The WADS timeline - 20th century

Programme notes from the first production, back in 1959

The 1950s
WADS was born in the fifties. Here's the first section of a timeline covering all our plays, now well over 100 and rising. This section covers the 20th century; the second section covers the 21st century so far.

1958
WADS, which was then known as Whitchurch Amateur Dramatic Society, was founded in 1958, the same year that Pope Pius XII declared Saint Clare the patron saint of television, Bertrand Russell launched CND, Julie Andrews played Eliza Doolittle in the West End opposite Rex Harrison’s Professor Higgins, Nikita Khrushchev became Premier of the Soviet Union, Jennifer Saunders and Madonna were born, and the Preston bypass, the UK's first motorway, opened to traffic for the first time.

The Andover Advertiser of 30th May 1958 carried the following story:

ENTHUSIASTIC MEETING ABOUT AMATEUR DRAMATIC SOCIETY

1959
WADS, however, did not stage its first public production until the spring of 1959, when it performed Jean McConnell’s Haul for the Shore at the Parish Hall, which was to be the company’s home until the early years of this millennium.

There were two productions back in 1959, with Painted Sparrows by Guy Paxton and Edward V Hoile completing the brace in October.

Above, the local newspaper review comments on WADS' "flair for acting". Below, Gordon Kail, as Tom Lambert, demonstrates a flair for mock domestic violence

The 1960s
During the 1960s, WADS staged two productions a year right up until 1969, when it broke the mould and put on three. Towards the end of the decade, WADS introduced some other public activities, namely its first garden fete in 1967, cheese and wine evenings in 1967 and 1969 (tickets were 5/-), and a WADS night in 1969.

The fete in 1967: John Clarke, Chairman of WADS, stands next to Lady Denning. Wendy Over, the group's Secretary, sits with Lord Denning, WADS' future President. Attractions at the fete included a baby show, children's fancy dress, a fashion show and a dog show, as well as archery displays, a shooting gallery and a balloon race.

The productions during the 1960s were:

1960
Down Came a Black Bird, by Peter Blackmore,

and For Pete’s Sake, by Leslie Sands.

1961
Quiet Weekend, by Esther Cracken

A not so quiet weekend as Adrian Barasford, played by Ralph Booth, leaps on the armchair in Esther Cracken's play in April 1961

and Night Must Fall, by Emlyn Williams.

1962
Honey-Pot by Helen and Edward V Hoile (clearly an early favourite playwright for WADS)

Undressing and cross-dressing: From left to right, Michael Gue, Janet Enright, Wendy Over, Will Gordon and Mollie Pascoe

and Bonaventure by Charlotte Hastings.

Bob Broad, playing Willy Pentridge, seems to be handing over a nun's head - Sister Mary Bonaventure, played by Vera Clarke - to a very surprised Betty Alexander, played by Sarat Carn

1963
Quiet Wedding - another Esther Cracken play -

and The Shop at Sly Corner by Edward Percy

1964
The Reluctant Debutante by William Douglas Home

a

and The Late Christopher Bean by Emlyn Williams - again.

1965
Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring and Home at Seven by RC Sheriff.

1966
The Chiltern Hundreds - another William Douglas Home -

and Miranda by Will Gordon.

1967
Sailor Beware by Philip King and Falkland Cary

and The Farmer’s Wife by Eden Phillpotts.

Bob Broad excels: Bob, right, playing the leading role, was descibed by the local press as "perfect".  Next to him is Fred Watterson in his WADS debut and Mabel Gordon, whose part was described as "well played". The paper went on to report that this was "the largest cast ever to appear in a WADS production".

1968
The Hollow by Agatha Christie and Pink String and Sealing Wax by Roland Pertwee.

Left, Mabel Gordon as Lady Angkatell in
The Hollow. Right, Keith Beddows as Ernest
O'Shea in Pink String and Sealing Wax

1969
The Chester Cycle of Miracle Plays, Waters of the Moon by NC Hunter

Waters of the Moon

and a triple-bill of the Monkey’s Paw by WW Jacobs, Family Groupe by Mabel Contstanturos and Guilty Generation by Margaret Wood.

