. Two previous actors had found the part too much for them.
Raymonde Grenville took the role of the central character Stacey Harrison and played it without a visible flaw, and David Green as her estranged husband Philip Harrison gave his usual enthusiastic interpretation. It is to his credit that he stepped into the part at a comparatively late stage and didn’t slip up once.
Debut
Arthur and Muriel Brooks took the part of Brad Morris and Madge Harrjson, and fitted in well with the composition of the production, and there was no faulting the work of Eric Wright and Michael Waring as Gerald Waddington and Alan Kyle.
Simon Jackson, making his debut with the Wimborne club had the role of Lennox and only slipped once when he needed a prompt. Otherwise his performance as the perfunctory police inspector was exactly right.
Stage management was by John Anthony and Roy Bruin; lighting and photographs, David Sherwill; sound effects, Jane Sherwill; properties, Wendy Bruin; prompt, Jean Lewis and Caroline Hickmott was production assistant and continuity. The furnishings were as usualaI, provided by Tappers of Wimborne.
Gallery
Reviews
Wimborne Drama Clubpicked a winner this year when they chose the bang-up-to-date Francis Burbridge thriller The Gentle Hook abd put it on the last three days of this week. It was only three years ago that the play was in the West End and Wimborne were the first amateur company to put it on this area.
The play is set in the present time and somewhat complex plot includes murder, blackmail and art forgery. Wimborne’s competent players provided just the right amount of excitement and suspense. As is usual the Wimborne plays are produced by Thelma Drydenand once again her deft handling of matters showed that she knew what was important and how to get the best out of her cast.
Raymonde Grenville took the role of the central character Stacey Harrison and playedit without a visible flaw and David Green as her estranged husband Philip Harrisn gave his usual enthusiastic interpretation. Arthur and Muriel Brooks took the parts of Brad Morris and Madge Harrison and fitted in well with the composition of the production and there was no faulting the work of Eric Wright and Michael Waring as Gerald Waddington and Alan Kyle.
Simon Jackson, making his debut with the Wimborne club, had the role of Lennox and only slipped up once when he needed prompting. Otherwise his performance as the perfunctory police inspector was exactly right. Roger Grenville took the walk-on and die but of the victim who is stabbed to death without even uttering a word.
Stage management was by John Anthony and Roy Bruin; lighting and photgraphs, David Sherwill; sound effects, Jane Sherwill; properties, Wendy Bruin; prompt, Jean Lewis and Caroline Hickmott was production assistant and responsile for continuity.
Programme
