Arundel author seeks to stage her Beatitudes plays

Sandra’s plays The Lucky Ones have never been performed – but she is hoping to change that this year: “It all started long ago when I moved from London with my four young children to Pear Tree Cottage which became our lovely home for many years in Watersfield, near Pulborough. Initially, we weekended there. We had little money so we had to walk from Pulborough Station to Watersfield – about three miles. Each Sunday, I also made them walk with me to St Giles’ Church, Coldwaltham for its Sunday service – a mile or so, there and back.” Eventually the children moved on to university: “Now I was completely alone. I needed to find something to fix my mind and heart on. That’s when I wrote The Lucky Ones, plays inspired by and based on The Eight Beatitudes, Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, as related in the Bible. They took about three years and they've never been staged. It's my fault really. I have not tried enough. We did some play-readings some years ago but I've never really concentrated on finding away to get them performed and that's really what I want to do now. I've got other projects and it is just timely. It's time to put them on. They are very topical. They are not preachy. They are very modern and the morals involved are for everybody, not just Christians. They are for all faiths. I called them The Lucky Ones and the overall thing that they're telling us is that The 10 Commandments are very preachy but actually The Beatitudes are much more user friendly. They are not saying you've got to do this. They are saying maybe you could do this. They are very encouraging and that's the difference between the Commandments and the Beatitudes. Most of them are 35 to 40 minutes long. The last one is a round-up of everything and is rather longer. I think it would be about 50 to 55 minutes long. They need varying numbers of actors. I would say they need between six and 12 actors depending on which play and I'm just trying to find somewhere now. I'm absolutely confident that it will happen. They are the best things I've ever written. I was just really inspired.”

Anyone who can help bring the plays to the stage should get in touch with Sandra on [email protected] or 01903 884968. Sandra is hoping that they might be staged to coincide with the 65th anniversary on October 3 of the death of Bishop George Bell, an influential war-time Bishop of Chichester whose reputation has been shattered by historic child-abuse allegations in more recent years. Sandra believes him to be innocent: “I just don’t believe it happened. I just don’t believe it was in his character. In 2016, Richard Symonds founded The Bell Society, with the explicit aim of restoring Bishop Bell to his rightful place in history, as a great Bishop, fighter for justice, and for his active encouragement to artists, Christian or not. I joined Richard. We were especially concerned with restoring its rightful name to George Bell House. That would be a wonderful end to our endeavours for Bishop Bell and my own wish to see The Lucky Ones performed in his honour.”