The programme for WADS' triple-bill in the autumn of 1969

The 1970s
The extra curricular activities such as fetes and cheese and wine evenings pretty much ceased during the 1970s, when WADS went back to two productions a year and nothing else, except for in 1975, when junior WADS also staged a play - Johnny Salter by Aidan Chambers, and the following year, when there was only one production.

The seventies saw a number of playwrights whose plays had been performed in the previous decade revisited by WADS for different works - Eden Phillpotts, Peter Blackmore and Michael Pertwee. Also, in 1979, WADS performed Charlotte Hastings’ Bonaventure for the second time (the first being in 1962). And in 1975 and 1978 the company put on two different Noel Coward plays. The full list of 1970s productions by WADS is:

1970
Yellow Sands by Eden Phillpots

Yellow Sands: From left to right. Mabel Gordon, Nonie Cooper, Bob Broad, Vera Clarke, Bridegt Culley (obscuring Fred Watterson) and Bob Broad

and A Letter from the General by Maurice McLaughlin.

Rather cunningly, the programme
for A Letter from the General was
produced in the form of an envelope

1971
Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley

Laughs and thills: Standing, from left to right, are Mary Wickens, Mike Spain, Joe Simpson and Sue Blackman. Seated are Bridget Culley and Ralph Booth

and a double bill of The Bridge by Joe Corrie and An Immortelle by Phillip Johnson.

1972
The White Sheep of the Family by L du Garde Peach and Ian Hay

From left to right: Cindy Dunlop, Mary Alexander, Mike Spain, Harry Ashton, Bridget Culley, Dorothy Ashton and James Lutener in White Sheep of the Family, subtitled "a felonious comedy"

and The Heiress by Ruth and Augustus Goetz.

Mabel Gordon, acting "splendidly", and Joe
Simpson giving a "commanding performance"

1973
Mad about Men by Peter Blackmore

From left to right: Angela Law, Harry Ashton, James
Lutener, Bridget Culley, Bert Parker, and Lyn Elsey.
Lyn played two parts in the play, Caroline Trewella
and Miranda. The Programme gives grateful
acknowledgments to "Lynette & Jayne" Hair Stylists,
London Street, for Miranda's wig

and Dear Octopus by Dodie Smith.

We know that the man at the table is Bert Parker and
the boy by the piano is John Kidgell, but WADS' records
don't say who the others are 

1974
The Secret Tent by Elizabeth Addyman and Goodnight Mr Puffin by Arthur Lovegrove.

1975
The House by the Lake by Hugh Mills, Relative Values by Noel Coward and Johnny Salter by Aidan Chambers - this last one staged by junior WADS.

The cast lists from The House by the Lake (left) and Johnny Salter

1976
Hobson’s Choice by Harold Brighouse was the only production (naturally?)          in 1976.

1977
When we are Married by JB Priestley

Denise Kitson as Nancy Homes

and The Paragon by Roland and Michael Pertwee - WADS’ second visit to Michael Pertwee.

Diana Melvin and Paul Nethercott

1978
It’s Never too Late by Felicity Douglas

Suzi Wilkinson in It's Never too Late

and Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward.

1979
Bonaventure by Charlotte Hastings

Brigitte Broad stars as the eponymous heroine

and Lloyd George Knew my Father by William Douglas Hume.

The 1980s
There was only one production in 1980 - George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, celebrating the 21st anniversary of WADS’ first public performance. After this quiet start to the decade, however, there was an explosion in WADS activity, with the company staging pantomimes and other productions aimed at children, in addition to its regular shows for adults, as well as the first poetry and prose evening. The 1980s also witnessed the rise and fall of the olde tyme music hall - the seven shows staged during these years were the first and last music halls that WADS performed. The full schedule for the 1980s reads as follows:

1980
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.

1981
Wanted One Body by Raymond Dyer and The Deep Blue Sea by Terence Rattigan.

1982
Move Over Mrs Markham by Ray Clooney and John Chapman

and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde,

as well as the first olde tyme music hall to be staged.

1983
Suspect by Edward Percy,

Vera Clarke, one of WADS' founding members, in Suspect

The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard

and Ring Around the Moon by Christopher Fry,

plus the second olde tyme music hall.

1984
Fools Rush In by Kenneth Horne,

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, adapted from Lewis Carroll’s book,

and Spring and Port Wine by Bill Naughton,

as well as another olde tyme music hall).

1985
The Sound of Murder by William Fairchild

and Say Who You Are by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall,

plus the now statutory olde tyme music hall.

1986
Outside Edge by Richard Harris

and Alice Through the Looking Glass, again adapted from Lewis Carroll’s original

- and an olde tyme music hall.

1987
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier,

The Madam by Gwen Cherrell

and See How They Run by Philip King,

plus another music hall.

1988
Dick Whittington - WADS’ first panto -

and Dracula (adapted from Bram Stoker's novel by Stephen Hotchner),

Sheila Bell in Dracula

as well as another music hall and the first ever poetry and prose evening.

The programme covers for 1988's music hall (left) and poetry and prose evening

1989
Separate Tables by Terrence Rattigan (and the second time the playwright had been covered by WADS in the 80s)

and a triple-bill of Saint Michael Comes to Shepherd's Bush by James Parish, Rattling the Railings by Peter Terson and Death, by WADS’ own Paul Nethercott - the first time the group had performed anything written by one of its own members

- plus an adaptation of Cinderella.

The 1990s
As the millennium drew to a close, WADS staged a heady mix of classics, children’s stories, school stories for adults, plays about spies, about murder; tragedies and comedies. The decade pretty much started and ended with Noel Coward’s Blythe Spirit, and some other old favourites were revisited as well - Terrence Rattigan, Peter Terson, Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall in their own right; Emlyn Williams with his adaptation of Turgenev’s A Month in the Country. Mostly, there were two plays a year, except for 1992 and 1995, when there were three, and 1996, with just one.

1990
The nineties opened with All Things Bright and Beautiful by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, followed by a double bill of act three of Noel Coward’s Blythe Spirit and Alan Ayckbourne’s Gosforth’s Fete.

1991
The Tulip Tree by NC Hunter, What Shall We Tell Caroline? by John Mortimer and - for the second year running - Gosforth’s Fete by Alan Ayckbourne.

1992
Two productions aimed predominantly at children - adaptations of Aladdin and The Wind in the Willows, an outdoor summer production at The Lawns, as well as a poetry and prose evening.

1993
Daisy Pulls it Off by Denise Degan and a comedy double bill of Harlequinade by Terrence Rattigan and Rattling the Railings by Peter Terson (first performed by WADS in 1989).

1994
An adaptation of Sleeping Beauty by Katie Kingshill and Ivan Turgenev’s A Month in the Country adapted by Emlyn Williams.

1995
The second Alan Ayckbourne in five years - Absent Friends - and the second outdoor production of the nineties - The Wizard of Oz by Alfred Bradley, as well as Frank Marcus’s The Killing of Sister George.

1996
A Tomb With a View by Norman Robbins - the only production of 1996.

1997
The Old Country by Alan Bennett and Blythe Spirit by Noel Coward - this time the complete play, and the third time in all that WADS took it on.

1998
Tom Jones, adapted from Henry Fielding’s novel by Joan MacAlpine, and Frank Vickery’s Family Planning.

1999
Seeds of Doubt, by Peter Gordon, and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - another novel adaptation, this time by Jay Presson Allen from Muriel Spark’s original.

The 2000s
The new millennium has seen some new departures for WADS, including its first ever Shakespeare and an outdoor adaptation of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, as well as a return to some old favourites, such as Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward. And although WADS performed Aladdin for the second time in its history, this time it was a version specially written for WaterAid - Aladdin and the Magic Bucket. The naughties also saw WADS move to its new performance venue, at Testbourne Theatre, as well as the company perform its 100th play, Dario Fo and Franca Rame’s farce Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay.

2000
WADS performed a selection of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in the grounds of Whitchurch Primary School. Taking the form of an audience promenade, Canterbury Tales was adapted by WADS’ own Claire Isbester. The other performance that year was Sophie tucker’s One Night Stand.

2001
Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling and Jack and the Beanstalk by PH Adams and C Carter.

2002
Noel Coward again - this time, Private Lives - and an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, plus the first WADS garden party, at 27 London Street.

2003
Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh and Aladdin and the Magic Bucket by Paul Aust and WaterAid.

2004
Just one play this year - Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance - plus the second garden party.

2005
Noises Off by Michael Frayn and Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay by Dario Fo and Franca Rame - the 100th play to be staged by WADS.